REVIEWS FROM THE BALCONY

The Gotham reviews are in. The score so far for "Golda's Balcony": two raves (Clive Barnes and Michael Sommers), one near-rave (Howard Kissel), one positive notice (Linda Winer), and one huge slam (Bruce Weber). If the variations make you wonder whether critics are worth their weight in newsprint, that's not a surprise. Artists themselves, when they're smart, can take the critics or leave them. But producers can't do without them and neither can the theater-going public, unlike movie-goers who have made their distaste for critics a vehement credo.

Howard Kissel of New York's Daily News comes close to a rave: "Seldom has history embodied itself in one person as clearly as it did in Golda Meir. ... [Playwright] William Gibson has done an amazing job of conveying this life in a one-person play." Tovah Feldshuh "gives Golda extraordinary vigor and passion. ... In some ways, her task is made difficult by the one-person show format, which requires her to imitate the people around her. She does them skillfully, but these simulations give the show a sense of artificiality. So do the many projections on the rather busy set. ... Ultimately, though, these distractions do not diminish the force of Feldshuh's portrayal."

The New York Post's Clive Barnes terms it a "fascinating play ... too complex to call a one-woman show. ... Feldshuh gives a blazing performance, less an impersonation -- with a prosthetic nose, straggly wig, padded legs and enough makeup to sink a thousand Helens of Troy, she's a ringer for Golda -- than a heroic concept. ... The play's only fault is that in trying to humanize Golda Meir, Gibson has slightly diminished her with a shrugging comedy too stereotypical to be entirely lifelike."

Michael Sommers of Newark's Star-Ledger raves about Feldshuh as "one fierce actress [who] delivers a spellbinding performance. ... It's the role of a lifetime. ... Looking every inch like the legendary Israeli leader from her potato nose to her orthopedic shoes, Feldshuh energizes Meir with burning intensity. ... It's early in the Broadway season to start handicapping the Tonys, but she sets a hot pace for the best actress race in June."

Newsday's Linda Winer, in the most balanced review of "Golda's Balcony," calls it "a handsomely crafted, tough-minded story of a complex woman and an international force who [had an] undeniably inspirational life [and] a wise, bittersweet skepticism about miracle workers. ... Despite the limitations of one-person biographies and the downward spiral of Middle East realities, Gibson finds an admirably pragmatic way through the emotional and literal minefields." Feldshuh, as Gold Meir, "is very strong -- fervid and kindly, fierce and decent, willful and generous."  

Bruce Weber of The New York Times slams the play, the production and Feldshuh: "It's a ponderous essay wrapped in melodramatic autobiography. ... [There] are some devastating, movingly narrated nuggets of history. But over all his script ... offers less a genuine portrait of this important figure than a mélange of show business tricks by a polished audience-pleaser. ... [The] cheesily overwrought production ... subscribes to Jerry Bruckheimer's blow-the-morons-out-of-the-joint theory of entertainment." About Feldshuh's performance, he writes: "Her fierceness is fierce; her tenderness is tender. She does impressive voices and is adept in caricaturing the postures of male world leaders; you'll laugh at her Kissinger. But in the end her achievement is not the animation of Golda Meir but of Mr. Gibson's artificial, overly literal imagining of her. And Ms. Feldshuh is unable to enliven a construct into a character."

I had my own say a couple of days ago. I called it "a human tale of confession -- a sentimental, occasionally hokey, one-woman show so gripping as a flesh-and-blood Broadway entertainment that it's almost embarrassing to admit it's an instance of Holocaust literature which, believe it or not, can make you laugh (not just cry). ... I'm betting word-of-mouth raves will be unstoppable; 'Golda's Balcony' will be a smash; and when Tony time comes around next June, Tovah Feldshuh will be nominated for her portrayal of Golda in a performance made of both steel and chicken soup." I'll leave it at that.