Kane avoids most (though not all) of the shopworn external gestures that so often define Davis impersonators—the over-punctuated speech, the wild gestures with cigarette in hand, the wide and crazy eyes—and instead finds a more internal point of connection to the late star. Her goal, it seems, isn’t to doBette Davis, but to be Bette Davis. It’s a shame that the play—billed as a comic thriller despite being neither funny nor thrilling—isn’t a better showcase for her talents.
Bio: Wayne Hoffman is deputy editor of Nextbook Press. He is also managing director for special projects at Tablet Magazine. His novel, Hard, about a randy theater critic in Manhattan, was only partially autobiographical; his new novel, Sweet Like Sugar, is less autobiographical and, therefore, less randy.
