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Lempicka at the Longacre Theatre, Part 2 (the recap/commentary continues, covering Act II; Part 1 is here):

Going into intermission, at my first viewing I was feeling a little uneasy that the critical reviews were more accurate than I had hoped. Yet it is hard for me to remember that feeling now, because on my second viewing all of the things that bothered me largely faded from notice. It makes me think maybe the information delivered in Act I was a little dense, and seeing the show again just made it all easier to process.

Once again, all of the spoilers:

There is a brief instrumental intro that brings us back from intermission and then the scene jumps directly to Tamara showing La Belle Rafaela to the Baron and Baroness for the first time. Both of them are awed and the Baroness (who has been a little snarky about Tamara’s work in her previous appearances) very sincerely praises the painting’s expression of “a woman’s eye, a woman’s desire” (at this, Tamara glances away) and asks, “who is she?”

“Oh, she’s just a model,” Tamara replies, too casually. The Baroness chooses to let that go but pointedly warns her of the dangers of being an outsider (specifically: being Jewish, and an unconventional woman) in the current political climate.

Marinetti saunters in to explain to the audience how “Pari Will Always Be Pari,” the city stubbornly holding onto its comforts and illusions even as the world goes through more disruptions and the shadow of the Great War lingers. The song’s timeline covers roughly 1927 (the year of La Belle Rafaela) to 1933 (the Reichstag fire and Nazis winning a plurality of votes and forming a majority governing coalition in Germany). Tamara’s career is moving quickly and after showing La Musicienne to a gallery owner, she wrangles her first solo show. In order to get enough pieces to do so, she paints furiously in a cocaine-fueled frenzy (courtesy of Suzy, who is meanwhile opening her own place and commissions a portrait). The Baroness’s warning—and Tamara’s past experience with political upheaval—has clearly stuck with her because even as she is driving toward this big career milestone, there is a undercurrent of anxiety and she’s making backup plans (“Paintings can be turned to money/Money can be turned to jewelry/In case we have to leave in the middle of the night/In case, in case, in case, in case”). I really like how the song represents this block of time, interspersed with fragmented moments of Kizette offering her coffee several times (and obliquely revealing that Tadeusz is having an affair), the Baron and Baroness discussing Hitler’s rise to power, and her continuing relationship with Rafaela.

Leading into Tamara’s solo show, Marinetti pulls out a copy of Die Dame with the cover image of Tamara in a Green Bugatti. He narrates what sounds like a press-release version of Tamara’s rising-star status in the art world (visually suggested in some points to be directly from the magazine copy, though I can’t verify this) as Tamara strides out and takes a central place among the “new women” of Paris, right where she sang of wanting to be years before. I will note that Tamara’s outfits now are slightly more assertive– she spends most of Act I in conservative blue wrap dresses, but in Act II switches to mostly dark skirts/pants and low-cut blouses that tend to suggest “businesswoman formal with a dash of style.” The angular green top that she wears for her solo show is the loudest thing she wears (other than the Old Tamara coat); I’m not sure if I liked it, but congrats to Eden Espinosa for wearing it well.

At the show, Marinetti is quite impressed with Tamara’s work (especially Four Nudes, because he's kind of a lech) but makes a comment speculating about decadence before the fall, which seems to make Tamara uncomfortable and she takes her leave. As usual he is there to puncture our illusions and I think the implication is that in this case Tamara feels that fall coming but doesn’t want to see it. (If this is actually meant to be 1933 or so, then the Great Depression should be having an impact on Europe and its politics, even on the people who are wealthy enough to buy art. People who are afraid of losing what they have can go to extreme measures to try to keep it.)

Marinetti steps forward to deliver the final section of “Pari Will Always Be Pari” which seems like the hard-realist culmination of what he began singing about in “Perfection”—the background projections show images of industrial and military mobilization, with masses of ground vehicles, planes, and marching soldiers. (I seem to remember this was what was shown in the La Jolla production during the last minute or so of “Perfection”—“the skies filling up with machines”—but I could be mistaken.)

