Former 'Saturday Night Live' star Cecily Strong takes on Lily Tomlin’s beloved one-woman show 'The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe' at the Mark Taper Forum. Read CharlesMcNulty's review.
A lifetime ago, when I was still living in New York, I had dinner with the comedian Sandra Bernhard and a mutual friend. Having been a fan of her uncategorizable cabarets, I said I’d love to see her take her act to Broadway one day. With characteristic frankness, she replied that for that to happen she’d need what Lily Tomlin was lucky enough to have — her own Jane Wagner.
In “The Search for Signs,” Wagner provided an elaborate showcase for the wide range of Tomlin’s gifts as both a beloved comedian and an actor who had been nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Robert Altman’s “Nashville.” The play is filled with outlandish characters — most conspicuously, Trudy, the bag lady, who has lost her mind and in the process has made contact with space aliens curious about higher consciousness on Earth.
Wagner condensed the play into one act for this revival, which had its premiere late last year at the Shed in New York. The rewrite focuses on material in the original version’s deeper second half. When we first encounter Lyn, she’s riding into the future with the women’s movement, alongside Edie and Marge, her best friends and support system. The Supreme Court’s landmark decision legalizing abortion has empowered this sisterhood, but progress doesn’t live up to its heady promise.
Strong brings a radiant humanity to this roller coaster of history. The warmth of her smile invites you to experience the lives behind these theatrical snapshots. But the writing can’t withstand Chekhovian scrutiny. The zaniness at the heart of the show is unnecessarily muffled. When “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe” was revived on Broadway in 2000, 15 years after it opened, the show felt dated. For social comedy that trades on the zeitgeist, 15 years is an eternity.
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