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The Tale of the Allergist's Wife |
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The Tale of the Allergist's Wife is not about a sinus problem, though Marjorie Taub, the main character in Charles Busch's Broadway hit, does have a head that is blocked. Her therapist has died, her foul-mouthed mother is driving her nuts, she feels "alienated from every group, be it Jewish, American, the West Side Wine Tasters," and she's horrified she is "of limited intellect." Feeling fragile, she recently had a breakdown in a Disney Store, dropping six porcelain figurines in three minutes. "They tell me the Goofy alone was $250," says her husband, retired allergist Ira Taub (who incidentally provides free clinics for the homeless). Marjorie is depressed and miserable, or, as she puts it while lying on a chaise with curtains closed: "Perdu." She is also hysterically funny — a juicy plum of a role. While Busch was writing The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, he happened to see Linda Lavin, the Tony Award– winning trouper and star of Neil Simon plays, in Death Defying Acts, three one-act comedies by Woody Allen, David Mamet and Elaine May. He knew this actress, capable of broad physicality, vocal histrionics and a thousand comic faces, would be the perfect Marjorie. Lavin agreed to do a reading at the Manhattan Theatre Club, where the play would be produced, and "gave this incredibly full performance," says Busch. "It was just clear the actress and role were made for each other." But Lavin, he says, wouldn't commit. So Busch did what any self-respecting playwright would do: He stalked her. "I wrote her this wild, shameless letter, comparing her in the grandest terms to Bernhardt and Duse," he says. "She said she wept when she read it. I kept showing up where she'd be. I saw her at Joe Allen's restaurant, and I said, 'Please! I'm on my knees.' I took her to lunch in L.A. Finally she gave in and did the play." The playwright's tenacity paid off. Audiences and critics adored Lavin in Allergist's Wife (her run with the play ended in July). She had "a signature way of turning malaise into comic delirium," wrote Mel Gussow in the New York Times. "In one of the finest performances you'll ever see, Linda Lavin continually finds the comic pathos in Marjorie's tragic circumstances," wrote David Kaufman in the New York Daily News. As for Lavin, she was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Actress for her performance as Marjorie. Not a bad payoff for feeling "perdu." — A.T.
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