Theater Review—

‘The Lady With All The Answers’: A Mix Of Nostalgic Americana, Humor & Affection

By Julie Stern

HARTFORD — The beautifully restored building that houses Hartford’s TheaterWorks includes a spacious gallery that is a satellite branch of the New Britain Museum of American Art, with different exhibits accompanying each play staged in the adjoining theater. The current production is David Rambo’s The Lady With All The Answers, a one woman show about Ann Landers.  It is singularly appropriate that the paintings on the walls are realistic scenes of the American heartland,  many of them actually done as cover art for The Saturday Evening Post.

The mix of nostalgic Americana, humor and affection that make up that particular genre is something that you either like or you don’t. Some people might look down on it as shallow or corny; others feel an emotional pull. When I was a kid I adored those Post covers. I wanted to paint them, and I wanted to live in that Norman Rockwell world. Maybe that’s why when I grew up I moved to Newtown.

In the same way, Eppie Lederer — who spent 47 years being the persona of Ann Landers—  was the voice of the heartland, the friendly, sensible lady with the bouffant hairdo, dispensing  thoughtful advice mixed with snappy one-liners (“You need that like a moose needs a hatrack” or “give yourself twenty lashes with a wet noodle!”).

She took this responsibility seriously. Each week she mailed individual answers to every one of the hundreds of people who wrote to her with their problems, publishing the most interesting ones in her syndicated newspaper column, for her 60 million readers.  After  she visited wounded soldiers in Vietnam, she personally delivered messages to 2,000 of their loved ones back home.

Rambo’s play is a dramatic monologue about Eppie, dealing with a problem of her own. Set in 1975, the twentieth year of her role as Ann, and at the peak of her career, she is trying to write a column and having trouble doing it. She recalls Red Smith telling her that writing a column is simple: you just sit down at your typewriter until drops of blood form on your forehead. By way of procrastination, Eppie fields telephone calls from her daughter and sister, takes a bubble bath (off stage), searches for chocolates, and above all, entertains the audience with favorite letters from her files.

That last is the most important. Eppie Lederer’s dark night of the soul entails coming to terms with the fact that Jules, her beloved husband of 37 years,  has left her for a girl younger than their own daughter. The dramatic tension of the play, however,  comes from  her need to share the truth with her readers, because Ann has always been such a staunch advocate against divorce.  The two identities merge together until you feel like you are actually spending time with Ann Landers.

The real  momentum of Rambo’s play is not getting that column written (and revealing the breakup of a marriage). Rather it is the ongoing playful interchange with the audience — teasing,  amusing, polling them on everything from their marital happiness to the way they hang toilet paper.

Along the way she recalls the public positions she took, advocating for cancer research and religious tolerance, campaigning against the Vietnam War, evolving more liberal attitudes toward homosexuality, pre-marital sex, and abortion rights. In doing so she both reflected changing times, and helped shape them by the way she influenced the many millions who listened to her.

Bill Cosby used to become annoyed when people confused him with Dr Huxtable , or expected him to be as warm and fuzzy as a Jell-O commercial. Ann Landers, however, is an avatar of Eppie, the nice Jewish girl from Sioux City, Iowa, who truly cares about the people who are so desperate for someone to confide in that they write to a newspaper.

Charlotte Booker’s portrayal of Eppie/Ann is like Hal Holbrook doing Mark Twain. It’s hard to believe that you’re not in the presence of the real thing. If she was part of your experience — if you automatically turned to that page next to the comics to see what she had to say each day — then, like the vast majority of the audience when I attended, you should enjoy the play.

If Ann Landers was not part of your personal zeitgeist, well then, like some people I know, you might find it, a bit like Saturday Evening Post art.

(Performances continue until March 7. Call 860-527-7838 or visit TheaterWorksHartford.org for schedule and ticket information.)