Press 4

Spotlight: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

By Quinton Skinner, Citypages

Published on August 27, 2008

Peter Rothstein directs this spoof on the original cinematic dust-up between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, and while it features his usual assurance and sense of detail, there's also a welcome unhinged aspect to the proceedings. This story of two sisters sees the washed-up former child star Baby Jane (the Davis role, here played by Stacia Rice) holed up at home caring for Blanche (once Crawford, now Craig Johnson), whose own star had been in ascendance until she was paralyzed in a car accident. There's never a moment's hint that we're to take any of this seriously, signaled from the onset by Rice appearing in hideous makeup with a succession of glazed, batshit-crazy expressions. Johnson is arch and long-suffering in his wheelchair, playing the role straight (so to speak) while sporting a lugubrious drawl (at one point, he manages to pronounce the word "immediately" as though it contained a "G"). The plot, such as it is, hinges on Jane's descent into madness (okay, more madness), terrorizing Blanche with such treats as a dead rat on her dinner plate and withholding phone privileges lest anyone come to her rescue. Gerry Geiken tosses in a slimy note as an alcoholic pianist who, though clearly terrified of Jane, agrees to abide her company in exchange for payment, and Mo Perry lends a sunny note as a next-door neighbor too star-struck to take proper notice of the utter lunacy on her block. Rice and Johnson appear to be having criminal amounts of fun (the two, along with Rothstein, adapted the script), with Johnson suffering an eventually terminal case of the vapors and Rice clearly enjoying unleashing her inner cracked sadist. Smartly, the proceedings are kept to about 90 minutes, because eventually the premise of the thing starts to creak. What with name-checking local theaters in the script, and playing on the occasional eccentricities of theater types, Baby Jane can feel at times like an elaborate inside joke. Lucky, then, that it's a pretty funny one, and asks little more than that we enjoy its profound silliness.

A camp classic gets another look when Stacia Rice and Craig Johnson play the codependent sisters in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

By GRAYDON ROYCE, Star Tribune

Last update: August 21, 2008

In 2005, Craig Johnson terrified Stacia Rice in a Gremlin Theatre production of Frederick Knott's "Wait Until Dark." Looking for a chance to return the favor, Rice has found it.

This weekend, Rice assumes the deranged mien of Baby Jane Hudson in a stage adaptation of the 1962 cult-classic film "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" Johnson dons wig and dress and climbs into a wheelchair to play the hapless Blanche Hudson, who is emotionally terrorized by her sister to the point of being served a dead rat for dinner.

"I had Baby Jane on my list of roles that I wanted to play someday and a friend pushed me to do it now, so we did," said Rice, who is producing the show under the auspices of her Torch Theater Company at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage.

Once she decided to do the show, Rice thought of no one else but Johnson -- and not only because he had held her at knifepoint in the earlier show. Johnson has directed Rice often and each time, his comments and notes made her feel that he could play the role better than she could.

"He has this incredible sensibility for people," she said. "It's irritating when you have a man who does it better than you do. He absolutely is the right person for the part."

Peter Rothstein, artistic director of Theatre Latté Da, was game when Rice asked whether he'd like to get involved. He had never worked with her, nor had he seen the movie, so curiosity got the best of him. The three principals found a transcript of the movie on the Internet (without character names indicating who was speaking) and began to pare down the 2 1/2-hour film into a slim stage version about half as long.

"Jane" made a huge splash in 1962 because of its wonderfully weird effect and the unique star power of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. In a story line similar to "Gypsy," Jane is a child star who is later overshadowed by her sister. One night, a car accident leaves Blanche paralyzed. Jane makes it her life's work to mercilessly hector the unfortunate sister. Both women are largely prisoners of their fetid Los Angeles mansion. There is little plot, but the bizarre psychology between the two makes the film.

Rice never wavered in her desire to play Jane, an iconic harridan made even more deliciously witchy by Davis in a portrayal that fairly reeks of a rotted soul. Crawford played Blanche, and at first blush, that role might have seemed better for an actor who has distinguished herself several times as a weepy and timid victim.

"That's exactly why I didn't want to do that part," Rice said.

Playing it straight

After Rothstein saw the film, he instantly "went to my expensive place" and dreamed of using live video, projected on a screen behind the action to highlight the cinematic drama.

Torch's budget realities reeled him back in, but more important, he had a telling experience watching "The 39 Steps" in New York. The Broadway play was adapted from Hitchcock's film and Rothstein said he became highly concious of the stagecraft involved.

"It was virtuosic on every front, but I was tracking how they did it, not the story," he said.

In other words, the production hijacked the story.

"Yes, that's what I meant to say," he said.

To make a dark farce such as "Baby Jane" come alive requires a deadly serious mind-set, Rothstein said. Davis, for example, invested fully in Jane's madness. A lesser actor might have commented on her character by displaying an ironic self-awareness, thus ruining the effect. A production by Mary Worth Theatre Company in 1996 drew some criticism for trying to spoof the original.

"You're sending it up and loving it at the same time," said Johnson, a man who faces the paradoxical challenge of putting on a wig and a dress and playing the role completely straight.

The final piece of the puzzle was a musical underscore, provided by pianist Todd Price. The film itself is almost completely underscored and the tonal tension becomes another character in the texture.

Rothstein's cast includes John Middletown, Sally Ann Wright, Garry Geiken and Mo Perry, among others. Essentially, though, it gets down to Rice and Johnson. Asked if she would have cast Blanche with a man had Johnson not been available, Rice said, "That's a good question. I never thought of doing it without Craig."

Ah, payback is so sweet.

Graydon Royce • 612-673-7299