Island City Stage’s ‘Joan Crawford’ Cranks Up The Camp

Five guys dressed as Joan Crawford gather at a cabin in upstate New York. They’ve been summoned for a night of watching the Tony Awards. It’s 1993 so Liza Minnelli is hosting, Chita Rivera is a shoe-in to win for Kiss of the Spiderwoman, and there’s a debate whether Tommy is really a musical or a rock opera. They’re here to celebrate their friend Trick Rogers’ (a brief cameo by Vic Shunal) birthday. He’s a soap opera star who loves, loves, loves Joan Crawford. In fact, he may have even had a fling with her, so the dress request for the party is to pick your favorite character Crawford played in one of her many movies.

At Island City Stage, the world premiere of playwright Michael Leeds’ Who Killed Joan Crawford? is campy, clever, and the kind of inventive fare that ICS loves to take chances on.

Kevin Reilley is Gene Harlow (no, not the actress, but the inventor of automatic toilet seat sanitation covers in public restrooms). He’s the perfect Mildred Pierce, porcelain in pancake makeup, heavily painted eyebrows and a fabulous fur. Troy J. Stanley is another Joan, but in daylight hours he’s Harvey Goldberg, Trick’s publicist who also represented Chita at one time. Broadway composer and resident narcissist Leo Lawrence is played to the dry hilt by Barry Marcus, who has brought a young date, David Hoch (Christian Vandepas), to the party. Since David is under 25, he’s confused a Crawford movie with a movie about Crawford. Finally, there’s Trick’s friend and therapist, Stewart Fry, played by Island City Stage’s Artistic Director Andy Rogow. “I spend my days analyzing why people do what they do,” says Rogow’s nervous nelly analyst