???Downtown Buffalo's New Phoenix Theatre Company has begun its 13th production season with a fictionalized account of the last days of music icon Dusty Springfield in Dusty Springfield...With You.
The play, whose small cast includes Loraine O'Donnell as Dusty Springfield, Eric Rawski as her fictional friend Joe (the play's comedic relief,) and Guy DeFredericis as an ominous producer/voiceover, embodies a perfect blend of comedy, tragedy, contentment, and regret, at a career quite successful and a life cut tragically short.
???The production opens with a radio announcement of Springfield's death in March of 1999, detailing her as one of the most influential singers of the twentieth century. The audience is then taken back to the time she spent in the studio compiling her greatest hits album before she unfortunately succumbs to breast cancer.
???As the play progresses, O'Donnell's singing evolves from reserved and strained with "studio nerves" and sentiment of her impending death to blissful contemplation of years full of the best and worst that life had to offer, to her general acceptance of what has and will happened in the final days of her life.
???Along the way, the audience is given a fitting portrait of the woman who was Mary O'Brien, a simple Irish Catholic girl from London who grew up to become Dusty Springfield, her alter ego. One discovers the genesis of her trademark beehive blonde wig and lustrous eye makeup and the impeding conflicts that ultimately emerged between these two vastly differing personalities.
??? The play also depicts the dark sides of Springfield's life under the spotlight, from her struggles with depression, drinking, and drugs to the cruel accusations concerning her lesbianism due to the absence of any publicized relationship throughout her career.
???O'Donnell brings to life many of Dusty's failed love affairs and tries to emulate the love she felt for an unnamed woman who was the subject of so many of her songs. O'Donnell's searing portrayal of a woman facing the premature end of her life with a substantial amount of unfinished business is both a joy and heartbreaking.
???Little-known facts about her life's passions are also brought to light throughout the duration of O'Donnell's performance. These include her secret identity as the female producer on her studio albums in a grossly male dominated industry, and her refusal to perform at the apartheid-enforced South African concert unless people of all races were allowed in together. Although her fight against the state's racism was ultimately successful, the singer was banned from the country following that performance.
???O'Donnell's pleasant renditions of Springfield's songs, as well as her familiarity with her character, allows the audience to get a glimpse into the mind of Mary O'Brien. O'Donnell fearlessly conveys Springfield's insecurities about her weight, being the "blue eyed soul singer" in a predominantly African American genre, and her comparisons to other preeminent artists of her day.
???All in all, the play offers little room for complaint or poor sentiment. The play progresses rather quickly and one is left with a drive to hear more of this remarkable woman. To anyone with a passion for the legendary music coming from the Motown era, this production is wholeheartedly recommended. The New Phoenix Theatre Company has opened this season in nothing short of a triumphant manner.
