When Egyptologist Howard Carter peered into King Tuts' tomb for the first time, his patron Lord Carnarvon anxiously asked, What do you see? “Wonderful things,” was Carter's awe-inspiring response.
Whether Julie Kramer's adaptation of Rona Jaffe's phenomenally popular 1958 soap opera novel about the secret lives of New York City secretaries, The Best of Everything, now wildly typing and filing at Main Street Theater, is full of wonderful things is debatable, but what is for certain is that this is an artifact, a relic from the ancient past.
That's not to say it doesn't speak to us today, nor remind us forcibly of the #MeToo movement. This is the mother of them all, a shocking exposé of toxic male power in the workplace seen through distaff eyes. Jaffe's book is not great literature, hardly more than a hefty beach read, but it did raise a lot of unpleasant truths about the business world of its time and how young female workers were objectified and used by the powers that be, and could, and did.
Amanda Farrow (Kara Greenberg in wondrous icy patrician mode) is the only female editor at Fabian Publishing. She has a raft of great writers, a corner office, and is the driving impetus of Fabian's success. But she's no better than the men at treating her female subordinates as glorified go-fers. It's implied she has slept her way to the top and is carrying on with a married man, so she's not about to let her power slip from her gloved hands. When she sees herself mirrored in ingenue Caroline (Ginger Moulton), fresh from Radcliffe College, she spots her adversary and suspects that her days may be numbered.
Caroline is often called “ambitious,” usually in pejorative tone, something Lady Macbeth might call “unsex me.” But she's as desperate to get married as any of the women in the steno pool. All of them seem to have chosen their beaux unwisely – cads or married men who only want a mistress. Caroline pines for her former fiancee Eddie (Fritz Eagleton), but carries on a “vicarious love affair” with Mike Rice, the editor of Christian books in the company suite next door. Always on the prowl, April (a refreshing and buoyant Skyler Sinclair) picks the wrong guy every time. The office gossip Mary Agnes (Amanda Martinez, as tightly wound as her hairdo) just wants a man, any will do. Gregg (the always playful Lindsay Ehrhardt) is an actress, seduced by a producer and then relegated to stalking him when he dumps her, leading to tragic consequences. Brenda (Carol Germano) shares a cubicle with the others, but why is this character here? Germano is chirpy and breezy, but her character's redundant.
The male gaze – ofttimes touch – is kaleidoscopically portrayed by John Johnston in multiple roles: old horny Mr. Shalimar who drunkenly paws Caroline whenever he can; oily theater producer David Wilder Savage in velvet smoking jacket; sweet asexual Mike Rice; and Ronnie, a blind date for April, a rube in NYC who carries a vintage Kodak camera around his neck. Caroline's dream lover Eddie turns into a veritable pig, who wants her only as a sexual addition to his comfortable married life in the suburbs, and whose sleazy overtures eventually morph her into a copy of Farrow. In a delightful touch during the Christmas party, the other men in the company are portrayed by cardboard cutouts. Perfect.
The girls get what they want, sort of. Caroline eventually occupies Amanda's office, Mary Agnes gets a house in the suburbs and never reads books, April leaves NYC for marriage after a string of failed affairs, Gregg dies in suspicious circumstances, and Brenda – I really don't know what happens to her – she's pregnant in the final scenes, so I guess she gets a husband, too. But we don't really care.
Lee O Barker's set is replete with file cabinets and antique Underwood typewriters; while Julia Oppenheim's direction is pithy and slick. The only problem arises in the second act where the major action occurs upstage while the desks stay put downstage. Since the desks are constantly wheeled out the way for each scene, why not keep them out of our way and let the climactic drama unfold right in front of us?
The music choices are flashbacks to our youth and are as fragrant as Proust's madeleines: “Mr. Sandman,” “Your Cheatin' Heart,” “ I Fall in Love Too Easily,” “Sincerely,” and other golden oldies. Surprisingly Alfred Newman and Sammy Cahn's theme song from the 1959 film adaptation, an Oscar nominee crooned by Johnny Mathis, is strangely absent. Maybe Main Street couldn't get the rights.
What is right are the exquisite costumes designed or sourced by Paige A. Willson, a cornucopia of pleats, plaids, fitted suits, two-toned pumps, and magnificent headdresses. In a show of her particular power, Amanda Farrow always wears a hat at work to set her apart from the other girls in the office. She advises Caroline of this if she ever wants to succeed in the male publishing world, “Get yourself a hat.” Even today it's good advice.
The Best of Everything continues through June 18 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays at Main Street Theater, 2540 Times Boulevard. For more information, call 713-524-6706 or visit mainstreettheater.com. $35 - $59.
