The little Polish girl who grew up to be renowned Art Deco artist Tamara de Lempicka found out very early on that “we can’t control the world” – and that the “we” was doubly true for women, and for Jews. She was both, and also bisexual.
She was born in Warsaw a few years before the turn of the 20th century, but moved to St. Petersburg, where she married prominent Polish lawyer Tadeusz.
When the Russian Revolution started in 1917, she and Tadeusz decided not to wait around for men to ruin the world any more than they already had, and they planned to flee to France. But Tadeusz was caught and imprisoned.s
Tamara, daughter of a Polish socialite, knew how to work a system when necessary. She got Tadeusz released (women have their ways), and much time in the new musical “Lempicka” is spent with Tadeusz asking how she got him out.
They fled to Paris. Tadeusz was unable (or unwilling) to find work, and Tamara, fascinated by the prospect of painting, enrolled at the Académie des Beaux Arts, where she started painting. She met the prostitute Rafaela at a local bar, and asked to paint her. She eventually did, and they fell in love. Another complication for her.
But she did become a well-known artist, her breakthrough coming in a 1925 exhibition, where her work was spotted by American journalists and other fashion magazines. A few years later, she won some major awards.
In the 20s and 30s she was a celebrated Art Deco artist, mingling with the culturati and European aristocrats, becoming known as “the baroness with the brush.”
“You want to be a lap dog to the rich?” asks Tadeusz.
“Who else buys paintings?” she responds.
Just as she was getting used to fame and no little fortune, World War II broke out and she and Tadeusz moved again, this time to the United States (Beverly Hills), where modernism and abstract expressionism were in vogue. She had to start over again, and adapted to that as well.
“Lempicka,” now in a pre-Broadway run at the La Jolla Playhouse, illustrates the complicated, hedonistic life of this complex woman who refused to play by the rules. An aside: Her paintings are featured on the UK book covers of two of my favorite books: iconoclast Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.”
This is a difficult show to review, because in emphasizing change and upheaval, it uses motion, noise and too-bright lights in rapid succession, leaving at least this viewer more exhausted than fascinated by the goings-on. My brain (or nervous system) couldn’t process all that craziness.
And by the way, why does a show that purports to be a musical not list either song titles or singers in the program? Yeah, just call me a grouch.
But the cast is excellent, and Director Rachel Chavkin does a heroic job of keeping the show moving. This is the group that did a previous pre-Broadway run in 2018, right before Covid gripped the world and stopped most travel and all indoor events.
They are planning to begin that Broadway run soon after it closes here.
The details
“Lempicka” plays through July 24 at La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive.
Shows Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30; Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.
Tickets: lajollaplayhouse.org or (858) 550-1010
No comments:
Post a Comment