I suspect this song in particular was the one the critics at Vulture had in mind when they shouted out George Abud in their faux-Tonys article. It changed a little bit from what I remember in La Jolla (there was one refrain of “we’ve come through the Great War'' that I think Tamara sang that is no longer there, and the miming is basically covered by Marinetti and the ensemble), but overall I think it’s very effective and works better to set the scene and tone in Act 2 than “Our Time” did in Act 1.

After the success of her show, Tamara is right back to work (on Adam and Eve) in her new apartment on the Rue Méchain. She’s wearing a half-untucked, oversized white shirt in flowing satin-y fabric, which seems like an impractical outfit for painting in (but hey that’s what I thought about painting in her wedding dress too). Tadeusz comes in late at night (a bit drunk again), and they jab at each other about gender roles and their respective affairs with women after Tamara spots lipstick on his face. She asks how it is any different if she sleeps with another woman vs. if he does, and he has no answer to that—and they both laugh together ironically, as they are on relatively even footing here with each other and they recognize it. He says he has an offer for a meaningful job in Poland and seems really excited at the opportunity for them both to get out of Paris. As the audience, we heard her decide at least a decade ago (during “Paris”) that this was the city for her, suggesting that even though they have been together so long, he really doesn't understand what she wants, especially now with her own new opportunities on the horizon. Yet it’s remarkably normal from a modern perspective that despite everything that they’ve gone through together, the thing that really drives the wedge between them is their incompatible career goals. (It also didn’t occur to me until afterward, but being an ethnically Jewish, non-heterosexual woman in Poland in the 1930s would be extremely not good, even if she could reasonably pass.) They reaffirm their loyalty to each other, but the underlying conflict has not been resolved at all.

The version of this song from La Jolla didn’t make much of an impression on me (probably because I thought Tadeusz was boring), but I found Tamara and Tadeusz and their relationship way more interesting in this production and think the show was stronger for it. The show is still pretty emotionally shaded in favor of Tamara/Rafaela, but I feel like I got a much better understanding of why Tamara and Tadeusz do (and don’t) work as a couple in this version. They are both rather possessive of each other but have very different career and life goals.

Another thing that’s interesting to me in "New Woman" is the way they talk about Tamara’s relationship with Rafaela – not in terms of religion-based morality or disgust, which is what I am more accustomed to hearing in the United States. Instead it’s more about a woman “who wants to be a man,” “taking a man’s place in the world” – essentially, rigidly gendered ideas about what a woman can and can’t do and how that plays into status and power. Sexism and homophobia, two sides of the same coin (of course it’s not that hard to cover up one form of bigotry with another more socially-acceptable one).

So after “New Woman” Tamara is again back to work on Adam and Eve, and is considering the apple when Rafaela struts in (eating an apple) and implores Tamara to get dressed for whatever they’re doing next. She is wearing a striking greenish-gold gown and looks like a mythological goddess. The scene quickly changes over to Le Monocle, Suzy’s new underground lesbian club where she (and others) can be queerly outrageous and outrageously queer to their hearts’ content. She sings “Women” and we meet a few real-life figures (including the Duchess de la Salle and Nancy Cunard) and Tamara is treated as quite a celebrity when she arrives. There was a fun Variety interview with Amber Iman and Eden Espinosa where toward the end Eden says she loves being in “Women” because they are there with Natalie Joy Johnson and the ensemble but are not really the center of attention. From what I remember they spend the latter part of the song standing around holding each other, singing backing vocals, and/or making out in the background. This was a number where I found the costumes a little bit of a distraction without clear purpose; the ensemble are mostly in their corsets and whatnot, except for a few like the Duchess who are in more masculine-styled clothing. There is a moment as the song is ending when Nancy and Frank/Francine put on long coats over their regular costumes and suddenly they are just a rich, elegant, yet extremely stylized couple that look like they could have stepped out of one of Tamara's paintings. I would have liked to see a little more of that.

