Look who\u2019s proving its mettle (guts) now: Lamb\u2019s Players Theatre, that\u2019s who. Artistic Director Robert Smyth directs his wife, the splendid Deborah Gilmour Smyth as Marlene Dietrich, along with eight other wondrously cast actors in the world premiere of \u201cDinner With Marlene\u201d by San Diego playwright Anne-Charlotte Hanes Harvey.<\/p>\n Harvey based the play on a story her father, Eric Hanes, told her when he was 90. It happened in October 1938 in Paris. A 27-year-old Swedish travel agent, he had been sent by his employer to evaluate the Lancaster Hotel in Paris. There he met the famous singer\/actress Marlene Dietrich, who was staying at the Lancaster and had just fired her precocious 13-year-old daughter Maria Sieber\u2019s nanny. As a favor, Eric \u201cbabysat\u201d Maria (Avery Trimm) one afternoon, taking her to museums, and as a result was invited to be Maria\u2019s escort to a dinner at Tout Paris, a renowned restaurant near the Lancaster. The hostess was American millionaire Barbara Hutton (Rachael VanWormer).<\/p>\n Affable Brian Mackey portrays Eric Hanes. Among the dinner guests in the play are renowned German violinist Fritz Kreisler; Dietrich\u2019s current amour, author Erich Maria Remarque (Jason Heil); art dealer Bernadine Boubiel (Cynthia Gerber); and Lenore Wolff (Kerry Meads), wife of the Lancaster\u2019s owner. Patrick Duffy is the omnipresent waiter, providing Champagne to the diners all evening (the food is ordered but never seen).<\/p>\n Consider the era, seven months after the Anschluss (Germany\u2019s annexation of Austria), and you realize that nearly everyone at the table, with the exception of Boubiel and Wolff, has come to Paris to await the opportunity to go somewhere else.<\/p>\n As the dinner progresses and everyone drinks more and more Champagne, secrets are revealed and lies are told. Students of history, knowing what happens next, and having learned what has already been forbidden or lost, worry for the safety of each character.<\/p>\n At 2\u00bd hours with a 15-minute interval, Harvey\u2019s well-constructed, superbly played, extremely brave and intricate work will be of great fascination and satisfaction to many. Others, perhaps too challenged or bored or both, may leave at the interval as some in the opening night audience did. Those departures are sad, because they missed the brilliant payoff in the second act. Tears came as we remembered those who did not make their way out. Within months, even Paris was no longer safe.<\/p>\n What a blessing for us that just prior to his death Eric Hanes gave his daughter, Ann-Charlotte, the guest list, at length causing her to ponder what might have been said and what the topics of discussion were at his dinner with Marlene. The resulting play is much more than a history lesson. It is a reminder that such a thing must never recur. Unfortunately it is very timely.<\/p>\n Kreisler never plays his violin, but he does sing an Austrian folk song, accompanied on piano by Marlene. John Rosen\u2019s performance as the renowned violinist is deeply layered, superb indeed, a jewel among many others. I cannot think of a better Marlene than Smyth, a master vocalist who wears the tuxedo well and convinces us she is Marlene.<\/p>\n![\"762webtop\"](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/762webtop.jpg\")
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