"On Tidy Endings"

This slightly uneven production under the direction of Sara Wagner both touches the heart and leaves one imagining a more solid execution. Read the full review at Gia On The Move (official press)... full review

Harvey Fierstein's "On Tidy Endings" was first performed in 1987 in New York as one of three Fierstein one-acts on a program titled "Safe Sex." Set in 1987, this short and sometimes fiercely funny and very poignant study of how the universal situation of losing a loved one, took on unique new qualities in the context of the beginning of the AIDS crisis. Whose loss is it anyway? That’s the bone of contention between a gay man and a straight woman who meet to straighten up loose ends following the death of the man they both loved. As the story begins, Marion (Kimberly Patterson) and her young daughter Jenny (sassy scene stealer Makayla Rowles) arrive at the apartment she and her former husband, Collin, bought as an investment when they we... full review

An AIDS widower confronts the ex-wife of his recently deceased lover in Harvey Fierstein’s 1987 one-act On Tidy Endings, certain to be one of the most powerful dramatic offerings at this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival. Click on "Original Article" to read my complete review at StageSceneLA.com... full review

No one has written as eloquently about AIDS, and the confusion and heart-rending losses of so many, as Harvey Fierstein. Here a man has died and his former wife appears to be claiming him back from the lover who nursed him through his final desperate years. Yet the craftsmanship here does not allow for predictable conflicts, the two actors are well served by a playwright who knows that what is said is rarely as important as what is left unsaid. Kimberly Patterson is magnificent as the businesslike ex-wife, but Michael Mullen breaks your heart as the wounded champion left with nothing but boxes of memorabilia. His movements are brisk and gracious but his face, eyes and voice reveal volumes of pain. This performance brought my always stoic hus... full review