Quick question--have you ever heard of Alla Nazimova? If the answer is "no" frankly you've missed out on a fascinating historical figure. A genuinely great actress of the stage and screen, a pioneer in Hollywood where she was not only a movie star, but a director and screenwriter. Her home was an elegant mansion on Sunset, with the appropriate name "Garden of Alla."
Add to that an LGBTQ icon. Openly bisexual, with evidently a preference for women, talk of such generated massive scandals (eventually).
Romy Nordlinger stars in a her own one woman show, appropriately titled Garden of Alla, which to be sure should be welcomed by everyone who's heard tell of the lady in question (which, now, includes you).
So, how is it?
Fun. Entertaining. Educational. Clearly a passion project by someone who has done loads of homework! The premise here is of Nazimova speaking to us from "beyond the veil." Thus she sees her entire life and comments upon it. Here we get into a series of tiny nuances that keep this one woman show from being as good as it could be. Which should not distract from the very many fine things it (and she) achieve. It seeks to cover an entire life in about 90 minutes, which would be not enough time had she died young. She did not. As a result some things never quite fit together the way they perhaps should. For example, Nazimova had a long term partner for the last decades of her life. We hear this woman's name once, very early on, and she never comes up again. Nazimova married, and her husband pretty much betrayed her. Yet why did she marry him? No real clue, not from this show. There was a long section where she recounted, in a very journalistic winking fashion, the many illicit/fun goings on at and within her estate. But what was she doing? Who did she love, even as a friend? I don't really know, not least because she--Nazimova--is the only character (other than her parents) who get any kind of development.
So the effect is one of a genuinely interesting, even fascinating history described. Not experienced. A woman who must have been nothing less than amazing, but who never seems to stop boasting--and we hardly ever see any of her achievements. It all reaches a conclusion, a piece of wisdom that sounds rights and should inspire a lot more emotion than it does. I nodded, agreed with her words, thought this made all kinds of sense--but I didn't feel emotionally involved any time in the last half of the show. Just interested.
Which means I liked it. But I wanted to love it. Not because of the acting nor the directing (kudos to Lorca Peress btw). Rather, the script eventually doesn't allow Nazimova to be vulnerable, to metaphorically bleed, to drop her veil. It simply is a very entertaining trip through some of the highlights of a wildly interesting and talented life, full of passion and pain, triumph and collapse. But we only wade in a little, not dive into it all and swim with her.
Garden of Alla (which, again, I enjoyed) plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm until July 23, 2023 at Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Los Angeles CA 90068.
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