After “Women” they go back to Tamara’s studio and Rafaela talks about wanting to go to Tamara’s next art exhibition, but for the first time in the show Tamara is openly concerned that any public acknowledgment that Rafaela even exists would raise questions about their relationship and harm her career (recall her priorities). I assume we’re supposed to think that this has been brewing at least since the Baroness first brought it up years ago, but it still seems a little abrupt to me. I get that her fear is real and realistic, but within the show it doesn’t feel like she’s been very careful at all until now; the Baroness (who granted is more perceptive than most) saw right through her with one look at La Belle Rafaela. Anyway, Tamara assures Rafaela that she can take care of her and keep her safe. Rafaela takes off her fancy gown, picks up a white shirt that has been discarded on the bed and puts it on as she says doubtfully, “you sound like a man.” I believe it is supposed to be Tamara’s shirt that she was wearing in the “New Woman” scene before she had to change into her Monocle outfit. So even as Rafaela is expressing this skepticism she is doing this very couple-y thing. Rafaela draws Tamara into a discussion about Tamara's bracelets which is a little bit of a tease and a little bit of a test from Rafaela’s side, but which Tamara takes very seriously, advising her on how best to sell the stones to survive and telling Rafaela that she loves her. Rafaela is taken aback by this earnestness and starts thinking she might “Stay” after all. I really liked the setup of “Stay” a lot — it starts with both Rafaela and Tamara together and while Rafaela sings out loud to her at first (with Tamara gazing adoringly while kneeling at her feet, gazing adoringly from the bed, gazing adoringly standing next to her, etc.) it turns into a introspective moment and a private expression of her inner thoughts even while Tamara is still present in the scene (I think Tamara exits the stage around the time Rafaela sings “the way you look at me”).

Rafaela is still sitting on the bed when Kizette appears, looking weird and intense and oddly not seeming that much older than she was in Act I. Kizette is clearly jealous that Tamara’s attention has turned from her to Rafaela and Rafaela reacts with understandable skepticism to her peculiar attempts at making conversation, but it seems like Kizette does successfully plant the seed that Tamara may be manipulating Rafaela for her own ends.

After we have seen her obsessively work on the details over multiple songs, Tamara finally proclaims her painting Adam and Eve before the 1937 International Exposition. The triumphant moment where she sings, “I am Adam, face buried in her hair/I am Eve, leaning into his arm/I am the apple in her hand,” etc. really works for me. Since it’s an interstitial not connected to any complete songs, it may not be the sort of thing that would get included in a cast recording, but I kind of wish it would be. There is a neat video that Amber Iman posted where this part is audible in the background while she leaps off a moving platform in the dark for the quick change into her Exposition outfit.

The stage opens up again at the International Exposition, with Rafaela in a full-length bright pink coat. It is not normally what one would consider something to wear when going incognito, except that amusingly, the background lighting for the Exposition is also a glowing shade of pink. So when Kizette drags her father to the expo, he ends up being this slash of gray against a wall of pink which kind of makes him look washed-out. Rafaela and Tadeusz meet for the first time in front of Adam and Eve and sing “What She Sees,” which was fantastic. Amber Iman and Andrew Samonsky have perfected their mutually antagonistic energy and I could not look away. And as before, they sound amazing together. With her Rafaela hair and heels, Amber Iman ends up being nearly the same height as Andrew Samonsky so they also look physically well-matched as they face off. In the song Rafaela points out that she makes Tamara feel alive, while Tadeusz points out that Tamara will do what she needs to for survival – and they are both correct.

Then Kizette pulls in her mother, having successfully manipulated all of the players into place (“Don’t act so surprised, little snake!” says Rafaela). Tamara is in a near-panic about Rafaela’s presence when the Baron and Baroness walk in but she quickly puts up a pleasant façade. After some painfully dull rich-person banter, Rafaela interjects (and rescues all of us from a discussion about French tailoring), but even this awkward moment is interrupted by Marinetti. Suddenly the social situation pales in significance compared to the looming threats of Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and Fascist Italy (personified by Marinetti himself) at the show. Marinetti notes the similarities between the monumental, grandiose art of the Nazis and Soviets but here also draws the comparison to aristocracy, specifically Tamara’s outsized depictions of humanity. Aristocrats weren’t part of Marinetti’s line in La Jolla and I think it lands better without it, but it is interesting to suggest Tamara’s perspective is complicit with those movements. It’s sort of a callback to the Baroness’s question from the first group show in Act I about whether new forms of avant-garde art can lead to dehumanization. But in this case, the use of highly idealized human forms reflects a movement toward dehumanization where anything that doesn’t match the ideal can be discarded or destroyed. Is Tamara unintentionally or unconsciously buying into that?

