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The Marilyn: Forever Blonde Production at The Leicester Sqaure Theatre |
Monroe’s blonde ambition
MARILYN: FOREVER BLONDE
Leicester Square Theatre
A ONE-woman play about Marilyn Monroe with the tacky name Marilyn: Forever Blonde sounds like a theatre nightmare. Surely you can’t impersonate an icon of this stature, someone on a par with Lady Di, Elvis and Mickey Mouse in terms of worldwide fame. Well, Sunny Thompson manages to pull it off. And she does it so well that die-hard Marilyn fans ask her: “Have you channelled Marilyn?”
This is the story of the woman behind the legend. It’s 1962 and Marilyn, aged 36, is sick of the sex bomb label. During a photo shoot, the disillusioned star gives her own account of things – of sexual favours to producers, failed marriages and miscarriages. “I could have had anyone I wanted, but no one wanted the real me,” says the woman who had relationships with such influential men of their day as John F Kennedy, Arthur Miller and the Hollywood jet set, but who longed to be loved for the person she was once the cameras turned off. Award-winning actress Sunny Thompson – same height, same curves and remarkably similar face to Marilyn – does magic. Every twinkle of her eye, the way she curls her lips, the wiggling walk – it’s just like the platinum-blonde goddess has come back to life. Even as a female spectator you cannot help but be enchanted by her soft laughter and tinkling voice when she sings “Every baby needs a Daddy”, “I wanna be loved by you” or “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”. Not for one second do you get bored of her during this two-hour play. In voice-offs we hear Marilyn’s husbands and producers speak; it feels as if they are all present. Director Stephanie Shine’s dynamic staging – the camera clicking, the different voices and dress changes – conjure up Marilyn’s life and what could have been her last reflection upon it. It is deeply moving, at times funny, sad and endearing. We see Marilyn’s efforts to become a serious actress. “I seem to have the overall superstructure with no foundation”, says Marilyn of her iconic curves. All the quotes are Marilyn’s own words. It took award-winning producer Greg Thompson 15 years to research her life and to find the actress – Sunny Thompson, who later became his wife. “She didn’t want to do it,” he says. “She said no woman should be compared to Marilyn. I had to marry her to get her to play the part.” But Thompson embodies Marilyn as perfectly as Norma Jean Baker did. However, while Sunny can take off the fake eye lashes once the curtain falls, Marilyn Monroe couldn’t; she was trapped in her bombshell body. Everyone wanted Marilyn – oh the matrix of unfulfilled dreams!
If you want to spend a couple of hours with Norma Jean, just go and see Marylin: Forever Blonde.
0844 209 1805
Until November 18 |
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