Melissa Rivers and playwright Daniel Goldstein talk about ‘Joan,” which begins previews Oct. 27 at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa.
Joan Rivers is the subject of the new biographical play, “Joan,” written by Daniel Goldstein, who was inspired by the late comedian’s trove of 65,000 jokjes. For the new biographical play “Joan,” world premiering on the South Coast Repertory stage, Joan Rivers’ daughter Melissa Rivers was asked, if her assertive mother were still alive, would she have badgered Melissa to play herself in the show?
Through live performance and, largely, via television, she shapeshifted her sharp-witted, self-deprecating humor — in later years retooled and weaponized on red carpets to deadly skewer those in the limelight — into a half-century career as the funny girl who became an entertainment trailblazer.Her challenging, often hard road — with plenty of one-liners chauffeuring the journey — is captured in the new, one-act play opening on the theater’s Julianne Argyros Stage.
Joan Rives, shown in 2009, is the subject of a new biographical play, “Joan,” which will receive its world premiere at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa on Nov. 1. Goldstein laughed, recalling that beyond relief, “I was very proud of myself that Joan Rivers approved of my choice of a ring.” “While there’s no doubting she was hugely influential on other women to do stand-up, she didn’t see pigeonholing herself in that way.”A tangible legacy of Joan’s humor is a massive compendium of more than 65,000 jokes, written by her or writers working with and for her.
“It’s an old school wooden card catalog. Like when you were in kindergarten and went to the library and they found your book organized by using the Dewey Decimal system.” This piece is much broader, capturing key aspects of Joan’s offstage life to help audiences better understand the woman, not just the show-biz star.
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