On one side of the room Jack Nicholson is talking to Warren Beatty. On the other side Steven McQueen shares a secret with Ali McGraw while Woody Allen has a sneezing fit. This is an “A List” party, filled with Hollywood’s rich and powerful. Now the Unicorn Theatre is inviting the Kansas City community to an intimate view of one of these parties, thanks to its new show “I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers.”
Sue Mengers was described as Hollywood’s first female super agent, and guided the early career of Barbra Streisand along with many others. Her cocktail parties were the stuff of legends around Hollywood. “I’ll Eat you Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers” brings this world to life as Mengers shares with the audience all of the gossip and behind the scenes antics of this glitzy world.
This one-woman play has Mengers speak about her life in an intimate and revealing way, and about the friends and enemies she made along the way to becoming a ground-breaking, top Hollywood agent. She discusses her more than 20 years in the entertainment business and shares insider stories about the biggest stars of the 60s, 70s and 80s.
Bringing Mengers to life will be Donna Thomason, who is returning to the stage after a four and a half year absence. She said she was looking to challenge herself, and being on the stage for an hour and a half by herself certainly does that.
“I’m excited about the play, and also a little bit terrified,” Thomason said. “She is a complicated character to play. She is tough and had a lacerating wit, but there are some moments where she lets her armor down.”
The play is directed by Sidonie Garrett, executive artistic director of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival. Her friend Cynthia Levin, artistic director of the Unicorn Theatre, suggested she should direct this play, and after she read it she was immediately drawn to the material.
“She was bigger than life,” Garrett said. “Sue was this iconic person, incredibly strong and a force of nature. The show itself is relevant and very funny.”
Both Garrett and Thomason warn there is a disclaimer at the beginning of the show that it is for adult only. Mengers was known for her smoking, drinking and profanity, and the play indulges all three.
“The Unicorn Theater is about pushing boundaries and this play does that both with its humor and with the depiction of a woman who was a survivor,” Garrett said. “Pushing the boundaries is entertainment. You should feel differently when you walk out of the theater than when you walked in.”
Born Jewish in Germany in the ‘30s, Mengers says her family escaped when “Mr. Hitler” started acting up. They moved to Utica, N.Y., where Mengers learned English from watching movies. After a few years her father committed suicide, leaving her alone with a mother she did not get along with. She took a job as a secretary at a talent agency in New York and started moving up the ladder.
“I think a lot of her fortitude came from her being Jewish,” Thomason said. “She grew up in a time where it was really hard to be Jewish, obviously. I think escaping Germany and coming to America, she felt like an outsider. Then with her father dying, all of these experiences led to her fierce tenacity. She would not take no for an answer.”
Mengers moved to Los Angeles and with her tenacity built a client list that rivaled any agent in the business. Some of the names on her client list included Faye Dunaway, Burt Reynolds, Ali McGraw, Gene Hackman, Cher, Candice Bergen, Ryan O’Neal, Nick Nolte, Mike Nichols, Gore Vidal, Bob Fosse and many more.
“She is that quintessential barracuda-like agent,” Thomason said. “When she was coming up it was a man’s world and she had to be that way to command authority.”
The play represents a night after one of her cocktail parties where her longtime friend and client Barbra Streisand has just fired her.
“There are moments of vulnerability after losing this important relationship,” Thomason said. “But they don’t last long. Sue famously said ‘Why be a king when you can be a king-maker’ and I think that sums up her ambitions. And it’s a real pleasure to be able to play someone that gets back up after being knocked down.”
The show runs from Dec. 11 to 28. Previews are on Dec. 11 and 12, with the official opening night on Dec. 13. Performances run Friday and Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. and on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. If the regular ticket prices is not in the holiday budget, there will be special Pay What You Can performances at 8 p.m. on Dec. 17, 22 and 23.
Tickets are on sale now. To order them call 816-531-PLAY (7529) ext. 10 or go online to www.UnicornTheatre.org, or to buy them in person come to their box office located at 3828 Main St., Kansas City, Mo. Special discount prices are available for seniors 65 or older, students and patrons under the age of 30.
“I hope the audience laughs a lot and learns something about a woman they might not know much about,” Garrett said. “She was wickedly funny and makes no apologies. Her story is inspiring and it’s great to be able to share it with others.”