Their business is unfinished but the others make hasty exits. Rafaela at first seems contrite, saying “I don’t know what came over me,” but Tamara interrupts with “not now, I’ll see you tonight.” It’s a small thing in a stressful situation, but this unthinking dismissal comes at the end of a whole string of events where it seems like Tamara just wants Rafaela to disappear. The way Amber Iman delivers the line, “Oh, you think so?” is subtle, but you can feel the turn in their relationship happening in that moment. Marinetti then tells Tamara flat-out that he can see her ambition to create a lasting legacy—“I know you want it. It’s all over your face”—and tells her that she’ll never get the recognition she hungers for if people know about her and Rafaela (and people do already know about them).

Now Tamara’s mind is spinning in all directions as she tries to figure out what to do next while the shadows everywhere seem to be full of lurking Fascists. In “Here It Comes” she’s alternately trying to plot out how to use her bracelets to get papers for herself and her family to escape, or how to fight back, or denying anything bad could happen, then getting out with Rafaela, and there are scattered musical quotes from earlier songs. Meanwhile the word “Lebensraum” (in a giant Germanic font) repeatedly scrolls down the projected background. I think I see what they were going for – it’s messy and disjointed to reflect her state of mind, and shows the pressure she’s under going into “Speed.” But it was hard for me to appreciate because I couldn't tell how much of that disjointedness was intentional, and the song contains some of my least favorite lyrics in the score (one particular line that just clanks to me is “here it is, here it comes/staring down the barrel of a gun”). Overall I wasn't a big fan of this song though it does have some good moments, especially Tamara’s bracelet-centric contingency plans.

From there we go to “Speed.” Part 1 is Tamara and Tadeusz in the apartment, and finally, finally their unresolved conflicts are brought into the open. They don’t want the same things, don’t understand what the other person wants, and to Tamara’s utter shock, he wants to leave her for someone else. “Your hypocrisy is BREATHTAKING,” he says, which is fair. Tamara plays her last, most devastating card, revealing what she did to get him out of prison (and she is fierce in doing so) - his response is anguished, including a big “NOOOOOOOOO” which is both very impressive because Andrew Samonsky sounds terrific, but also slightly funny for its sheer drama. But at this point, it seems like there can be no going back for the two of them. I don’t know if Tamara thought telling him this would spur him to make a similarly self-sacrificing choice, but he has not seemed like that type of person thus far in the show. So in the end it seems like it can only cause a pain and guilt that makes it harder for them to be together.

Next Tamara runs to find Rafaela, but Rafaela seems to have been spending this time seriously reconsidering whether anything in their relationship was real, or if she was "just a model," a pretty thing for Tamara to display when she felt like it and hide when she didn’t. Like Kizette, Rafaela wonders if Tamara ever truly saw her, and everything Tamara tries to explain or offer from her privileged and rather materialistic perspective just makes things worse. Tamara is just about beside herself with the fear that she is losing Rafaela, but even in the face of Rafaela’s pleas to “give back my heart, give back my soul,” and to be with her openly, Tamara is steadfastly and regretfully unwilling to give up any more of herself to be with Rafaela. It’s an interesting contrast with Tamara's argument with Tadeusz. That conversation seemed more like: I need you to do this – I did this for you – you need to do this for me. With Rafaela it seems like, I feel too much for you – why can’t you feel this way for me? Amber Iman plays this scene so well – she has to move from frustration and anger to heartbreak to hope and back, and she somehow brings the audience along with her so they understand at every step, and it doesn't seem forced or over-performed.

