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Review: Jean Smart Talks the Talk in Call Me Izzy
June 12, 2025, 11:05.32 pm ET

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By Brian Scott Lipton

It’s really no coincidence that the title of Jamie Wax’s monologue, “Call Me Izzy,” now onstage at Studio 54 under Sarna Lapine’s capable direction, makes you recall the opening line of Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick.” In fact, the famed literary reference almost instantly occurs to the narrator of this piece, rural Louisiana housewife Isabelle “Izzy” Scutley – played with protean energy and spirit by the great Jean Smart – as she begins to tell us her life story as she hovers near the toilet of her trailer’s bathroom.

You read that correctly. Why she is in that particular and peculiar space -- staring into the bowl of her toilet, coming up with various adjectives to describe the blue cleanser she’s just thrown in, and eventually scribbling her thoughts on some toilet paper with a soft eyebrow pencil -- becomes clear almost immediately, and is further illuminated over the show’s nearly 90 minutes.

And while there’s no big whale (well, at least not literally) in sight, Isabelle is a woman on a mission -- to overcome her present circumstances, along with her past, and her misguided (if understandable) decisions. (Oddly, the show is set in 1989 per the program, although the play’s time period is never referenced onstage.) That she’ll be able to do so, professionally and personally, seems like a foregone conclusion.

The play is not really the thing, here; it is the casting of Smart that is obviously the production’s raison d’etre. And there can no denying – especially as she’s proven in her television work, most notably the sitcoms “Designing Woman” and “Frasier” and the current HBO Max sensation “Hacks” – that Smart is a master of timing, both comic and dramatic.

Unsurprisingly, she finds the ideal way to deliver most of Wax’s lines, especially those with a little bite. For example, she is impeccable when conveying a small but important detail like “Ferd—that’s my husband—he bought me a plot of earth, right next to his at the Annecium Gardens of Remembrance. (beat) As a wedding gift.”

Of course, Smart also knows how to pierce your heart, if not break it into a million pieces, as she recalls many of the darker moments of Izzy’s life (most of which involve Ferd). In fact, by the play’s end, some might wonder how this woman is still standing and able to share her story.

Nonetheless, the casting of Smart, who turns 74 this year, also slightly undercuts the piece, even if the play’s message (as it applies to Izzy) is essentially “better late than never.” While theater relies on suspension of disbelief when it comes to performers’ ages, the work might have more resonance if Izzy was played by someone closer to 50 (which is implied to be the character’s age). Not to mention, Izzy might be more believable if she was played by someone of smaller physical stature and with less obvious natural intelligence.

Ultimately, as well, I left perplexed why this tale really needs to be told, especially to Broadway audiences in 2025. I admit some women (and a few men) in the audience will find “Call Me Izzy” to be inspirational or perhaps even motivational, while many other theatergoers will simply be content to be in Smart’s presence and hear her talk the talk.

To me, however, the entire enterprise simply feels like a case of wrong place, wrong time, and wrong theater. (Studio 54 is way too vast for such an intimate piece, no matter how hard scenic designer Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams tries to convince us otherwise.) Call me cynical, if you must.


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