Gary Waldman & Jamison Troutman presented ME & JEZEBEL, a play by Elizabeth Fuller at the Wilton Playhouse, Fort Lauderdale, FL (2000) ... the following is a review published in The Miami Herald:

Monday, May 22, 2000

Funny ‘Jezebel’ Captures Bette Davis

BY CHRISTINE DOLEN

Our great stars have long been a character actor’s dream. Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Carol Channing: Their gestures, appearance and vocal tics make them instantly recognizable to adoring fans, irresistible to the transformative performers, who idolize and pay tribute to these dazzling ladies by “becoming” them.

Tops among these icons—and how this late, great star would love it—is Bette Davis. That swathed-in-cigarette-smoke “what a dump,” big-eyed, impossibly feisty Bette Davis, who is doubtless devoting herself in the Hereafter to tormenting the longtime object of her derision, Joan Crawford.

It seem only natural, therefore, to find …Jim Bailey playing Bette Davis in Elizabeth Fuller’s Me & Jezebel at the Wilton Playhouse in Wilton Manors. What is pleasantly surprising, though, is how thoroughly Bailey serves the play with his honest, nuanced performance.

Me & Jezebel, which co-stars Carbonell Award-winning actress Kim Cozort (so engaging here she seems to be glowing from within), is playwright Fuller’s recounting of the time in mid-1985 when Davis really did bunk and the Fuller household for “a few days”--and stayed and stayed and stayed. Fuller, a lifelong fan, is initially thrilled to have the star of Jezebel and All About Eve under her roof. But the celebrity tenant, who gives no indication of a firm departure date, quickly plunges the household into chaos.

Fuller’s cozy Connecticut house starts smelling like an ashtray. Her husband notes that Davis is conspicuously failing to pay for anything, and that she needs to move on pronto. Fuller’s 4-year-old son Christopher begins using language that no preschooler should even hear.

And yet this “Woman Who Came to Dinner” tale, played out on Barry Axtel’s skeletal yet evocative set, is often hilarious, tender and moving.

Under the direction of Gary Waldman and Mark Graham, Bailey shines, whether zinging one more dig about Crawford’s moral vacuity or feeling the sting of the Mommie Dearest-style expose written by Davis’ daughter. Cozort, who plays Fuller as well as evoking Christopher and others, keeps us a happily captive audience as her funny tale of wonder and woe unfolds.

The Wilton Playhouse itself is undergoing “renovation”—it looks, especially from the outside, like an uninviting mess—but it would be a mistake to let that keep you from Me & Jezebel, the little gem that Fuller, Bailey and Cozort are polishing within.

Christine Dolen is the Herald’s theater critic.