I'll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers

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I'LL EAT YOU LAST: A CHAT WITH SUE MENGERS

Photo: Richard Termine

Cititour.com Review
If you're looking for the Broadway equivalent of one of those guilty-pleasure Bravo reality TV series, I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers is just the show. Certainly not the most auspicious vehicle to carry Bette Midler back to Broadway, it nevertheless gives her abundance of hungry fans the chance to enjoy her company for 75 uninterrupted, gossipy minutes.

And what company it is. Mengers is far from the most recognizable name to come out of Hollywood in the past 50 years, but she's certainly a pivotal one: The first female "superagent" to reach the height of power, she helped steer the careers of Barbra Streisand, Gene Hackman and Ali MacGraw, among others. In this solo show by Tony-winning Red scribe John Logan, Mengers names names and dishes deliciously about stars and deals and dinner parties, from the sofa of her plush Beverly Hills home. (Scott Pask's set fills the tiny Booth stage with opulent grandeur.)

But all is not sunshine for the divine Miss Mengers. Clad in a caftan and relaxing with a drink, she's in a pensive mood, waiting for a phone call from Streisand, whom she's expects to fire her over a disastrous film (directed by Mengers's Belgian husband) that the agent signed Streisand up for. The year is 1981, and the freewheeling movie industry of the '70s is about to give way to the sci-fi and special-effects-heavy blockbusters of the '80s, changing the industry forever.

Midler is an engaging, delightful host, and director Joe Mantello wrings a range of emotions from her as she takes us from her early life in Germany and Utica, New York, to her present-day, big-money endeavors. Throughout Midler’s Mengers is funny and bitchy, but her human side remains very much intact.

Still, the material generates more pleasing smiles than full-out laughs, and if you’re not completely enamored of Midler or her boisterous character--if have a hardier theatrical appetite--this dish is barely an appetizer.

By DIANE SNYDER


Visit the Site
http://www.illeatyoulast.com

Cast
Bette Midler

Open/Close Dates
Opening 4/5/2013
Closing 6/30/2013

Box Office
212-239-6200

Theatre Info
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street
New York, NY 10036
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