By Marcellous L. Jones

Photo by Brigitte Enguerand


December 18, 2008

Paris, France – It was on a cold Friday that while walking in the rue Saint Honoré in Paris that I came across a poster announcing an additional 30 new dates for “ The Divine Miss V.” This play, one that I had wanted to see months ago, was adapted in French by Jean-Marie Besset. It was originally written by Mark Hampton and Mary Louise Wilson and staged under the name Full Gallup. Starring the veteran stage actress, Miss Claire Nadeau, it retraces the events of a nearly failed dinner given by legendary former Vogue (USA) editor-in-chief, Diana Vreeland. In it, Vreeland has just returned to her New York apartment from a trip in Europe. She is broke, out of grace, but not quite down and out for the count.

Miss Vreeland’s dinner party nearly goes awry as it becomes acutely apparent that in spite of her fame, she is broke. That is painfully highlighted in an article printed in the New York Post upon her much talked about return from Europe. As the night progresses, she is harassed by friends who insist that she work at a curator in the costume department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is an idea that does not warm her heart, and one that she logically resists. That is until she skillfully manages to get some concessions from the Metropolitan.

This play is wonderful way to spend one’s evening or Sunday afternoon. It owes its success to the divinely unparalleled performance by the lone actress on stage, Claire Nadeau. Through her, we see the strength of the woman that Diana Vreeland was, and we get a hint of what her life would go on to be as one of the most successful curators at the Metropolitan.

Nadeau’s talents shine through as she puts humanity into a role that could have made our heroine seem ridiculous and frivolous. In the end, she leaves us with a thirsty desire to learn more about this lady in red lipstick. ...

1 2