STAGE WEST: "A Conversation with Edith Head" at Moxie Theatre

Edith Head (Susan Claassen) re-examines a gown she designed for Bette Davis' Margo Channing in "All About Eve." Photo courtesy of Moxie Theatre

            Before Susan Claassen’s performance of “A Conversation with Edith Head” even began, a Hollywood nostalgist like myself knew that I was in for quite an evening. Rollicking over the Moxie Theatre sound system were Bing Crosby and Bob Hope singing tunes from their popular “Road” pictures. The stage backdrop was sheer eye candy: replica Oscar statuettes; black and white glamor photos of Grace Kelly, Barbara Stanwyck, Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day, Mae West; tailor’s mannequins fitted with recognizable dresses like the number Bette Davis wore at the “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night” party scene in “All About Eve.”
            To borrow from Bob Hope’s famous theme song, thanks for the memories, Edith Head.
         The 85-minute show Claassen created with Head biographer Paddy Calistro has been performed for almost 25 years after premiering at Tucson’s Invisible Theatre where Claassen (now a La Jolla resident) was managing director. While Claassen, practically a dead finger for Hollywood’s most honored (eight Oscars) costume designer, has performed this interactive piece at North Coast Rep and at the Coronado Film Festival, the current Moxie engagement is its first sit-down engagement.
            Edith Head spent more than a half-century in the movie business, stretching all the way back to the Silent Era. Her final job was on behalf of director Carl Reiner for 1982’s Steve Martin spoof “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.” “A Conversation” finds Head in her customary tailored suit and trademark glasses reminiscing about her peerless career in the movie biz, sometimes praising/sometimes dishing on the major stars she dressed, wryly recounting the machinations of the studios for which she worked, self-glorifying in her Oscar wins, and here and there touching on her less-known personal life.
            Stuart Moulton is cast as the host of this affair, posing questions to the stage and playfully challenging Head’s memory a bit. Questions from audience members also have been gathered and are asked of Claassen – and are usually answered with some zing.
            The magic of this show is that not even halfway into it you’re buying that this IS Edith Head, circa 1981 when Reagan was in the White House, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was tops at the box office (not a project Head worked on, by the way), and no one had dreamed of streaming or social media. More a series of anecdotes and asides than a traditional work of theater “A Conversation with Edith Head” is pretty much that – Head sharing her life’s work in all its big-screen enchantment, bantering with audience members, prompting them to recall the names of films or stars in the process.
            With all due modesty I can say that I know a lot about movie history. I can recite chapter and verse lines from films Head worked on like “All About Eve,” “Double Indemnity,” “To Catch A Thief,” “Sunset Boulevard” and more. But there was considerable that I learned from “A Conversation” …
            Like that Head dressed both Paul Newman and Robert Redford in “The Sting.” Or that she became great friends with Liz Taylor, Barbara Stanwyck and Grace Kelly. She had nothing laudatory to say about Audrey Hepburn, for whom she designed dresses in both “Roman Holiday” and “Sabrina.” And for all her record number (for women) of Oscar wins, she remained pissed off about the times she didn’t hear her name called.
            Not having read Calistro’s biography of Head or done deep-dive research I can’t say how accurate is “A Conversation’s” interlude when Claassen relives the screening of Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” at Paramount and the climactic moment when Gloria Swanson, as Norma Desmond, descends the staircase, ready for her closeup. But this is one of the most touching sequences in “A Conversation with Edith Head,” an instance where the designer herself is absolutely overcome by the wonder of what motion pictures and larger-than-life stars can be.
            Audiences of a certain age, naturally, will most appreciate the trips down the memory lanes of the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s. But so will film buffs and lovers of classic fashion.
          Anyone will appreciate who Edith Head was and what she accomplished merely by discovering through a quick Web search this woman’s career filmography. It’s staggering.
            “A Conversation with Edith Head” is a lighthearted and feisty reminder.
            “A Conversation with Edith Head” runs through March 8 at Moxie Theatre in Rolando.