![\"Maria](\"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/4_The_National_Tour_of_WHAT_THE_CONSTITUTION_MEANS_TO_ME_starring_Maria_Dizzia_1145r.jpg\")
<\/a>Maria Dizzia and Mike Iveson. Photo by Joan Marcus, as is the one at the top of the page. (I have no idea why this photo is so crooked, but for once, I didn’t take it!)<\/p><\/div>\n
I can\u2019t tell you how much I admire the writer, Heidi Schreck. I\u2019m so in awe of someone who can create a successful, amusing, Tony-nominated, [basically] two-person* play out of…her teen-age Constitutional Competition speeches! It’s really a brilliant idea. And the execution lives up to it. *[Note: The program lists six names as making-up the cast, but it’s really just Heidi, (or, in this case, someone playing her,) and one guy. And then a young girl later on, which I\u2019ll also get to in a minute.]<\/p>\n
What The Constitution Means To Me<\/em> is so well-written, so as to keep the audience\u2019s attention while educating and motivating. When I saw the Tonys audience go nuts over just the mention<\/em> of this play during last year\u2019s awards, I could not imagine how someone made the study of the United States Constitution interesting and entertaining. But Heidi certainly accomplished that. With tons of humor, to boot.<\/p>\n The basic scenario is \u201cHeidi\u201d talking to the audience half of the time as her grown-up self and the other half as her teen-age self, competing in debates on the U.S. Constitution. There\u2019s one guy on stage as the moderator from those back-in-the-day competitions, and then an extra part at the end, with a young girl.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not telling you anymore about the excellent narrative because you really need to discover it for yourselves. But it did<\/em> give me plenty of inspiration for the rest of this review.<\/p>\n A couple of audio recordings of creepy Supreme Court Justices, (such as Antonin Scalia,) might\u00a0make your skin crawl, as it did mine. I can never find humor in rottenness like that\u2014it just makes me sad and angry. But those recordings are good little surprises in what is, for the most part, a monologue.<\/p>\n On a side note, I had just seen Harriet<\/em> that morning, so a lot of the topics in this play meant even more to me.<\/p>\n Mike Iveson. Photo by Joan Marcus.<\/p><\/div>\n In her original teen-age speeches, Heidi and her competitors were asked to draw correlations between their own lives and what the Constitution is saying. So, in that spirit, I\u2019m going to be doing sort-of the same thing here, telling you what in my<\/em> life this play made me think of. (So, in other words, the same as I always<\/em> do!) I\u2019m sure you\u2019re on the edge of your seats for those<\/em> little anecdotes.<\/p>\n I feel that gaining new knowledge is always beneficial, (even though the Constitution is something all of us over twelve should already know a lot about!,) so I appreciate that in addition to being charming,\u00a0What The Constitution Means To Me<\/em> is educational.\u00a0 Even with my 147IQ, I could not get into the subjects of American History and Government in school.\u00a0\u00a0(Or\u00a0now<\/em>, actually.\u00a0\u00a0But I\u00a0did<\/em>\u00a0just run the category of\u00a0Beauty Products<\/em>\u00a0on Jeopardy<\/em>\u00a0the other night.\u00a0\u00a0Priorities, huh?)<\/p>\n What The Constitution Means To Me<\/em> is comprised mainly of entertaining tangents, while still under the same intellectual umbrella, which I totally identify with because that\u2019s just what I<\/em> did on my former TV show. The audience waited to see if I would ever get back to my original topic, (which, knock on wood, I did more often than not. But that was then<\/em>.)<\/p>\n But a major difference between my show and this play, (besides that the play<\/em> is genius!,) is that…I<\/em> can’t repeat my stories! I always felt like I would be stealing from…myself! (Actually, my<\/em> yarns weren’t written<\/em>; as I hope everyone will recall, my show was stream-of-consciousness.) So believe me when I tell you that I truly applaud this<\/em> accomplishment, on the part of both writer and actress.<\/p>\n The show and I share a couple of other components. Heidi was told to make personal comparisons with the Constitution, including stories about her own family. Well, talking about my<\/em> fam is exactly what I<\/em> often did! (But I had no real Constitution knowledge, so therefore no comparisons. But I did<\/em> have my parents as guests on my show, multiple times. I know\u2014sort-of goony, right? But a girl\u2019s gotta do what a girl\u2019s gotta do. And then my viewers totally got why I\u2019m as nutty as I am.)<\/p>\n Okay, my last thing in common with Heidi Schreck is that…we both have a stuffed animal bestie! As adults! I totally understood her story of \u201cGeorge the Monkey\u2019s friend\u201d because my<\/em> best friend, (since a few days after I got to LA as a teen-ager, when\u00a0our eyes met in a store in Westwood,) is none other than Froggy! Heidi and I even both lost those guys once, but, thank goodness, got them back. And they\u2019ve both had body work, too. (Froggy has had several full-body make-overs, both eyes removed and re-attached, and even a tongue change!) Boy, do I love The Frogster. I can’t fall asleep without him! I feel a tad weird on planes because I have to have him on my lap at all times, but hey\u2014it\u2019s better than people with fake service animals, right?!