File this one under “Curious Casting Choices”: Kathleen Turner is currently starring as the late Texas wit and nationally syndicated “Star-Telegram” columnist Molly Ivins in a one-woman show at The Philadelphia Theatre Company. There’s a rumor that this production could go on a national tour – methinks a couple of nights at Bass Hall would be sure sell-outs.
I saw Kathleen Turner in another one-woman show about notorious the-ah-tuh legend Tallulah Bankhead at a downtown Dallas theater about ten years ago. The script wasn’t that hot, but Turner had no problem commanding the stage. Back in the ‘90s I saw Ivins speak everywhere from Richland College to the Dallas Museum of Art. I was always a fan, but one thing about her was odd: Ivins leaned hard on her good ol’ Texas gal shtick on national TV and in her columns, but while appearing live before us local yokels, her delivery was nearly accent-free with a clipped diction as if to remind us she was a Smith graduate and a former debutante. When you consider the performance aspects of Ivins’ persona, maybe Turner isn’t such an odd choice after all.
