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<\/a>One-person shows are a strange animal. They tend to be more educational than entertaining because \u2014 well, there\u2019s just one person on the stage. Even when that person plays a variety of characters, or interacts with voices offstage, we know he or she is alone, so alone, in the spotlight.<\/p>\nBut forget every opinion you\u2019ve heard or had about one-person shows when you go to see \u201cGolda\u2019s Balcony,\u201d a one-woman show about Golda Meir at the Old Globe. When you add extraordinary writing (by William Gibson, the playwright responsible for the theater favorite \u201cThe Miracle Worker\u201d) to an amazing performance (by Tovah Feldshuh in her Tony nominated role), you get perhaps the best one-person show ever. Really.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a reason that this production is the longest running one-woman show in Broadway\u2019s history. <\/p>\n
Gibson\u2019s script is a marvel. Just as a subject starts to lose its interest for us (a common problem in one-person shows), he veers off abruptly in a whole other direction. It\u2019s as if the through line of the show is a zigzag. And there are laughs in every part, not one serious scene alternating with a humorous one. Even in the darkest of material, he adds that sting of humor we associate with the Jewish point of view. <\/p>\n
And it\u2019s in that that we see Meir\u2019s character the most. Yes, she had the ability to see what a country and its people needed and her strengths made sure those needs were met (while ignoring her own family\u2019s needs). But she approached life with a can-do, uplifting attitude, demonstrated here in her humor. Still, we see into her darkest hours as well as her lightest, the result being a fully realized portrait, not just hero worship.<\/p>\n
Those darkest hours\u2014 the time surrounding the Yom Kippur War \u2014 frame the show. It\u2019s when Meir had to decide whether or not to drop nuclear missiles. As she says, women bring life into the world so the idea of taking life out is foreign to them. And yet we don\u2019t doubt her resolve to make Israel\u2019s statehood a reality. \u201cWe intend to live,\u201d Meir tells the audience. \u201cOur neighbors intend us to die. There\u2019s not much room for compromise.\u201d (Be forewarned, this is a very pro-Israel play.)<\/p>\n
A great script doesn\u2019t mean that much without the sheer force-of-nature talent that Feldshuh brings to the role. Just watch her play Meir at 17 and then at 70 \u2014 both completely believable. Then she\u2019s Meir\u2019s overly concerned mother or her long-suffering husband, then Henry Kissinger (which is a hoot). There\u2019s one moment when Meir is considering the destruction an atomic bomb would cause and weighing it against the loss of Israel where she drops to the floor, acting as if she\u2019s been sucker punched in the stomach. It\u2019s a gripping moment that adds untold depth to her performance.<\/p>\n
Most of the production elements are impressive. Jeff Croiter\u2019s lights do as much as Gibson\u2019s lines to delineate scenes. Jess Goldstein\u2019s costume is wonderfully flexible, true to Meir\u2019s real wardrobe, and it even reshapes Feldshuh\u2019s body to be that of an old woman. Anna Louizos\u2019 set is a little less successful. The set is a diamond-shaped platform that nicely gives the sense of an island or a separate state, but the dining room set on the platform appears too modern. The projections are an excellent touch, but video could have been used even more to give more sense of time and place.<\/p>\n
If one-person shows have disappointed you in the past, don\u2019t let that stop you from seeing this show. If you have different political views, don\u2019t let that stop you from seeing this show. If your theatre budget is tight, don\u2019t let that stop you from seeing this show. It\u2019s a one-person show you will never forget.<\/p>\n