The scene expands to include Marinetti and both Rafaela and Tadeusz. The song is briefly a quartet as Tamara is caught in between as both of them decide that they can’t continue in their relationships (Rafaela calls Tamara a coward, Tadeusz says it’s over), and as she is absorbing this set of emotional blows in the foreground and slowly sinking to the ground in despair, Marinetti and his gang of thugs deliver an ultimatum to Suzy at Le Monocle, where they proceed to raid the club and attack the patrons in a slow-motion cascade of violence, to the music of “Perfection.” Tamara is now on the ground facing away from the audience and seems to be watching the best parts of her life collapsing into ruins. There is a moment here where one of the attackers flips the mirrored Monocle sign to reveal a broken, shattered version, and as it rotates it catches the stage lighting, sending beams of light into parts of the audience, mostly off to house right. I don’t know if that was intentional but it was still a striking visual.

As the destruction fades to black the Baroness suddenly cuts in singing, “It’s the end of time!” sounding like a trumpet of the apocalypse. She has arrived for a scheduled portrait sitting, but Tamara is still listlessly sitting on the ground and her left wrist is now wrapped in a bandage. (Presumably she did this while turned away from the audience, though I wonder where she got the bandage. Maybe it was hidden in her blouse?) The Baroness notices this in the way that she notices many things, and Tamara only makes a halfhearted attempt to lie before answering honestly about her attempt at suicide.

I didn’t really understand what this song was trying to do in La Jolla, but after seeing this production it makes much more sense to me. I originally thought it depended on the audience having an emotional investment in the Baroness herself (though I do like her in this production), but the song is as much about Tamara finding a way to go on with her life as it is about the Baroness wanting a last portrait for her husband to remember her “Just This Way” before she dies of her unspecified illness. And the Baroness manages to do this in an impressively effective way: first she’s directive, firmly telling Tamara to get off the floor and paint; then she turns to the sort of details Tamara is comfortable and familiar with, like the light, the pose, the form, and the artist’s perspective; and then she essentially reminds Tamara of her remaining strong social ties and corrals Tamara into fulfilling the obligation the Baroness has just laid upon her to take the Baron out of Paris. At the end of the song, the Baroness exits the stage, walking by the Baron in passing and giving him a brief, familiar touch in acknowledgement.

Tamara has to start over once again, this time “In The Blasted California Sun.” She puts on her Old Tamara coat and builds a life with the Baron, but the vitality has gone out of her. The people, the colors, the sky, the light – none of it can compare to what she once had. Eventually the Baron dies as well (and Kizette is nowhere to be seen). Her work – forgotten, her people – gone. At the end, she sits on the bench next to her easel, alone. It is again Los Angeles, 1975.

Alone, Tamara asks, what happened to you? A vision of Rafaela appears (wearing the original outfit from “Don’t Bet Your Heart”) but physically she only leans on the bench and doesn’t really converse face to face, so it is clearer that she is Tamara’s vision rather than a corporeal figure. It is a small thing that makes the scene more understandable than it was in La Jolla. But her answer to Tamara’s question is inconclusive, and Tamara has to live with the regret of her choices and the uncertainty of never knowing. Rafaela: “That’s what it means to be haunted.”

But as Tamara starts to descend further into self-recrimination, Rafaela points out that the women of the present are still her women, the ones carrying on her legacy, as we see several women in 1970s clothing posing behind the scrim. Rafaela says they are taking over the world, and they move with power, “like motorcars.”

Tamara starts to tentatively reprise “Woman Is,” when suddenly an auctioneer and art collector enter the stage and images of Tamara’s paintings drop from the rafters. Tamara’s paintings have been rediscovered and are being appreciated and understood by a whole new audience – and yet it is too much, and this new world is moving too fast. She desperately wishes that everything would stop to let her capture the moment. When she says this, it’s Rafaela who stops beside her. This pause with Rafaela once again seems to give her the perspective she needs in order to make sense of everything. The women circle past her as she acknowledges each of them, and they and everyone else in the cast array themselves across the set. Tamara turns to watch as everyone who has mattered in her life sings the finale. At the end, she turns back to the audience with her closing words: “We do not control the world. We control one flat rectangle of canvas at a time.”

Below, a photo from the bows at the Saturday 5/18 evening show: