Modern setting for Henry James novel displays depth of characters

By Charlene Baldridge

In 1880, Henry James came forth with a novel, at first in serial form, titled “Washington Square.” In subsequent adaptations for the stage and screen, the story was titled “The Heiress” and concerned a socially gauche young woman whose physician father was abusive, widowed and wealthy. When love came along and his daughter insisted on marrying an impecunious young man, the good doctor threatened to disinherit her. The young man, he declared, was after her money.

JD Taylor as Henry and Lauren Blumenfeld as Claudine in the West Coast premiere of Victoria Stewart's “Rich Girl,” directed by James Vásquez, through June 21 at The Old Globe. (Photo by Jim Cox) — JD Taylor as Henry and Lauren Blumenfeld as Claudine in the West Coast premiere of Victoria Stewart’s “Rich Girl,” directed by James Vásquez, through June 21 at The Old Globe. (Photo by Jim Cox)

Readers may remember the 1949 multiple Academy Award-winning fllm with Ralph Richardson, Olivia de Havilland and Montgomery Clift.

Through June 21, the Old Globe presents a more recent take on the original James novel, playwright Victoria Stewart’s “Rich Girl,” which turns the tables on James in many ways. Highly successful as a television financial wizard (think Suze Orman) and author, the man-hating Eve Walker (Meg Gibson) has raised an ungainly, socially inept daughter named Claudine (Lauren Blumenfeld) to adulthood. Claudine has zero self-esteem. A wise and witty confidant of both mother and daughter is Maggie (Carolyn Michelle Smith), who lives more in their mansion than in her own apartment.

As an underpaid intern in her mother’s empire and a representative of her mother’s charitable foundation, Claudine meets a handsome young theater director seeking grant money to save his foundering troupe. She turns down the grant request; nonetheless, to use the trite expression, Henry (JD Taylor) sweeps Claudine off her feet. Soon, they are engaged. Eve does everything she can to prevent the marriage and thwart the relationship, including taking Claudine away for a mother/daughter Africa safari, after which she produces legal documents disinheriting Claudine should she marry Henry. She is the control freak parent from hell.

Stewart stops short of making Eve or any of the four characters stereotypical. Instead, the playwright, abetted by the canny and empathetic direction of James Vásquez, leaves onlookers to make their own judgments; one supposes those judgments are based on individual life experience, the exercise of common sense, and the degree of romantic illusion. Just as Claudine at the moment of denouement, we are deliciously torn between one and the other.

(l to r) Meg Gibson as Eve and Carolyn Michelle Smith as Maggie in “Rich Girl” at The Old Globe. (Photo by Jim Cox)

Seldom does one see a more integrated company. Blumenfeld is adorably insecure; Gibson walks the line between caring and crassness; Smith imbues her character with genuine warmth; and Taylor is wondrously, winningly handsome and inscrutable.

The nuance does not stop there. Even the setting’s décor has humor (Wilson Chin is scenic designer). And the ladies’ apparel tells the story of each (Shirley Pierson is costume designer). A favorite Claudine ensemble consists of mismatched polka dots. One longs to unpack the rest of the suitcases. The production is also enhanced by Amanda Zieve’s lighting design, Mark Holmes and Paul Peterson’s video design (hysterically funny after Claudine assumes her mother’s TV show and persona), and Lindsay Jones’s original music and sound design.