Three years ago when Canadian Katherine Ryan won the Funny Women Awards, Maureen Vincent, one of our judges, and I had a conversation during which we both agreed that she resembled a ‘young Rita Ruder’. Last week I was lucky enough to see the original Rita Rudner perform her one woman show in London, by way of the Venetian in Las Vegas, for the first time in more than 15 years
Rita Rudner was first exposed to us Brits via the power of television and a six part series on BBC 2 in 1990. She also came to our attention with appearances on the The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson which popularised many of the US comics at that time unseen in the UK. She is a female comedy legend to my particular generation and, as I am married to a Jewish man, her humour hits a particular sweet spot. It’s a shame there wasn’t more support from the Jewish community – maybe they don’t know she’s here?
A true pro, Rita’s career spans an incredible 40 years, during which she has established herself as one of America’s top comedians and a New York Times best-selling author, as well as an award-winning television personality, screenwriter, playwright, Broadway dancer, actress… her multiple achievements are enough to turn a yummy mummy to jelly but she wins through with her skills in self deprecation!
As if those accomplishments aren’t enough Rita at 58 is also mother to nine year old Molly, who she adopted with her English producer husband, Martin Bergman, with whom she wrote the screenplay for the celebrated film Peter's Friends and, oh yes, in which she also acted. With these credentials, if she’d announced on stage that she'd actually given birth to Molly I think I would have run out the theatre in a fit of unrepentant self loathing!
So did the slick Vegas style work in a London comedy venue? At least it’s a theatre and Rita needs a stage for the evening gown and the high heeled diamante sandals. She did apparently use to dress down but was advised to ‘glam up’ if she wanted the big gigs. It’s clearly paid off as since opening at the Venetian in 2000, Rita’s one woman show has sold over one million tickets and grossed more than $70m to make her Sin City’s most successful female comedian, with the longest-running solo show in Vegas history. She’s been voted ‘Best Comedian in Las Vegas’ nine years in a row.
Not sure any of this counted for much with the London audience last week – I was horrified that the theatre wasn’t full. Maybe Rita wanted a soft launch into the UK without the usual hype that accompanies visiting US acts.
The humour was much as I remembered it with sharp punchlines, lots of references to cosmetics, clothes, kids, husbands, relationships and all the things that women generally talk about. But she doesn’t have the bite of the British female comic – it’s slick material that’s been well honed in Vegas with a gentle nod to her current location talking about being a tourist, being married to a Brit, and (that old female favourite) shopping.
The press release reads that the only four-letter words the audience will hear are ‘shop’, ‘shoe’ and ‘cook’ which is not true of her young pretender, Katherine Ryan, who sweetly portrays a dark world of sexually predatory homeless men, and the benefits of having an uglier twin sister.
Rudner’s area of interest is human behaviour; particularly how men and women relate to each other. She doesn’t touch politics or make a pop reference. Her jokes possess an identifying resonance that stands the test of time so when an audience member asks Rita if she writes all her own material the retort is that ‘it’s her life’ proving that good comedy often writes itself.
Rita’s long running success speaks for itself. Money and a Vegas lifestyle is nice to have, but clearly it doesn’t always cut it in London. So take advantage and book to see Rita in this intimate environment while you can. There are three more dates left later this week, Wednesday 6th, Thursday 7th and Friday 8th July. Fill up that theatre!
Lynne Parker
