THEATER REVIEW by Catherine Siggins
Marilyn Monroe (Melanie Cruz) enters her bedroom. She seems lost and listless, unfocused, drunk and full of self-pity. Feeling abandoned and ignored by her lovers JFK and his brother Bobby, 
and in an attempt to dull her pain, she downs numerous pills, till Marilyn suddenly finds herself in her room with ex-husbands Joe DiMaggio (Adam Selmon), and Arthur Miller (Chris Karmiol), fathoms of her barbiturate-and-vodka-soaked mind.
Director Michael Philips has written a piece that gives a fictional alternative to the last hours of Marilyn’s life, but instead of tragically dying alone, he has given her companions to ease her passing.
It is in the context of her personal life, her marriages and sexual relationships, the abandonment and abuse of her early life, played out through reminiscent conversations, enactments of first meetings, and rehashing of old grievances, that we see Marilyn’s need for love, admiration, and her deep desire for a familial belonging she never had as a child, and that she had hoped to find with these men.
Philips says his intention when writing the play was not to answer any questions about the circumstances of Marilyn’s death, rather to present the comforting idea that she did not die alone, that “As we are dying, our loved ones come and give us peace”. A nice idea indeed, but sadly, it’s his desire not to answer any questions that is the problem with this piece- it lacks purpose and the actor must struggle to find its focus. The actors do their best to bring this piece to life, but the characters feel underwritten. This becomes very apparent in the abrupt ending of the play. The audience felt like they’d had the rug pulled from under them and that there was missing some vital piece of information. Marilyn seemed to have felt the same way, as she is ushered back into bed by Miller in an untimely fashion. She never gets the chance to leave us with a parting thought. It didn’t help that there is an intermission, that splits the play into two rather unbalanced pieces, whose purpose is to showcase some wonderful musical performers for the audience’s entertainment. As enjoyable as that is, it works against the piece.
The staging isn’t helpful either. Granted, the director has limited options in such a small theatre space, but the set and lighting design are rudimentary and lack ingenuity.
However, the play is not without it’s good moments. In the dialogue, Philips has recreated the snappy vernacular of the period very well, and the interaction between the ex-husbands and Marilyn is not without wit, humor and pathos, which are played well by all three actors.
What becomes apparent through the course of the play is even when Marilyn has companions at the end, they do not bring peace, but stir up old memories and hurts, just as in her own words, from a poem dated 1956, “On the screen of pitch blackness / comes the shapes of monsters / my most steadfast companions … / and the world is sleeping / ah peace I need you – even a peaceful monster.”
Goodbye to Marilyn: A Love Letter. Playing through October 12th at the Working Stage Theatre, 1516 N. Gardner St., West Hollywood
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