It’s been 45 years since Edith Head passed away. But her legacy as the Hollywood film industry’s most famous costume designer has not been forgotten.
In 2004, Pixar Films immortalized her look and speaking style with the digitally animated character Edna Mode in “The Incredibles.” And in 2002, the play “A Conversation with Edith Head” was born. Over the past 24 years, Susan Claassen, who co-wrote the play with Head biographer Paddy Calistro, has performed the show around the country more than 1,500 times.
Now, the La Jolla resident is presenting “Conversations” at Moxie Theatre in a production that opened Friday night. Claassen bears an uncanny resemblance to Head and has re-created her voice and mannerisms to perfection.
But the play is more than simply a biographical recap. It’s the story of a determined, “fake it ’til you make it” striver who carved out a space for herself in a male-dominated industry and wildly succeeded. Head still holds the record for the most Academy Awards won by a costume designer (eight) and the most nominations (35) during her more than 50-year career.
The play takes place not long before Head’s 1981 death at a public appearance arranged and hosted by an enthusiastic superfan (played amiably by Stuart Moulton, who is also the technical director for “A Conversation”). Before the show begins at Moxie, “Stuart” collects questions for Head from audience members, since there’s an interactive Q&A-style element to the play.
Once Head arrives in the theater (“fashionably” late), she recaps her life, work, triumphs, furies and regrets on a stage surrounded by some of her most famous costumes, a few of her Oscars and photos of the Hollywood stars she designed for over the years, including Mae West, Grace Kelly, Dorothy Lamour, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyick, Hedy Lamarr and more.
But like the imaginative costumes Head designed for Hollywood’s leading ladies, she also created from whole cloth some elements of her own biography.
In the play, she candidly admits knowing nothing about costuming when she had the chutzpah to apply for a film studio job using a portfolio filled with other artists’ sketches. But she coldly dismisses questions from Stuart and the audience about other then-controversial parts of her life, like denying her Jewish heritage, rumors that she was a lesbian and why she accepted the 1954 Oscar for the costumes in “Sabrina” that were created by the French fashion designer Givenchy.
With so much experience playing Head, Claassen is easily able to improvise in the moment answering random questions, cracking jokes and exchanging repartee with audience members, like the unfortunate man in row B who dared to show up at the theater on Friday in a casual sweatshirt.
Claassen’s Head is funny, blunt, bold and occasionally furious about the challenges she faced as a woman in a man’s world. Her signature look — a black bob with full bangs, thick, dark glasses and simple, unadorned skirt sets — was the unthreatening camouflage she employed to blend in with the background and allow her costumes to shine.
Younger audience members may not remember Head or know any of the film stars she talks about in the play, but they will appreciate the full-fledged, ingenious and unapologetic character that Claassen has created onstage.
‘A Conversation with Edith Head’
When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through March 8
Where: Moxie Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Blvd., Stuite N, Rolando, San Diego
Tickets: $20-$51
Phone: 858-598-7620
Online: moxietheatre.com
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