"Ava": Interrupted

 

So today I was supposed to blog about the Geffen Playhouse's "Ava: The Secret Conversations" starring Elizabeth McGovern. I'd never been to the Geffen and was looking forward to checking out a new theater as well as the show itself, which sounded amazing. It's about the writing of legendary star Ava Gardner's biography, which occurred later in her life as she fought the effects of a stroke, aging, and her drinking and smoking. I'm a sucker for anything to do with historic Hollywood, and seeing McGovern was going to be an additional treat. I'm a fan of the Downton Abbey TV series, and I remember her back in the 1980's when she was a stunning and talented starlet with what looked like a superstar future.

 

The play was fantastic and was progressing well until, about halfway through the show, the lights went out. Yep, power outage. Of all the dates I could have selected, I was at the one where there was an outage in Westwood. The actors (McGovern and Aaron Cotsa Ganis, who plays the writer trying to wrangle the uncooperative Ava's life story) held their positions for about five seconds to see if the lights would return, and when they didn't, McGovern turned to the audience and chirped, "Hello!" It was freaking adorable.

The theater's wonderful stage manager came out a couple of times to let us know they were attempting to get information from Southern California Edison about restoring power, and after about fifteen minutes had to announce the news wasn't good and they were going to have to call it a night. The audience was disappointed, but was also cooperative and understanding. We were informed that we'll hear from the box office on Thursday about rescheduling. I'm really hoping they can work that out - the half of the show I saw was spectacular. Both actors are off the charts amazing. Hopefully I can see the whole thing soon and post a review. 

One thing that really blew me away was finding out that McGovern also wrote this play. I didn't realize that until I was reading the Playbill before the show started. It's not enough that she's a great actress, but based on the part of the show I saw she's also an amazing writer. 

 

Updated: Rescheduled for May!