LEMPICKA: THE SUN HAS COME OUT FOR TAMARA BY PETER FILICHIA
I don’t wish anyone ill, but in a strange way, I was happy that someone was.
In April, I was scheduled to review LEMPICKA at a Wednesday matinee. Hours before showtime, the press agent emailed to say that I’d have to attend a different performance.
Eden Espinosa – the show’s title character – couldn’t perform that day. Her standby was going on as Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980), the Polish painter whose Art Deco works made her as an icon of her time as her blithe bisexuality made her way ahead of her time.
Considering the acclaim Espinosa had received at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and the La Jolla Playhouse, the press agent wanted to ensure that I saw her to consider her for the various awards committees on which I serve.
So, I rebooked for Saturday evening. Once again, hours before showtime, the press agent emailed that Espinosa was still out.
This time, though, she said that I could attend that performance with the standby on the condition that I’d return and see Espinosa.
You don’t have to ask me twice to see a Broadway musical twice.
And never mind that the show was two-and-a-half hours long (and not the 90-minute, intermission-less affairs that we so often get today).
I would soon see that two full acts were needed to tell the dramatic story of a woman who loved her husband as fervently as her female lover.
As is almost always the case with standbys, Espinosa’s was terrific. If Mariand Torres were the voice on the original cast album that Masterworks Broadway has produced, she would show the musical theater world what she proved to me and her much appreciative audience.
Espinosa, however, turned out to be an even better fit for the difficult and demanding role. That she received a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical was no mystery given the way that she seized every bit of the character.
Hers was an arduous assignment. Espinosa had all or part of the first five songs. After she got a breather in sitting out the sixth, she was back with a demanding solo. She’d be in eight more after that.
The album starts with “Unseen,” which has an aged Tamara wondering, “How did I wind up here, forgotten?” She recalls a time when the wealthy “vied to buy anything my brushes ever touched.”
You’ve heard that “It’s hard to be poor, but much harder to be poor after you’ve been rich”? Tamara not only experienced that but also “It’s hard to be unknown, but much harder to be unknown after you’ve been famous.”
In this 2024 musical, co-librettists Carson Kreitzer and Matt Gould did their part to make Tamara un-unseen.
Her lyrics and his music immediately flashbacked to an event in her life that no one should have to endure. The song called “Our Time” doesn’t have the optimism of the song by the same name in MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG. Here, the Bolsheviks brag that it’s “our time” now that they’ve had their successful revolution. They’ve imprisoned Tamara’s husband Tadeusz, whom she’s trying to get released.
She tries bribing one guard with a bracelet, then another with a pendant, and then the commandant with a ring. He sings a counteroffer: “Would you trade your body?”
Soon she and Tadeusz are on a train “Starting Over.” She worries “Do the bruises show?”; he asks, “What did you do to get me out?” The song ends without her giving him an answer.
All that means is that he’ll ask it six times in the next song. Espinosa potently delivers, “I swear to God, Tadeusz, if you don’t stop asking me, I will tell you.”
That’s enough to make him stop.
This tense exchange occurs in “Paris” – the 134th time in Broadway history that a musical has had a song title that includes mention of that fabled city. However, this may be the first one that doesn’t unconditionally celebrate Paris. Espinosa makes us believe that it indeed is “the ugliest beautiful city,” as she worries about the future.
Only for so long, though. Espinosa rallies stylishly when singing “The century is different, so why shouldn’t I be?” as she’ll “show the world what I see.”
Painting wouldn’t seem the quickest way to make a buck, but Tamara’s out there trying. Esteemed artist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti gives his opinions in “Plan and Design,” and, to our surprise, Lempicka parrots them back. And yet, Espinosa somehow conveys despite her knee-jerk responses, she’ll make sure that something’s coming, something good.
Tamara means she’ll do it with her art, but she’s also taken with someone she sees on the street: Rafaela. Espinosa sings with fervor when hoping, “She will take off her clothes, lie down and –”
And what?
Here comes the song title: “I Will Paint Her.”
Perhaps… but paintings of her young daughter came first and brought her some fame.
Her success makes Tadeusz realize that he should “Wake Up.” The song has him rue his far fewer accomplishments compared to hers. That’s a familiar story, but Kreitzer gives Tadeusz a more fascinating perspective: “Why can’t she give up on me so I can give up on myself?”
Meanwhile, Tamara does encounter Rafaela, who makes a great impression on her.
(Amber Iman made an equally great impression on the Tony nominating committee; its members included her in the category of Best Featured Actress in a Musical.)
Tamara’s goal of painting Rafaela will come to fruition. The songwriters first have her take a methodical approach in “Woman Is.” Here she sees Rafaela as “lines, form … color, light.”
Someone who’s smitten can only think that way for so long. Eventually she’s more honest with herself and yearns for “tobacco and opium … Please let me blow the smoke into your open mouth.”
And my, does Espinosa make you believe that Tamara would have gladly done it.
When you’ve got a subject that really inspires you, you do your best work. In “Paris Will Always Be Pari” (sic) – the 135th Broadway number celebrating the City of Light by name – a gallery owner likes what he sees of Tamara’s take on Rafaela but says he can only deal with artists who have created 30 pieces.” Espinosa flatly says, “I’ve got 30 pieces,” to which the owner says, “You do?”
Listen to Espinosa’s “I will” and see if you think for a second that she won’t.
After all this, how can she become the defeated woman we saw at the start of Act One? Kreitzer and Gould have covered that very nicely, too. Along the way, Gould’s music aptly fits the period while not being slavish toward it.
There have been many shows that didn’t have very long Broadway runs that yielded cast albums that belied their fates: HOUSE OF FLOWERS, CANDIDE, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE and HALLELUJAH, BABY! immediately come to mind.
And mind you, you may very well add LEMPICKA to the list.
Peter Filichia can be heard most weeks of the year on www.broadwayradio.com. His new book – BRAINTEASERS FOR BROADWAY GENIUSES – is now available on Amazon and at The Drama Book Shop.
