Tonys 2008: Merkerson shines as 'Sheba' comes back to B'way
S. Epatha Merkerson who, oh-so-memorably, lost her speech down her decolletage when she won an Emmy in 2005 might want to make sure she has it closer to hand come Tony time this June. She opened Thursday in the first Rialto revival of "Come Back, Little Sheba" and scored rave reviews from some of the leading critics for a part first played by Shirley Booth. Back in 1950, Booth picked up the second of her three Tonys for creating the role of the lovelorn Lola and went on to win an Oscar two years later for the film version.
Elysa Gardner of USA Today said she "delivers a performance of aching sweetness and devastating sadness. It is by no means a flashy star turn; Michael Pressman directs William Inge's classic account of a middle-aged couple grappling with past and present disappointments as an ensemble piece, so that no character or performance feels less than integral to the whole. But Merkerson's needy, heartbreaking Lola is clearly the emotional core." And Ben Brantley of the New York Times thought, "The marvel of Ms. Merkerson’s performance in this revitalizing production of a play often dismissed as a soggy period piece is how completely and starkly she allows us to see what Lola sees. Conveying everything while seeming to do nothing is no mean feat."
David Rooney of Variety found in "her poignant performance, this faded former high school beauty queen is hopelessly mired in the past. Naive, girlish, incessantly talkative and starved for romance and company, Lola is rendered almost feeble-minded by her solitude. She's the quintessential 1950s housewife, sleepwalking through a melancholy world in which women are assigned few roles beyond homemaker or whore." However, he thought, "While Merkerson supplies the tender heart to Inge's slow-burning domestic drama, Michael Pressman's production unfolds for much of its two acts at a hazy emotional distance."
And for Michael Kuchwara of the AP, "Merkerson's performance is subtle, just about perfect in finding the right balance between sweet and syrupy. The actress invests Lola with a gentle truthfulness that allows the character to connect not only with the postman and the milkman, but with Marie, a young girl who rents a room in the Delaney's home, located in an unnamed Midwestern city. Yet Merkerson lets you see that Lola's almost desperate interest in other people is the result of her growing estrangement from her husband, Doc, portrayed by Kevin Anderson."
