Theater: “Five Models in Ruins, 1981” @ LCT3
Return with us now to Nowhere’s-ville, England, circa 1981. You’re in a once-grand-but-now-dilapidated country home without phone or water, and only sporadic electricity.
Sounds like the ideal setting for a Vogue Magazine fashion shoot? “Five Models in Ruins, 1981,” the title of Caitlin Saylor Stephens’ amusing new play, says abso-flipping-lutely.
Roberta or “Bobby” (Elizabeth Marvel) is the chic, perfectionist female photographer. She’s assembled a coterie of international models for a shoot in which they’ll be wearing the gowns that Princess Diana rejected for her recent wedding. (PS this really happened. Google it.)
The women are less than enchanted with the set. And as a further indignity, the makeup artist is a no-show, which means they have to do their own makeup and hair.
“Just be yourself,” Bobby tells the models at one point. “I don’t know what that is,” one of them replies.
The women bicker while waiting for the photoshoot to start. Among their topics of discussion: the worst shoot they’ve ever been on. One model said she was made to pose with corpses.
The fifth model never shows, but at the last minute, Sandy (Madeline Wise), the makeup artist does arrive, battered and bruised after hitchhiking from Heathrow and then throwing herself from a moving vehicle. She adds some much needed humor and spice to the proceedings—and to the set itself, which could use some, as Bobby has banned music.
Of the cast members, I liked Chrissy (Stella Everett) best, the blonde who claims to have slept with half the rock and art world on both American coasts. Also, Tatiana (Maia Novi), a leggy, no-nonsense Russian, favors punk outfits and too much eye makeup. Thankfully, Sandy fixes the latter.
Stephens drops plenty of ‘80s fashion names—everyone from Helmut Newton to Givenchy to Ungaro is mentioned. Go. It’s more fun than walking the runway in Milan—and a lot cheaper. At Claire Tow Theater, Lincoln Center.
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