<\/p>\n Okay, let\u2019s get back to the actual show. But one of the things I laud it for is this–when a play can inspire you to fondly think of so many positive parts of your life, it has truly accomplished something special, even if that\u2019s not what it set-out to do. So I thank What The Constitution Means To Me<\/em> for giving me so much to hark back to. (I guess the title of this review should have been What \u201cWhat The Constitution Means To Me\u201d Means To Me<\/em>!)<\/p>\n So, after all of that positivity, as much as I hate to say this, there are two aspects of this show that I didn\u2019t love.<\/p>\n Maria Dizzia. Photo by Joan Marcus.<\/p><\/div>\n First of all, here in LA, Heidi is not<\/em> doing the show herself, as she did on Broadway. But the actress who\u2019s playing her, Maria Dizzia, (who is excellent, by the way,) says<\/em> she\u2019s Heidi when she first appears on stage, and even stands in front<\/em> of the set, like she\u2019s making a pre-show announcement. I knew Heidi isn\u2019t in it here, so I thought she had showed-up for opening night, and was greeting us. I could not figure-out what was going on until I looked through my binoculars, and realized the woman who was talking was someone else entirely.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know how that situation can remedied, though, since that\u2019s how the show is written. But at least my<\/em> readers will realize what\u2019s up when they see it. I\u2019m always happy to help.\u00a0\u00a0[Note: One more comparative parable from my<\/em> life: When I was doing my TV show, a producer from Second City TV<\/em> called me to ask for help with Andrea Martin playing\u2026me<\/em> on their show!\u00a0\u00a0Of course I said no, and my agents had to threaten them. But, had I agreed to it, I think it would be confusing to people to see someone else saying she\u2019s me! Like this<\/em> is with the Heidi character.]<\/p>\n My one other issue with What The Constitution Means To Me<\/em> is that it\u2019s waaay too long. (Almost two hours with no intermission.) I was already thinking that twenty minutes could easily be cut, and then there were two extra parts<\/em>, that, for me, are totally unnecessary, although others seemed to enjoy them to varying degrees.<\/p>\n The first \u201cadd-on\u201d is a debate between now-grown-up Heidi and a real<\/em> teen-ager, who is part of the show. (I saw Rosdely Ciprian who shares the role with Jocelyn Shek.) I know that I should claim to love this debate bit, especially as a former teacher who adores seeing students involved in intellectual activities voluntarily,\u00a0but I have to be honest and admit that I was antsy throughout. I appreciate everything they were saying that night, but when I go to the theatre, I want to be entertained<\/em>, not preached<\/em> to. If I had wanted to see a constitutional debate, that\u2019s what I would have attended. And the speed-talking they employed for that debate was too much for even me<\/em>, the original motormouth. So none of that was my cup of tea.<\/p>\n Rosdely Ciprian and Maria Dizzia. Photo by Joan Marcus.<\/p><\/div>\n And that’s still<\/em> not the end! The show is extended even longer by the two women answering questions about themselves, which I felt was enough already. I don\u2019t even choose to see movie stars<\/em> doing that after many of the industry screenings I attend, so why would I want to hear two strangers<\/em> answering questions about themselves? If I\u2019ve passed on hearing Quentin Tarantino telling me about himself<\/em>, you know I have no desire to stick it out with others! (But maybe that\u2019s just me.)<\/p>\n But I do<\/em> love a show that gives us a gift, which\u00a0What The Constitution Means To Me<\/em>\u00a0does towards the end. I\u2019ll give you only one guess as to what it is. Ready? A pocket Constitution! It\u2019s kind-of adorbs. And welcomed by us thirst-for-knowledge-ers. They said it was for us to \u201cfollow along\u201d during the debate section, but it would have taken too long to look through it for the right page, (sort-of like at temple on Yom Kippur,) and the women were speaking way too fast. Still, I will definitely look through it at my leisure, as I hope all audience members do.<\/p>\n So getting that little goodie after being entertained and enlightened for a couple of hours, and then observing people engaging in very upbeat and intelligent conversation as they exited What The Constitution Means To Me<\/em> made me leave the theatre on high note. I hope you\u2019ll all have the same experience at the Taper in the next month.<\/p>\n What The Constitution Means To Me<\/em>\u00a0running through February 28, 2020<\/strong> WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME Okay, the holidays are well over, and the exciting theatre season has finally begun again. This is a juicy month for so many openings. And I’m glad to have started it out with an uber-intelligent show. Of course, as often happens, I have a couple of little issues with<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>
\n Mark Taper Forum 135 N. Grand Ave. 213-972-4400\u00a0www.centertheatregroup.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"