THEATRE REVIEW: BY PATRICK WHITE
Dorset, VT– Sunday, August 4, 2024

“Sidekicked” is a backstage, one-woman, talking cure with America’s favorite neighbor in the 50s- Ethel Mertz! I mean Vivian Vance. Vivian has been playing the role of Ethel for 207 episodes over 10 years and people assume they are one and the same and they know everything about her. Well, the audience is not always right and there’s much to learn about this woman who has been a supporting player who must now break out on her own. Kelly McAndrew gives an astonishing performance as the actor.

The play is set on March 2, 1960 in Vivian’s dressing room preparing to shoot the final “I Love Lucy.” Vance has bridled against the strictures of the role; always setting up the joke, being forced to dress and be made up (no false eyelashes!) plainer than the star and being paired with a partner old enough to be her father William Frawley (who she calls the original Irish curse). And yet, for all these drawbacks, she recognizes and is grateful for Ethel which made her a household name.

Once the final episode is over, she must give Desi her decision on continuing to play Ethel in a spinoff for Desilu called “Fred & Ethel.” As she makes up her mind and dresses for the final show, she shares with the audience why it’s such a difficult decision for her. She has had a tough life with a powerfully disapproving mother, three husbands and a mental health crisis that kept her from acting for five years. It was the play, “The Voice of the Turtle” by John van Druten which Mel Ferrer convinced her to play again after freezing in it, bringing on her incapacity, that Desi Arnaz saw that convinced him she was Ethel Mertz.

The play directed by the great Jackson Gay rattles along with show biz stories, backstage gossip and open wounds that have never fully healed. McAndrew doesn’t go for an imitation of Vance but you get a very strong essence of the broad with her winks, poses and takes to the audience. This show has been running for years.

Vance has a comfy chenille robe, “as close to Chanel as she’ll get” and a smart put-together look for the show by designer Fabian Fidel Aguilar. McAndrew had a bit of a tussle removing her hairnet Friday night and had the presence of mind to calmly work it out and comment on it in character earning laughs.

A few words on one of my favorite actors; Kelly McAndrew who was in Dorset last summer as Annie Wilkes. She holds a special place in my playgoing heart and her brassy, tender, open performance in “Sidekicked” only deepened my bond with her. We saw her earlier this summer as a domineering life coach (could have helped Vivian) in “Coach Coach” by Bailey Williams presented by Clubbed Thumb at The Wild Project and as a compassionate AIDS nurse in “Novenas for a Lost Hospital” by Cusi Cram produced by Rattlestick that I took my 15 year-old nephew to. All important, impactful performances but none more so than when McAndrew created the part of Captain John Wesley Powell in “Men on Boats” by Jaclyn Backhaus. That performance and that play led me to believe that I could do anything, a line which is featured in the climactic scene of Ken Power’s play.

An essential performance that fights to be seen and heard against forces that would control her, minimize her and try to diminish her. It’s a great time in America to listen to women’s stories and Vivian Vance’s has plenty for us to relate to.

“Sidekicked” by Kim Powers playing at Dorset Theatre Festival through 8/17. Tickets: www.Dorsettheatrefestival.org

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