Stage Review - Lip Service (Theatre33)
Stage Review - Lip Service
Presented By: Theatre33 - Bellevue, WA
Show Run: February 16 - February 25, 2024
Date Reviewed: Sunday, February 18, 2024
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
Helena Rubinstein famously said, “There are no ugly women, only lazy ones”. The cosmetics magnate claimed that her products could make any woman beautiful, and give her enough confidence to make her believe she could be or do anything she dreamed of. Her rivalry with Elizabeth Arden was legendary and her life was characterized by hard work, having moved from her native Poland to Australia in 1896 with no money to her name, where she proceeded to sell her first beauty cream and opened up her first salon before subsequently moving to Paris, London, and eventually the United States, building her cosmetics empire along the way. Her story has been told on stage before, most notably by the musical War Paint, which itself was based on the 2004 book of the same nam, debuting in Chicago in 2016 and then on Broadway in 2017 with Patti LuPone originating the role of Rubinstein. At around the same time that War Paint was beginning its Broadway run, Australian playwright John Misto was preparing to release another treatment of the Rubinstein story, a play called Lip Service. Lip Service looks at the woman whose employees called “Madame” with a different lens than the musical, focusing on her relationships, yes, with Arden, but also with her children, and more predominantly with Patrick O’Higgins, the war veteran she hired as her personal assistant. Theatre33, the bilingual theatre that features programs in both English and Russian, has chosen to produce the American Premiere of Lip Service as its next English language production.
The Theatre33 production runs through February 25, is directed by Marianna Chebotaryova and features Era Pogosova in a superb performance as Helena Rubinstein. The show also features Anastasia Podlazova as Elizabeth Arden, Max Korotkiy as Patrick O’Higgins, and Olga Semenova in a supporting role, playing multiple characters. Era’s portrayal is a treat and the absolute best reason to travel to Bellevue to see Lip Service. She carries herself with the confidence and purpose of work that “Madame” did, reflects the sorrow in Rubinstein’s life, as well as the joy of success, and presents a character with a hard and protective outer layer, underscored by a love for her family. It’s a wonderful performance from Era and she carries this show on her shoulders. The other actors in Lip Service are certainly talented, but their performances here are impacted slightly by their accents. It’s hard to see Elizabeth Arden as Canadian or Patrick O’Higgins as Irish when they don’t sound like it, and some of the dialogue feels slower in delivery than intended, but getting past that, this production of Lip Service is a well told story. Max does a nice job as the assistant Helena is reluctant to hire, but most definitely needs, Anastasia is an Elizabeth Arden that gloats in her success and never acquiesces to Rubinstein, at least not willingly, and Olga supports the other players through her performances, that in other productions are listed as simply “voices offstage”, but here is onstage contributing to the storytelling.
The story itself is well written, John Misto having created a piece that flows well and captures the essence of Rubinstein, in her work, the competition between her, Arden, and other companies like Revlon, and the struggles to love her children amid the growing demands of the industry, and it does all this with a decent amount of humor. It provides a fresh look into the Rubinstein story, not focusing on the obvious, the rivalry with Arden, but rather a look deeper into her personal life and relationships, and specifically how her life is impacted when she hires a personal assistant that she didn’t think she needed, or wanted. Misto also provides some insight into Rubinstein’s past, and how that past has impacted her work ethic and how she runs the business.
This production itself is put together in a way that focuses on the acting, with a set that is generally static, save for pieces that move on stage and work in an origami type fashion to represent a multitude of individual pieces, including an office desk, a bar, a living room, and the interior of an airplane. The function of the set pieces provides the audience with the setting, along with projections that indicate time and location in which a particular scene is set. Director Marianna Chebotaryova handles all of the creative duties here, including the use of projections and videos, old Rubinstein cosmetic commercials, a Revlon sponsored game show, and a hilarious commercial for late 1960s air travel, each expertly curated to match the time and place of the scene on stage. These videos play during set changes, keeping the audience engaged and entertained while things are shifted around on stage. These videos are truly the highlight of the production, outside of Era’s Rubinstein. Marianna also handles light and sound for the show, both done well enough, though I do feel that some of the music that plays underneath the dialogue to start new scenes goes on for a bit too long before fading out.
Lip Service, written by John Misto, and currently onstage at Theatre33 in Bellevue in a production directed by Marianna Chebotaryova, is a new and personal take on the story of Helena Rubinstein, leader of the cosmetic revolution in the United States. Era Pogosova stars as “Madame” in a performance that is stellar and truly reminiscent of the magnate herself, definitely worth seeing if you have the opportunity.
The American premiere of Lip Service is presented by and runs onstage at Theatre33 in Bellevue through February 25. For more information about Theatre33 and this show, including ticket availability and purchase, visit https://www.theatre33wa.org/.
Photo credit - Maria Levochkina
