“A Twist of Lemmon” offers a rare glimpse into the creative
process and personal life of two-time Academy Award-winning actor Jack Lemmon,
who starred in films such as “Some Like It Hot”
opposite Marilyn Monroe, and “The Odd Couple” and “Grumpy Old Men” opposite
Walter Matthau. The story is delivered through his own perspective as played by
his son, Chris Lemmon. And to his credit, the younger Lemmon opens the show by
asking the question on many people’s minds: “So what do you do if you’re this
guy’s kid?”
In response,
Chris Lemmon wrote and directed this one-man show and plays a stunningly
spot-on Jack Lemmon. It should come as no surprise, since he grew up watching
his father’s career, shares his genes, and can take cues from film and TV clips
that remain. But the choice to play his father rather than himself was still a
bold one — and one that impressively enhances the show.
The entire
story was drawn from Chris Lemmon’s memoir of the same name, which he published
in 2006 (the book features a foreword by Kevin Spacey, a close friend and
mentee of Jack Lemmon). The show also shares a name with Jack’s 1959 jazz album
— he was a brilliant self-taught pianist — which he called “A Twist of
Lemmon/Some Like It Hot.” Chris Lemmon, like his
father, is a talented pianist, albeit professionally trained (he holds degrees
in classical piano and composition from the California Institute of the Arts),
and wrote original music for the show. He plays some of his father’s favorite
tunes and a few classics from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Throughout
the show, Lemmon follows the performance advice his father gave him when he
first taught him to play the piano: “It should put a smile on your face and a
tear in your eye. That’s what makes it great, kid.” The production recounts the
dazzling glamour of life as Jack Lemmon (and his son) — parties in the
Hollywood hills with stars like Gregory Peck and James Cagney, growing up near
Marilyn Monroe’s beach house, and playing football with John F. Kennedy — and
poignant moments that detail the strong father and son bond the two shared. He
shares the pain of his parents’ divorce through the eyes of his father, and the
decades of alcoholism before the elder Lemmon sought help. The audience has the
chance to peer behind the curtain of classic Hollywood — a delight for those
who remember those days, though some references will surely fly over the head
of younger audience members.
Lemmon keeps
a consistent energy, pinging between walking around and sitting on the
minimalist set (tailored to look like a Hollywood film set with stacked trunks,
barrels, and suitcase; several enlarged, black and white photos of Lemmon and
his father behind-the-scenes in Hollywood hanging above the set) and playing
the piano. A screen provides the largest backdrop, with film clips and photos
accentuating each vignette in the show, the multimedia projections becoming a
second character of sorts. “A Twist of Lemmon” runs an easy 90 minutes, and the
energy doesn’t drag at any point.
The
challenge of any show that recounts factual events, of course, is staying true
to the narrative while managing to tell a great story. Not every moment of life
— even the most famous of lives — is filled with excitement and suspense. In
his post-show talkback on Friday, Lemmon admitted some of the details in the
show had been stretched or rearranged to maintain an interesting story arch.
After its
run at Downstairs Cabaret Theatre, “A Twist of Lemmon” will undergo a few
changes, including the addition of an intermission, and debut on the West End
in London before opening Off-Broadway. It is a fitting trajectory for a show
almost a decade in development. “If I’ve learned anything in my life,” Lemmon
says after he breaks character near the end of the
show, “it’s that there’s no easy way to follow greatness — but in honoring,
it’ll live on.”
This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2015.
