A touching moment between Darrin Baker and Stacia Fernandez in Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s Misery (Jason Nuttle Photography)
By Britin Haller
The acting is fine and the direction brilliant in Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s recreation of Stephen King’s classic Misery, but what ultimately catapults this stage version to a breathtaking production is the remarkable cohesion of its design team.
Set design, lighting, sound, video, and special effects work in concert to create suspense. It’s clear that this was a deeply collaborative effort. The result is an intimate sensory experience that reminds us it isn’t just Paul Sheldon who is trapped, we are too.
Credit the direction by two-time Tony Award nominee and two-time Carbonell Winner Denis Jones and the creative vision of Artistic Director/Chief Executive Andrew Kato.
Add in that Musical Director Matthew Smedal has created a completely original score, with a violinist and a children’s choir, that kept us “on the edge of our seat.”
Without giving too much away, it’s the late 1980s, and famous novelist Paul Sheldon has completed his latest manuscript, a personal journey away from Victorian romance and into literary fiction. After all these years of writing commercialized novels, this new one is the book he’s most proud of.
Paul crashes his car in a Colorado blizzard and is rescued by Annie Wilkes, a former nurse who calls herself his “number one fan.” Paul considers himself lucky to have been found by her. But when Annie discovers that Paul has killed off her beloved romance character, Misery Chastain, Annie reacts violently to keep Paul trapped with her in her home. Paul realizes he’d better bring Misery back from the dead and fast.
Before there was television’s Madeline Matlock, there was Annie Wilkes. For those of you who may have missed the 1990 cultural phenomenon that occurred when a mostly unknown actress named Kathy Bates catapulted into overnight fame by not only starring as Annie in the film version, but going on to win the Oscar for Best Actress the following year. Trust us when we say it was lightning in a bottle.
Bates didn’t just play the anti-heroine Annie opposite James Caan as Paul Sheldon, she breathed life into her with a small-town folksiness that was capable of exploding into terrifying insanity in a heartbeat. Her catchphrases “mister man,” “cockadoodie,” “oogy,” “dirty birdy,” and of course, “I’m your number one fan,” took the nation by storm.
In popular culture, the names Paul and Annie go together like Clarice and Hannibal, Blanche and Baby Jane, and Oscar and Felix. And at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, they go together like these actors Darrin Baker and Stacia Fernandez because we can’t imagine one without the other. Fun fact: the two actors previously worked together on Broadway in 1997’s musical The Scarlet Pimpernel.
As Sheldon, Baker captures the gamut of emotions from gratitude, to concern, to out-and-out terror, to I’m pissed as hell and going to do something about it, and when the drama ratchets up, and Annie becomes more and more unhinged, Baker pulls out all the stops as a man who has no more fucks to give.
Without giving anything away, we did think Sheldon to be a little blasé after that famous scene near the end where Annie … (well, if you know you know.)
According to the script, a week has gone by, but that’s not clear in the dialogue, and so it comes across as off-putting when Paul wakes up in a semi-good mood. But that’s an issue with Goldman’s script, and not Baker.
Baker has said that he is a huge James Caan fan and is honored to follow in the legendary actor’s footsteps. Not only did Baker play Caan’s classic role, Walter Hodges, in Elf the Musical this year at another venue, but now he gets to step into Paul Sheldon’s shoes, or step into Paul Sheldon’s feet, if you’ll excuse the pun (again IYKYK.) Baker, by the way, has somewhat of a cult following from his role as Randy the Pickle Guy on CBS’s Ghosts.
Because Paul is mostly physically restrained, Baker must use his eyes, his vocal intonations, his facial expressions, and his typewriter calisthenics to project his hopelessness, terror, and ultimately his defiance as he tries different methods of escape. We, as an audience, have to wish for Paul to overcome his captor, but the belief must be there that he might not. And Baker succeeds.
You might find yourself holding your breath as Paul painfully propels himself out of bed and inches himself across the floor or hurries to get back into his bedroom when he hears Annie’s car pulling up in the driveway. And even though most of us probably already know the ending, it is still gripping to see if Paul will be able to outsmart Annie somehow and escape.
The Liberace-loving Annie Wilkes is literally a once-in-a-lifetime character to be able to play on stage, and while Stacia Fernandez captures Annie’s down-home mannerisms, she never quite sells us on the escalating monster that makes Annie so unforgettable. This Annie seems more discombobulated than frightening, and while there were moments we believed it, several pivotal lines landed without the chilling effects Annie is known for. We can’t help but compare it to Kathy Bates’s iconic performance, not to be unfair, but as a reminder of how tightly woven the line between Annie as a friend or as a foe needs to be. Fernandez’s interpretation is fine, but never surprising.
