Sour Milk
The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore — and it
should have passed by the Edge Theatre, too
By Mary Damiano
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Rachel Stone lights Frank Rodriguez's fire in The Milk
Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore at Edge Theatre. |
In his curtain speech before The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here
Anymore, Director Jim Tommaney told the audience that he’s
wanted to produce the obscure Tennessee Williams play for about
five years, but casting was tricky. When Maria Kakouris Somoza
auditioned, Tommaney continued, he knew he’d found the right
actress for the lead.
Five minutes into Somoza’s first scene, you wonder exactly what
Tommaney saw, because it sure wasn’t talent.
Why Tommaney hired Somoza remains a mystery — she’s so bad you can
all but see her teeth marks on the unremarkable scenery. The
answer to the choice of this insipid yawn of a play can be found
in the program, which details the Edge Theatre’s mission
statement: to “produce the neglected works of established
playwrights.” Milk Train certainly fits the bill.
Originally produced on Broadway in 1963 and revived in ’64, the
show ran for a combined total of 74 performances — a huge failure
for a playwright of Williams’ stature. The play was later turned
into the unsuccessful 1968 Elizabeth Taylor film Boom!
Sometimes there’s a reason why a great playwright’s work is
neglected, and that’s because even a great playwright can churn
out bad work.
The most entertaining part of the evening was reading the program,
in which Tommaney says Williams “may be the greatest playwright
since [William] Shakespeare” and that in Milk Train,
Williams tackles the theme “of approaching death, avoided by most
playwrights.” What? The theme of approaching death is a hallmark
of theater and literature.
The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore
is about Flora Goforth (Somoza), an aging Southern belle famous
around the world for her wealth and beauty, living in seclusion in
her mountain estate on the coast of
Italy.
Apparently she’s dying, but she’s the healthiest-looking dying
person one can imagine. Mrs. Goforth spends her days dictating her
memoirs to her put-upon secretary, played by Rachel Stone, whose
performance is less dreadful than usual only because she shares
the stage with performers more dreadful than she. A young man
named Christopher (Frank Rodriguez) climbs the mountain to visit
Mrs. Goforth; she soon learns he has the unfortunate nickname
“Angel of Death,” because all the old rich women he visits die
soon after. With a reputation like that, you’d think that Mrs.
Goforth would send him packing down the mountain, but, no, she has
him stay in the guest house.
The play is all talk. She drawls, he drones and the play drags on
for nearly three hours — three hours of your life that you’ll
never get back.
The Milk
Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore runs through April 13 at Edge
Theatre,
3825 N.
Miami Ave., Miami. Shows are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday
at 7 p.m. For tickets and more information, call 786-355-0976.
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