Stage Door

Stage Door is not usually something I’d listen to; I don’t have a huge desire to listen to stories re-recorded in very similar ways to original radio plays from the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s.  (And Stage Door was from the Lux Radio Theater, one of the better “serious” drama anthology series from the US Golden Age.)  Nevertheless, the fact that it had been written by Edna Furber made me give it a go.  And I quite enjoyed it.  Set in the 1920s, the script still seems to sing with acerbic screwball wit from the likes of His Girl Friday.  It concerns a boarding-house of Broadway hopefuls, the young women of the Footlight Club; so, in a sense, a female version of Newsies!  However, it isn’t a musical (wouldn’t that be something!).  Jean Maitland (Gwendolyn Jensen-Woodard) is a dancer who hasn’t worked in months; her catty rival is Linda (Ara Pelodi), bankrolled by theatre impresario Anthony Powell (all of this made possible, I’m sure, by Marie Stopes . . .).  

Then Terry Randall (Marleigh Norton) takes a room in the boarding house, and it’s a bit like putting Elphaba and Galinda in the same room in Wicked.  The repartee is dazzling and remarkably quick.  Jean thinks that Terry is being bankrolled in the same way Linda is, but in reality, Terry comes from money and is trying to be an actress because she feels she’s got something to prove. Also there is the tragic story of Kaye Hamilton, (Laura Frechette) the gentlest and best actress in the boarding house.  

The best thing about Stage Door is that the men in it are very inconsequential.  Sure, there are some funny scenes with Anthony Powell being browbeaten by Terry and squirming with Jean, and Powell does hold the power (the final scene with him is devastating).  But in dramatic terms, they are far far less interesting to listen to than the bevy of gorgeous ladies at the boarding house.  It’s appropriate, then, that Gwendolyn Jensen-Woodard—who I think created the Facebook group Audio Drama Women—is co-producer with Alex Gilmour.  Post-produced by Jim Smagata for Gypsy Audio, Stage Door has a cast of dozens to create its large crowd scenes for a bygone era.