Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

Vanities, which performed last week at the Marilyn Monroe Theater was a really nice reminder how we are all one. We all might come from different backgrounds and nationalities, but we are all connected. We all have fears, desires, and strong friendships. It doesn’t matter where we come from to have those feelings.

The Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan has a theater that has this sentence in huge letters. “Dedicated to the promotion of world friendship through the universal language of the arts.” This is an excellent anecdote to sum up the production of Vanities.

Vanities, by Jack Heifner, centers around three girls: Kathy, Joanne, and Mary. The first scene is the three of them in the fall of 1963 when they are best friends on the cheerleading team together. The second scene is the three of them in Spring of 1968 when they are best friends living in the same sorority house and worrying about graduating. The third and last scene is them in Summer of 1974 and it is their first time truly talking to and seeing each other since their college graduation. Now they have nothing in common with each other because they have all taken completely different paths with their lives. It is an emotional journey, but one everyone can relate to.

The interesting part of this production is that none of the three actresses, Soledad Del Rio, Juliana Klein, and Isadora Vasconcellos, are American, nor did they attempt to be American. All three of them have strong accents. At times it was a little distracting. It did take a little while to get used to the accents, especially because all three of them could rush through their lines too much at points. Usually it was not an issue, but sometimes they would rush so much that it was difficult to take in what they had just said. It also was an adjustment to see such an “American” play performed by non-Americans. However, the three ladies were very connected to each other and made their three characters different from each other that most of the time it was irrelevant.

All three of the ladies do a very nice job in their roles. Juliana Klein (Joanne) has a very nice innocence to the role. She is the most naive of the two girls and also is the most conventional, as she plans on just getting married after college and being a housewife. She does a particularly nice job with the ongoing joke she makes throughout the play. Each time she says it, it is still fresh, so it does not feel like beating a dead horse. Isadora Vasconcellos (Mary) is the rebel of the group, as she plans on moving to Europe and sleeping with lots of different men after graduation. Ms. Vasconcellos has a commanding presence and a lot of strength in the role. The character is so passionate about creating a new life for herself and she really conveys that well. Soledad del Rio (Kathy) is the friend who always tries to keep them together and she has a nice tenderness of how compassionate she is about her two best friends. She also is very vulnerable when she shares with her friends how some of her dreams are not working out how she planned.

The sound, prop, costume, and set design of the production were all very strong and fit the time period of the 1960s and 1970s very well. The only criticism is that in the pre-show, the ladies were listening to their iPods, which most definitely did not fit the period. However, that could be ignored because the rest was so strong. As the characters evolve and grow up, their clothing changes and that was very well executed.

All in all, a very strong production of a play every woman who has ever had and lost a friend should know. It is funny and touching, something that more theater today needs.