As we know, Chita Rivera returns to Broadway this spring in “The Visit,” a new musical by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Terrence McNally.
But there’s another diva in the wings who wants to do a different version of “The Visit” — Oprah Winfrey.
That’s right, Oprah, who’s cornered the market on making people feel good about themselves, wants to star in a play about a rich old lady seeking an especially brutal kind of revenge.
Oprah’s been waiting (and waiting) for Tony Kushner to finish a new translation of Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s 1956 play.
I’m not sure why we need a new version. I just reread my well-thumbed translation by Maurice Valency (the Columbia scholar, not the furniture maker!), and it holds up well.
It was good enough for Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt when they did it on Broadway in 1956.
But I suppose a marquee reading “Oprah Winfrey in Tony Kushner’s ‘The Visit’ ” would do the kind of business Larry David is doing right now in “Fish in the Dark,” which has an advance of $12 million.
Kander and Ebb’s “The Visit” has thrown Winfrey and Kushner’s “The Visit” into limbo. Oprah was hoping to come in next season, but she’s going to have to wait to see how well the musical does. If it has a long run, two “Visit”-ations might be one too many for Broadway.
But she’ll get here sooner or later, and it will be fun to see her in an unexpected role.
Claire, the old lady of the play, is a multimillionairess who returns to her hometown to get even with Alfred, who jilted her years ago. The town has fallen on hard times. Claire offers to pay its debts if the townspeople murder Alfred.
They do. At the end of the play, Claire leaves with the dead man in a coffin.
That’s hardly “You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! Everybody gets a car!” But it’s a great, chilling play, with the kind of star turn someone like Oprah can play to the hilt.
I haven’t yet heard who’s directing it, but I came across an essay by Dürrenmatt on how to play the part. I’ll reprint a bit here in case Kushner doesn’t get around to translating it:
“The old lady is a wicked creature, and for precisely that reason mustn’t be played wicked. She has to be rendered as human as possible, not with anger but with sorrow and humor, for nothing could harm this comedy with a tragic end more than heavy seriousness.”