Va-Va-Villainess: Mary Anne Bowman

Published February 16, 2025 by biggayhorrorfan

For those celluloid buffs who have never set foot into a black box theater and witnessed a play come to life, be plentifully assured, the theater world has seen many a scarlet diva scamper across its stages, as well. From Hamlet‘s Gertrude to The Little Foxes‘ Regina Giddens, wicked dames have been making the velvet curtains flow a bit more dramatically and the footlights glitter just a tad brighter for eons.

Currently, Open Space Arts, one of the Chicago’s most intimate performance spaces, is providing a home to one of those delicious divas of emotional mayhem. The vehicle providing this bratty bossa nova is Mr. Parker, a critically acclaimed look at middle-aged love and grief from a queer perspective. But it is Midwest entertainment veteran Mary Anne Bowman who is bringing this occasionally manipulative, always dramatically spot on creature into glorious existence.

In fact, as Cassandra, the sister-in-law of the titular character, Bowman is giving a once in a lifetime performance. Whether deliciously eviscerating anyone who poses a threat to her carefully mapped out plans or, honestly and deep heartedly, confessing her deepest fears in the show’s penultimate moments, this skilled thespian fully gives playwright Michael McKeever’s words a brightly animated glow.

That audiences get to experience her doing this in a OSA’s almost churchlike 25 seat space only adds to the magical power of her glorious execution here.

Mr. Parker runs through March 2nd at Open Space Arts, 1411 W. Wilson in Chicago. More information is available at https://openspacearts.org/.

Miss Hannigan: Stefanie Londino’s Villainous Triumph

Published November 30, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

As a theater loving grade schooler, I spent many a weekend afternoon spinning my Annie Original Broadway Cast album. Unbeknownst to me, those tunes must have found a way into the fabric of my soul.

Decades later, when a river of nostalgia carried me to a downtown Chicago theater to witness the 2023 touring production of the show, the lyrics of those songs came, instantly, back to me in waves of sonic glory. I was also surprised to rediscover how sharply humorous and grimy some of the show’s most celebrated numbers are. It’s A Hard Knock Life and We’d Like To Thank You Herbert Hoover, for instance, contain some truly black imagery.

Even more surprisingly, I had forgotten that Miss Hannigan and her criminal cohorts planned to kill Annie as part of their plan to abscond with Daddy Warbucks’ reward money. Thus, Hannigan’s comic villainy is shadowed throughout with a truly dark core. This revelation led me to further reevaluate the show and led me back to the theater when it returned to Chicago this winter.

Nicely, actress Stefanie Londino, who has played the role in the last two tour settings, also adds a bit of rock ‘n roll heart to the character, playing her with a combination of Patti Smith grit and Dorothy Loudon grease paint pizzaz. Her take is definitely a little leaner and meaner…and sexier than such former portrayers as Marcia Lewis and Alice Ghostley. One can even believe that Bundles, the laundry man who is part of a pivotal orphanage-based plot point in this show, would have gladly taken Londino’s Hannigan for a clean sweep across his sheets – a rather new factor for audiences, experience-wise.

Indeed, by adding a bit of saucy modernity here, Londino helps leaven the show’s occasional sentimentality. That bite is sure to appeal to people unfamiliar with it and its seemingly too sweet legacy as this production winds its way across the US until the spring of 2025.

More information on Londino and the tour, itself, is available at https://annietour.com/tour/.

More on this eclectic performer, who also fronts a band called West Side Waltz, can be found at http://www.stefanielondino.com/, as well.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

Va-Va-Villainess: Margarita Cordova

Published March 1, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

Margarita Main

Peter Gunn, the ultra cool private eye series created by Blake Edwards, definitely featured its share of shady ladies over its 3 often irresistible seasons (1958-1961). Of course, all of these women radiated spunk and beauty. But the most dynamic of those varied and capable performers has to be Margarita Cordova who, over the course of two episodes, skillfully danced, sang and played guitar along with the other expected prerequisites of her acting assignments. Margarita Dance

Granted, her last appearance in the show’s Cry Love, Cry Murder offering found her in more valiant territory, portraying a character that exposes the schemes of a cunning family member with a firm yet tear stained heart.

Her first runaround with Craig Stevens’ unflappable Gunn was a bit more insidious, though. As Elena, the mistress of a two timing scoundrel in the Mask of Murder offering, Cordova willing delivers the series’ titular hero to death’s door. Gunn, naturally, survives…as the alert Elena slinks off to presumably charm other suckers. Cordova fills this determined schemer with a strong survivor’s instinct mixed with a sly bit of seductive minx, providing for a most memorable villainess with plenty of (the above mentioned) va-va-voom to spare.

Margarita Mission Impossible Decades later, Cordova found her biggest fame as a regular on two NBC soap operas. As the matriarchal Rosa Andrade on Santa Barbara, she provided a noble sternness. She was given even more creative freedom, though, as Sunset Beach’s truly memorable Carmen Torres. Vengefully opposing the romantic union of her beloved (former priest) son with his brother’s ex-fiancée, Cordova took the mother in law from hell act to deliciously glorious heights.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Margarita Mail

Va-Va-Villainess: Kay Francis

Published January 4, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

Kay Francis In Name Only 2

Her specialized take on honorable, suffering women made the distinguished Kay Francis one of the highest paid female stars of the ‘30s. Considered to be “as a responsive as a violin” (by none other than William Powell), Francis used this versatility to expand her career as that decade came to a close.

Kay Francis In Name Only Cast as Cary Grant’s manipulative wife in 1939’s In Name Only, Francis’ Maida Walker was a woman who could – and did – drive men to suicide. Subtly maneuvering the family of Grant’s unhappy Alec into her corner, Francis’ character almost destroys his future with Carole Lombard’s loving and artistic Julie Eden. A final confrontation with Julie reveals Maida’s true motivations to all, though, and Francis slinks off with shocked elegance at the film’s close out. Subtly underplaying her character’s flint hard anger, Francis shines with sense of brittle control mixed with an acidic softness here, allowing the audience to feel a bit of sympathy for her while also delighting in her downfall. Kay Francis Allotment Wives

Taking the vengefulness of Maida a step further, Francis’ dominating Sheila Seymour is a crime boss extraordinaire in 1945’s Allotment Wives. The head of a ring of women determined to milk soldiers of their savings, Francis is coldly charming once again here. Even when gunning down her opposition in cold blood, Francis shines with a hypnotic allure. As with In Name Only, Francis connects fully with the character’s emotional softness, manifested by this character’s beloved daughter, allowing the audience to feel a twinge of compassion for her actions even when they are homicidal in nature.

Kay Francis Allotment Wives 2.jpg

While not as well remembered as Bette Davis, her professional rival at Warner Brothers, Francis still has her devoted fans and a number of books and a website dedicated to her career and life.

www.kayfrancisfilms.com/

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan

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