For sh*ts and giggles, Trish and I decided to check out the new matriarch at August: Osage County, Phylicia Rashad. I’m a Rashad fan, not necessarily of her acting but of her ridiculous, but oh-so-entertaining, public persona. I mean, how can you not love that outrageous speaking voice with an “almost English accent” and her exaggerated patrician demeanor? It’s just delicious. And no, I don’t believe that’s how she naturally acts or speaks. You don’t see sis Debbie Allen strutting around like the Queen of England, do you? Well, maybe more like the queen of ‘da Bronx.I’m happy to report that none of Rashad’s royal mannerisms have crept into her performance as drug-addicted Violet Weston. Actually, the play seems tighter and sharper then when we first caught it a couple of months ago. Rashad’s Violet is more manipulative and knowing than the previous Violet, Estelle Parsons. This creates a delicious (my new favorite word today!) power struggle between mother and daughters. To describe the second act dinner scene and the third act plate-throwing scene as “intense” is an understatement.
How dysfunctional is this family? They make the Pineda’s look like the Brady Bunch. And realistically, I think our dysfunction hovers somewhere between the Kardashians and John & Kate plus 8 - relatable, but heightened beyond your typical American family. At least, unlike the Westons, we’re not screwing our first cousins, sheltering pedophiles or condoning prescription drug abuse - at least not as far as I know. But wait until my memoirs come out! Mwah, hah, hah, hah.
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