To be fair however, and we mean this in the nicest possible way, the Jupiter crowd may not be ready for totally unhinged Annie, and Fernandez could be just following her director’s notes. So fair warning just so you’re not disappointed, this is not Kathy Bates’s Annie, rather a kinder and gentler version.
We certainly didn’t expect to laugh as much as we did, and that’s a good thing because it’s needed to break up the tension. Between Darrin Baker’s increased no-holds barred exasperation as a trapped Paul, and Stacia Fernandez snorting like Annie’s pig Misery, the mood shifts often giving us moments of levity, but also increasing the feeling we are all sitting on eggshells.
Like when Annie has just terrorized Paul by making him drink mop water, and now she wants to know if he’d like a tuna fish casserole for dinner. Ironic that of all the horrible atrocities she puts Paul though, making him drink dirty water is where we draw the line. That was just gross.
Fernandez and Baker are joined by Jared David Michael Grant as Buster, the town sheriff who comes looking for the missing Paul Sheldon and catches Annie not on a good day. Grant plays Buster as a jovial fellow, the kind you’d like to have as a neighbor or a friend. Buster’s dialogue with Annie is peppered with humor because obviously the sheriff is not in on the joke that behind her bedroom door is the man he’s been searching for. Grant is one of those actors we could never get tired of seeing.
Misery may be one of Stephen King’s smallest scale works, but it’s certainly one of the most impactful. Because theater thrives on minimalism, Annie’s cozy and isolated farmhouse is perfect for creating a real sense of claustrophobia. Some might argue that the unsettling set is a character itself.
Misery reaches into our fears of being held captive and unable to make our escape at the hands of a madman, or madwoman in this case. For much of the time, Paul Sheldon is confined to his bed, but when he is eventually able to propel himself into a wheelchair, pivotal scenes involve him maneuvering around Annie’s house. Because Paul is basically in a prison of Annie’s making, every choice has to heighten his claustrophobia, while at the same time offering him a glimmer of hope.
Not an easy thing to pull off, which is why the set design is crucial to the success of any production of Misery. Thanks to Scenic Designer Anne Mundell’s team, who designed a thirty-foot turntable taking months, the rotation of the revolving platform is quiet so the audience isn’t pulled out of the suspense. Timing the platform’s movement to coordinate perfectly with the other enhancements must have been a tricky assignment, as was getting the props and furniture to stay securely positioned as it turns. And of course, Paul must be able to stay in sight as he moves himself about. In this way, the pacing and tension increases rather than breaks up with blackouts and set changes.
As the Fight/Safety Choreographer, Lee Soroko had his work cut out for him. Safety is paramount here because a moving platform means risk for the actors and stagehands who must all be in perfect coordination. One individual movement could require dozens of rehearsals. And the physically of the fight scenes and the falls must be believable because in live theatre, there is no such thing as another take. Mr. Soroko always delivers, and we commend him.
Thanks to Sound Designer Ernesto K. Gonzalez, we can hear Paul’s breathing, and Annie’s car engine, surrounding us. And Dalton Hamilton’s lighting design works in tandem with stunning video by Adam J. Thompson to indicate both the current weather and time of day, and to add to the overall tenseness we feel from the seats. We only wish the lighting had been lower during what is the film’s most talked-about scene, but that was likely director Jones’s call, and not Hamilton’s. As it is, that pivotal moment felt disappointingly anticlimactic.
The bloody special effects were executed with startling precision thanks to Steve Tolin, who is the inventor of Squib FX, a product used by productions across the country including Misery on Broadway. Along with the lighting and sound, and brilliant blocking and pacing from Jones and the actors, and even though we knew what was coming, this moment was so visceral, it felt like a punch in the gut. Live theatre doesn’t always succeed, but when it does, we marvel.
Annie is typically expected to look a certain way with her countryfied farm boots, sleeveless jumpers and housecoats, and chin-length bobbed hairstyle. On any given day, she must appear as if she just came from feeding her chickens, or her pet pig, Misery. So when during her dinner date with Paul, Annie wears an out-of-character delicate feminine dress that belonged to her late mother, and the audience gave out a collective aww, that’s a real testament that Costume Designer Lex Liang and Wig Designer Kevin S. Foster II did not disappoint. Shout-out to the CPO jacket on the clothes hook.
The single most important prop is likely the manual typewriter Annie has Paul create stories for her on. Needing this to be realistic, Kato purchased an antique one made by the Royal Typewriter Company that’s a beast of a machine. Other notable additions are Annie’s doll collection, rotary telephone, and we were told that somewhere on stage was a Misery the pig figurine paying homage to the one in the film, thanks to our suggestion during a pre-show interview with Stacia Fernandez. Nice touch, and well-done!
