In his satirical 1961 novel Catch-22, Joseph Heller wrote: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.” This could be the tagline for The Group Rep’s revival of Applause, which is set in the social milieu of the Broadway theater. In it, Margo Channing (Leslie Stevens) is a star of stage and screen who befriends a seemingly starstruck supplicant, Eve Harrington (Savannah Mortenson). At first, Eve purports to be a naïve hayseed from Madison, Wisconsin, whose husband has been killed in the Vietnam War (Applause opened on the Great White Way at the Palace Theatre—where Margo’s play is also staged—in 1970, which is around when the story takes place). Eve appears to venerate and adulate Margo with the same ass-kissing brio that Trump administration cabinet members shower upon the narcissus-in-chief, and the unsuspecting diva takes the 20-ish fresh-faced idolizer under her superstar wing.
Margo has seen better days, and as the two-act play proceeds and the newbie Eve worms her way into the leading lady’s world, the veteran actress begins to suspect that young Miss Harrington may have something up her devious sleeve and be a designing woman who has designs not only on Channing’s career, but her longtime lover, the renowned director Bill Sampson (Damon Kirsche). Is Eve a duplicitous schemer and scammer, or is the aging Margo (she’s 40-ish, which in actress years is nearing antiquity, according to this play) paranoid?
Aye, as Hamlet once pithily put it, “that is the question” posed by Applause, a musical adaptation of the 1950 dramatic film All About Eve, which was nominated for an astounding 14 Academy Awards, winning six of them, including for Best Picture. Joseph Mankiewicz won Oscars in both the Best Director and Best Writing, Screenplay categories, while Bette Davis as Margo and Anne Baxter as Eve, who were both (ironically!) nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role. (Marilyn Monroe even had a small role in All About Eve!) The film’s source material was Mary Orr’s 1946 short story The Wisdom of Eve.
Those fabled talents Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote the book for the stage version of Applause, as well as the screenplay for the 1973 TV-movie iteration, which both starred Lauren Bacall as Margo. The lyrics and music were by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse, respectively, who previously collaborated on the 1961 Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie. The Comden and Green team dates back to 1944’s On the Town, and Applause is sometimes old-fashioned and creaky, such as with the song “Good Friends,” although the opening night audience certainly applauded the performers.
Considering her own impressive Great White Way roles—which include Victor/Victoria with Julie Andrews and La Cage Aux Folles—co-starring Leslie Stevens as Margo is canny casting, and she excels as the embattled actress fighting to save her career and her romantic partner. Stevens’ singing and slinky dancing have elan. As the title character, Savannah Mortenson is quite convincing as the ingenue who would be a star, or should I say, to paraphrase Rudyard Kipling, as the woman who would be queen? Late in Act II, Mortenson sings the revealing “One Hallowe’en,” an insightful solo number with an unsettling look back at a troubled childhood that helps explain what makes her character tick.
With his leading-man good looks, Damon Kirsche, who also has Broadway and Off-Broadway credits, is straight out of central casting as Channing’s on-again, off-again lover. As producer Howard Benedict, Lee Gorber oozes smarm like an Uzi, and seems aptly named after the traitorous Benedict Arnold as he ensnares Eve (whose own name, of course, references the Biblical Ur-woman from the Book of Genesis). (Garber alternates in the role with Michael Sabatino, who is scheduled to play Benedict July 31, August 1 and 2.)
Having experienced the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, certain plot points in this period piece may be eyebrow-raising for 2026 audiences. Some might also find the use of the word “Gypsy” problematic. In Applause, it has no ethnic designation but simply refers to performers who move from one show biz gig to another. Of course, this slang term was derived from the nomadic lifestyle associated with Roma people, who were formerly called “Gypsies,” although today that term is now considered to be a pejorative.
Be that as it may, actress Angie Lin, who has numerous stage and screen credits, is a standout in Applause’s ensemble of about ten thesps. Group Rep’s Artistic Director Doug Averty does double duty, also portraying playwright Buzz Richards, who becomes besotted (“Buzzed”?) with the far younger Eve and rewrites his script to fit her specs.
I applaud Applause, which I’d never seen before. Despite the fact that, with the exception of the vocals, which are indeed performed live, the rest of the soundtrack is a recording (John Harvey is the sound manager), I enjoyed most of the music, as well as the dancing (choreo by Becca Sweitzer) and acting. Best of all was the show biz setting of the story because, don’tchaknow, there’s no business like show business like no business that I know. From the dramatic to the singing (with musical direction by Gerald Sternbach), director Bruce Kimmel adeptly helms his multi-faceted story and cast.
Margo utters one of the most memorable lines in all of Hollywood history, which is also the title of the next-to-last song in Act I of Applause. This piece of dialogue is as unforgettable as the immortal words of Gloria Swanson in 1950’s Sunset Boulevard: “Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up”; or of Marlon Brando in 1954’s On the Waterfront: “I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender”; or of Roy Scheider in 1975’s Jaws: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”; et al. If you want to know exactly which line from All About Eve and Applause that I’m talking about, you’ll just have to go experience this play yourself. But I’ll give you a hint: Consumer advocate Ralph Nader would totally endorse it…
Applause runs on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. through August 30 at The Group Rep Theatre—Main Stage (first floor), located at 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601. For info & tickets: call (818)763-5990, or go here.
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