Irene Adjan as Vivian Vance in Boca Stage’s Sidekicked
By Britin Haller
Acting is not easy, or more people would do it, but imagine having to create not just a make-believe character, but a person who not only existed in real life, but was loved and adored by fans around the world. And then imagine that person suffered from mental illness as well.
Such is the task set before actress Irene Adjan, currently starring in a one-woman show as the legendary Vivian Vance in Sidekicked at the Boca Stage. Vance, as you likely recall, played Ethel Mertz, Lucille Ball’s partner-in-crime in I Love Lucy, a 180-episode comedy sitcom taking the nation by storm in the 1950s when television was just a baby, and many households still didn’t even own a TV set.
As Vivian Vance, local favorite Irene Adjan has big shoes to fill and an important story to tell. She gives testimony to a complicated woman who gave us so much of herself despite her personal struggles. Adjan doesn’t look, sound, or act like Vance, but that’s okay. She doesn’t need to. Like Vance, Adjan also has a lovely singing voice that leaves us wanting more.
Director Genie Croft is grateful to present Sidekicked and Vivian Vance’s story to South Florida, and she handled it with care. Thanks to Claudia Smith, the set designer, Elizabeth Guerra, the head of props, and James Danford, the stage manager and set dresser, Vivian’s dressing room is full of items you might expect from that era. A make-up vanity, an I Love Lucy poster, a rack of costumes, hatboxes, and a dressing screen she utilizes to change behind. Technical Director Christian Taylor and Sound Designer David Hart have their work cut out for them with pre-recorded voices mimicking Desi and Lucy.
The show’s premise is simple. It’s 1960, and the last night of filming for The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour which was a series of specials featuring the fabulous four from I Love Lucy (Ricky, Lucy, Fred, and Ethel) after it went off the air in 1957. Executive Producer Desi Arnez (Lucille Ball’s husband) has asked Vivian Vance and William Frawley (Fred Mertz, is there any greater last name ever?) to continue on with their roles in a spin-off of the original series. It would be a guaranteed hit, but Vivian isn’t sure she wants to do it. She has become sick of being known only as Ethel and is definitely sick of Frawley (reportedly a mean drunk) with whom she never got along. That’s an understatement, when he died, she probably held a parade.
Arnez wants an answer to his question right after taping ends, and Vance understandably has a lot she needs to talk about, and so the playwright Kim Powers (Emmy winner x2) creates a device in that Vivian speaks to her unseen psychiatrist, who has arrived at her dressing room at the Desilu TV Studios after having received an SOS from her to come quickly. Vance is a woman who reportedly saw her analyst every day before going to set, and who carries a piece of paper in her purse with her name and address on it in case she forgets who she is. In other words, she’s a hot mess who hates being typecast as the nosy neighbor, or as she calls Ethel Mertz, “the busiest door opener in show business.”
No spoiler here obviously as to what Vance’s final answer to Desi was as the sitcom starring Fred and Ethel never came to be. She just couldn’t bring herself to do it despite uttering the words “I’m tired of being second banana. I wanna be first banana. I wanna be more than just Lucy’s sidekick. I’ve been side-kicked to death.” Fear of typecasting aside, in the end, the irony is not lost that when Vance was offered her own show, allowing her to finally be the headlining star she was desperate to be, she turned it down.
Born Vivian Roberta Jones in Cherryvale, Kansas, Vance went through a lot including, in no particular order, four husbands, a mental breakdown, domestic violence, a mother who thought her daughter was the spawn of Satan, and a promiscuous father. Vance was going somewhere and booking good gigs, including one as Ethel Merman’s understudy, when one night while onstage in a play she froze and had to be carried off. She barely worked again for five years until, as legend has it, Desi saw her in something and knew immediately she was Fred’s Ethel. And history was made.
Husband number three was a man named Philip Ober, who supposedly was jealous of Vance even though he was a noted actor on his own appearing in many classic films including From Here to Eternity and North By Northwest. After their marriage ended, he went on to star as Nicholas Simmons in Don Knott’s The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. Ober couldn’t even bring himself to look at Vivian’s Emmy and so hid it in a closet so he didn’t have to deal with it. When his frustrations grew, and he ultimately became physically violent and beat Vance. Hedda Hopper, gossip columnist extraordinaire who ruled Hollywood with her poison pen at the time, mercifully kept it out of the papers in deference to Vance.
While there are moments of nostalgia, and a few behind the scenes tidbits, Sidekicked mostly is a heavy monodrama, without real humor, describing the toll the role of Ethel, and life in general, took on Vance. Even lines that are supposed to be light-hearted “I spent my life in chenille rather than Chanel” come across as just sorrowful really and initiate only nervous titters and feelings of discomfort to be laughing at someone else’s misery.
Going in with no pre-conceived notions is the best bet here because despite being billed nationally with a tagline of a “Powerful one-broad comedy about the Ethel Mertz you never knew,” Sidekicked is no comedy, and honestly it’s a disservice to the audience, the actress Irene Adjan, and Vivian Vance to call it one. Instead, it’s an almost ninety-minute descent into the mind of a sad, tortured soul. This critic’s notes included the word insane at one point, that showcases the tears of a clown. A desperately unhappy woman who didn’t understand the power of her own legacy and comforted herself in the fact that “At least nobody will ever have to see those episodes again.” Okay, that line got a laugh at least.
Sidekicked drudges up mixed emotions. On some level, how nice would it be to keep only good thoughts of Ethel Mertz? On the other hand, Vivian Vance deserves for her story to be told. Maybe you prefer to remember Mertz the way she was, fun and carefree, and just an all-around nice, goofy gal. If so, stay home. But if you prefer to honor and respect the woman who created one of the greatest characters in television history, and arguably one half of the best female comedy duo ever, then grab your fruit hat and your maracas and salsa your way to the Boca Stage before everyone’s favorite nosy neighbor, Ethel Mertz, opens her last door.
The complex Vance was not afraid to speak out about mental illness during a time when it wasn’t considered chic. She understood her own limitations and fought daily to overcome her own negative self-doubts, and finally, almost seven decades later, for all the happiness and pure joy Vivian Vance (and Ethel Mertz) gave us over the years, the least we can do is listen to her now. Arrive early to enjoy TV show theme songs from such classics as The Andy Griffith Show and Leave It To Beaver.
Britin Haller is a mystery author and an editor for Turner Publishing. Her latest short story “So Many Shores in Crookland” can be read in the 150th issue of Black Cat Weekly. Britin’s latest edit, a cozy mystery novel called Dumpster Dying is by Michelle Bennington and available where books are sold. Find Britin across social media.
Sidekicked from Boca Stage’s off-Broadway season plays through Sunday, Sept. 29th at the Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 NW 9th Street (on Lake Ida), Delray Beach; Performances are Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 7 pm, and Saturdays & Sundays at 1 p.m. Running time approx. 85 minutes with no intermission. Tickets start at $59. Call 561-272-1281 or visit delraybeachplayhouse.com.
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