By Brian Robin
What is “Joan”
Being able to pin down exactly who Joan Rivers was is like nailing Jell-O to a wall. After all, she was a trailblazing comedian, a talk-show host, a best-selling author, a voiceover artist, a fashion expert with her own jewelry line on QVC and a red carpet commentator with her own signature phrase—“Who are you wearing?”
Joan Rivers was not only a pioneer in the world of entertainment, but a rich subject for storytelling. And it’s the story of who Rivers was and the triumphs and tragedies she experienced—while creating her own template for motherhood—that playwright Daniel Goldstein chronicles with Joan, which runs through Nov. 24 on the Julianne Argyros Stage.
So what is Joan? It’s best to start answering that question with what Joanis not.
- It’s not a stand-up routine. You won’t see a Rivers impersonator reeling off jokes in her trademark machine-gun fashion.
- It’s not a one-person play. Tessa Auberjonois, who plays Joan, has plenty of talented company on stage with Andrew Borba, Elinor Gunn and Zachary Prince playing a plethora of people in Rivers’ celebrated life.
That established, what will you see with Joan?
“Joan is a four-person theatrical cavalcade experience through the life of Joan Rivers,” Goldstein said.
In Joan, Goldstein created a funny and heartfelt story that takes you through Rivers’ remarkable life, from her early days as Joan Molinsky, the daughter of Russian immigrants, to an early and brief marriage to her days in gritty Greenwich Village nightclubs to her breakout on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.” Goldstein takes you through Rivers becoming the first woman to host a late-night talk show—"The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers”—and he takes you through the collapse of that show. You experience how Rivers reinvented herself through determination, hard work and vision.
And through it all, Goldstein shows you Rivers as a mother.
“Joan and Melissa Rivers forged an enviable and inspiring mother/daughter relationship,” Ivers said. “The play dares us to eat up life in big chunks. Joan Rivers exemplifies grit and resiliency, she remains indelible as the greatest comic of our times. At every turn, the play bears witness to the pioneer who invents and re-invents in order to center family and a life fueled by joy and laughter.”