Bailey is like buttah in Streisand-focused “I’ll Eat You Last”
Sue Mengers was a real person. This must be distinctly understood. Mengers was a powerful Hollywood agent in the 1950s 60s, 70s and 80s who, among other things, got Gene Hackman cast in The French Connection, “ as well as repping the likes of Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand, and other huge stars.
It is this last client, Babs, that is somewhat the focus of the play. I’ll Eat You Last, is a one-actor one-act play, and is now playing at The Ringwald concurrently with Buyer and Cellar, another one-actor play that is focused on Streisand. Joe Bailey dons the wig and moo-moo to play an aging Mengers at a time when most of her clients have left her. While she talks to the audience about her life and all the big-name actors she has repped and helped, she is waiting for a phone call from Streisand after being informed by Babs’ lawyers that the mega-star will be seeking new representation.
Mengers (Joe Bailey) talks to us the entire time sitting on the couch in her Hollywood home. Loathe to get up, Mengers has become heavy, and it’s no wonder she died of pneumonia in real life.
It would be easy for the chatty monologue to break down into just so much Babs-blabbing. But Bailey portrays the somewhat broken lady with a lovely balance of braggadocio and vulnerability. The lady who was a smart king-maker is now desperately waiting for Streisand to call her. She needs emotional closure. And she needs us to understand, and perhaps Barbara, why she herded Streisand, Hackman and others into her husband’s stinker of a film.
Mengers, forgotten by most but those obsessed with Hollywood history or who are old enough to have known her, has a lot of good stories that those who do like Hollywood of yore will appreciate. The French Connection could have starred Jackie Gleason or Charles Bronson as Popeye Doyle. Julie Harris wanted to do, and did thanks to Mengers, an episode of Bonanza. Harris, the Belle of The Ponderosa? Who knew?
Mengers is a brassy yenta. The role has been played by Bette Midler. But I think anyone who does it channels Lanie Kazan a bit.
Directed by Jamie Richards, Bailey brings his considerable craft to the job at hand: Entertain us for about 70 minutes and hold our attention as the lady who was behind the famous lady. And he does…like buttah.