Divamensch

[NOTE: This review was written in November 2020, as part of my 2010-2019 decade-in-review post.]

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Richard and I saw *I'll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers* on Broadway in May 2013. We had a fleeting familiarity with Mengers, but went to the show because it was starring The Divine Miss M, the one and only Bette Midler.

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Sue Mengers was a super agent in Hollywood from the 1960s to the 1980s. She pioneered the idea of a package: she would pitch an idea to a studio and offer them the director and two leading actors, all of whom were her agents. She was smart, talented, pushy, ruthless, and (it appears) a great deal of fun. *I'll Eat You Last* is a one-woman play and every one person play, especially one about a real-life figure, has to carefully choose the moment when it takes place, for maximum dramatic impact. *I'll Eat You Last* takes place the night that Mengers is waiting for a phone call from her very first important client, Barbra Streisand. She knows that Streisand is leaving her and moving to another agency.

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The play was a lovefest on three levels: playwright John Logan was in love with the subject, Midler was in love with the role and the experience of doing the play, and the audience was in love with Midler. It was a priceless evening at the theater. I've seen bought the script and read it many, many times. I'll always hear Midler's voice when I read the play, it's such a joy.