By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“)
Jamie Wax’s play Call Me Izzy is set in Mansfield, Louisiana, some three to four hours away from where he grew up in Baton Rouge and New Orleans and worlds away from the New York City he now calls home. But for someone who has lived in large cities, he has surprising insight into what life in a trailer park might be for its inhabitants.
Wax, who previously had written the books for the musicals Evangeline and Passages with composer Paul Taranto, was in virgin territory in writing what is now a 90-minute one-woman play starring Jean Smart in the title character. Wax based the character of Izzy on a beloved aunt who had survived a violent, abusive marriage and navigated it by using her inbred and finely tuned sense of humor. Through the years, he also interviewed a score of women living in domestic abuse shelters to give him even more insight into the problems they shared and the ways they overcame their abusers.
Of course, casting Smart in the role of Izzy is also integral to the success of this play. A movie actress and a multi-Emmy Award winner for her work on “Hacks,” Smart indicated a desire to return to Broadway for the first time in 25 years. it was the script for Call Me Izzy that most struck a chord with her. While other offers reportedly had been made, it was the script for Call Me Izzy and its themes of violence and abuse and a dark sense of comedy that most struck a chord for her.
Wax’s play resonated with her more more than any other and she poured herself into the character, participating in several different developmental readings prior to the opening of this 12-week run at Studio 54.
Smart’s performance as a gifted, but closeted woman writer is presented in a series of scenes set in 1989, most of which occur in her “writing” room, the bathroom of the trailer she shares with her crude and unapologetic misogynistic and racist husband. Smart’s performance as a woman who endures a smothering, abusive marriage is both heartfelt and heart-breaking.
Married just after graduation from high school, she bypasses a higher education in favor of becoming a wife to Fern, a man who feels threatened by his spouse and who keeps her in check by beating her and mentally torturing her.
A remarkable child, she had been encouraged to share her writing with the world by her teacher, who recognized her talent. But Izzy allowed her husband to run the show and feeling threatened by her talent, he forbade her to write, actually burning some of her most precious poems that were not unlike her own children.
His abuse of his wife is not only unimaginable, but unpardonable.
Eventually, the way out involves her taking a writing course that opens up her eyes to the world. She shares her hidden works with others who encourage her to leave her abusive husband. However, it is not until she wins a literary contest and merits a major monetary prize that she holds her final confrontation with Fern.
Sarna Lapine helms this impressive work as the director and her stamp is unmistakable. She has assembled a number of really remarkable designers including Mikiko Suzuki Macadams for her minimalist set designs, Donald Holder for his superb lghting designs and Beth Lake for her haunting sound designs.
David Mansfield and T. Bone Burnett also add their own musical compositions that add to the tension in this beautiful and touching work.
Jean Smart stars in Call Me Izzy by Jamie Wax at Studio 54 now through August 24, 2025. For tickets, click here or call (833) 274-8497.