Now in his second season at the Maltz, and no longer the new guy, Production Stage Manager Kent James Collins, with an assist by Lamarr White Jr., ran the opening night show with a Carbonell Award-worthy perfect precision, all the more triumphant since Director Denis Jones had already moved on to his next production elsewhere.
There is no doubt that the undisputed “King of Horror” is Stephen King, but while his works translate well to the big and small screens, the few attempts to produce theatrical pieces of King’s properties were, let’s be honest, nothing short of disasters. Often the best use of theatricality is amazingly simple, and if there’s one thing Stephen King does not do, it’s simple.
But there’s an exception to every rule, and the play Misery, which was adapted by William Goldman (Magic, The Princess Bride) from his own 1990 film script of King’s 1987 novel of the same name, is that exception.
Starting in 1992 in London with Sharon Gless (Cagney & Lacey) as Annie in a version of Misery written by Simon Moore, other early productions of Misery on stage, besides Goldman’s, include South Florida’s GableStage Theatre Company’s 2005 rendition. But it’s Goldman’s script, written in conjunction with Rob Reiner’s TV/film company Castle Rock Entertainment, that had its world premiere in 2012 at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania, and then hit Broadway in 2015 with Laurie Metcalf (Rosanne, the Toy Story franchise) and Bruce Willis (Moonlighting, the Die Hard franchise) in the starring roles of Annie and Paul.
While Metcalf walked away with a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress, Willis didn’t fare so well playing Paul Sheldon, even being described as “vacant” by one critic. Knowing what we know now about Bruce Willis’s medical diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia, this foreshadowing into his future is especially sad.
Paul Sheldon is the hero of this piece, and we root for him, we really do.
But there’s no denying that the true heart and soul of Misery is Annie Wilkes. Is she a villain as some claim, or a flawed anti-heroine who simply feels the pain of being forgotten by the world and reacts to her emotions in tragic ways? In her mind, Annie is saving Paul’s work and keeping it where it belongs, close to her heart where it can be hers, and hers alone.
Stephen King has called Annie Wilkes his favorite character out of the estimated thousands he’s created, claiming she is both the most complex and horrifying. But really, who amongst us hasn’t felt the pain of a treasured character being killed off on our weekly TV show? Or hasn’t wanted to turn to the last page of a book we’re enjoying because we can’t bear to say goodbye to the world we’ve been part of?
Annie is the reader who adores Paul’s books so completely she can’t bear to see them end. She’s the quiet woman at the end of the lane, humming “I’ll Be Seeing You” softly to herself while tending her garden or feeding her pet pig Misery. Annie’s not a monster. She’s just misjudged. Isn’t there a little bit of Annie in all of us?
In the end, you don’t have to be Stephen King’s number one fan to love the Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s version of Misery. Nearly forty years after her impact on the world, Annie Wilkes not only endures, but is still going strong, so come visit with a crazy old friend, or see for yourself for the first time why Stephen King calls Annie his favorite creation. And yes, King did attend Misery at Broadway’s Broadhurst Theatre, even going backstage to greet Laurie Metcalf and Bruce Willis after the show. Oh, to be a fly on that wall.
Paul Sheldon is definitely the fly to Annie Wilkes’ spider, or is it the other way around? That’s the magic of Misery, two people, one room, and the undying need to be understood, even if it kills them both.
And it just might.
PS: The Maltz’s Island Theatre adjacent to the main auditorium is the setting for Creature Features, an eerie and chilling pre-show experience complete with spooky character photo opportunities, a specialty Misery-themed cocktail, and some of horror’s best film clips. With a valid ticket for that evening’s performance, visit Creature Features up to ninety minutes before curtain. Additionally, the Maltz is holding an in-person Master Class called Inside the Mind of Annie: Psychological Layers of Misery on Saturday, November 8 on the Main Stage. It’s a free event, but online registration is required.
Warning: Misery includes scenes with intense violence, adult themes, profanity, haze, and loud noises that may be triggering to some. Parents are advised to use caution.
Misery plays October 26 through November 9 at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 East Indiantown Road, Jupiter, FL (immediately east of A1A); Shows are nightly Tues-Fri @ 7:30 p.m. and Sat @ 8 p.m. Wed, Sat and Sun matinee @ 2 p.m. Limited tickets still available. Running time approx. 90 minutes with no intermission. Prices starting at $50. Call 561-575-2223, or visit jupitertheatre.org.
Britin Haller is a journalist, editor-for-hire, and an author who serves on the board of directors for the Mystery Writers of America Florida Chapter. As a celebrity wrangler, Brit regularly rubbed elbows with movie stars, sports stars, and rock stars, and as a media escort, she toured with New York Times bestselling authors.
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