Happy Birthday Jack! at Greenhouse Theater thru August 29th

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“Happy Birthday, Jack! A Birthday Candle’s Glow that Could Burn Brighter”- Review By: Paul Lisnek  

**1/2 /4

“Happy Birthday, Jack! A Birthday Candle’s Glow that Could Burn Brighter”

Happy Birthday, Jack! playing in the cozy first floor theater space at the Greenhouse Theatre offers an intimate, and somewhat fictional glimpse behind one of America’s most mythologized public moments: Marilyn Monroe’s 1962 “Happy Birthday” performance for President John F. Kennedy. Written and directed by Mikey Duran, the world-premiere drama imagines what might have unfolded after the spotlight dimmed on JFK’s birthday party bringing Kennedy and Monroe into a hotel suite. Playing additional roles in the evening are Monroe confidant Allan “Whitey” Snyder (an historical figure who was Marilyn’s personal makeup artist and confidant) and Jackie Kennedy who gives her husband a “what for” knowing exactly where he is and what he is doing. 

It’s important to note that the birthday party event did indeed happen, you’ll find it in a Google search I’m sure. Marilyn Monroe did sing “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to John F. Kennedy on May 19, 1962, at a Madison Square Garden Democratic Party fundraising gala held ten days before Kennedy’s actual May 29 birthday. Roughly 15,000 people attended.

Monroe wasn’t alone however. She appeared alongside performers including Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte, Maria Callas, Jack Benny, Shirley MacLaine, and Jimmy Durante. And, Kennedy and Monroe were both present afterward at a private party hosted by Arthur Krim, along with many other gala performers and guests. So a post-event setting in which they might conceivably have crossed paths has some historical basis.

Indeed, the Kennedy–Monroe affair has long been a subject of rumor and speculation. This play explores it, but it should not be taken as historical certainty. There is no established historical evidence of their private conversations or even about their much assumed but still alleged relationship. That is the play’s invented premise, not documented history so it’s fine for Duran to take reasonable freedom to explore the possibilities. 

The premise is undeniably juicy. Duran has selected historical figures whose images remain so burnt into the fabric of history (over 60 years after the fact), that merely putting them in conversation creates a certain built-in tension. I was a child at the time but my love for history means that I went into the show with a preexisting fascination of these icons; younger audience members may find themselves discovering this period in history and will want to Google at the end of the play.

The play circles around familiar questions—what did Monroe and JFK mean to one another, what did fame cost each of them, how much of their public reputation is part of their true self in private moments—but the play never really advances beyond those questions.

Brenden Zwiebel gives a measured, thoughtful performance as JFK, exhibiting appealing humanity beneath the presidential polish and adjacent to a cheating husband. Zwiebel is especially effective showing some vulnerability JFK may or may not have had in his character. Yet the script gives him few opportunities to move beyond a recognizable portrait of his public charm clearly strained by private and public obligations. The performance is a committed one; the writing around it has the potential to be more probing so even those audience members with a history background leave with questions to ponder. 

As Marilyn Monroe, Hailey Hance takes on an almost impossible (exaggerated in history) cultural image with admirable seriousness. Hance avoids simply impersonating Monroe’s breathy public persona, instead searching for the person underneath the performance. There are flashes of real fragility and intelligence in the portrayal, particularly when Marilyn resists being reduced to a fantasy or a headline. Still, the play often tells us that Marilyn feels trapped by celebrity and expectation….things we have read or suspect about the real Monroe, when Duran could let those pressures emerge more organically through action.

The actors seem more than willing to meet the material’s ambitions, even when those ambitions remain partially realized.

Duran’s direction keeps the action moving efficiently—the production runs about 100 minutes (including a brief 10 minute intermission)—but the briskness can work against the drama. The emotional stakes need time to develop. Is this a one night stand (clearly) but was there more depth to it? (possibly) and we want to watch those dynamics develop. We need to feel the romance and the sexual desires. The play seems to hover above those issues. No one knows exactly what happened in that hotel room, if indeed JFK and Monroe were in such a room at that moment, so Duran may as well explore the imagined moments more extensively.

There is no shortage of good intentions in Happy Birthday, Jack! It is earnest, competently performed, and clearly made with affection for the complicated humanity that lies underneath historical legend. But it ultimately comes up. The production offers a plausible fantasy of what may have happened after an iconic performance, but not quite a satisfactory reason to go beneath its legend.

Happy Birthday Jack plays at the Greenhouse Theatre thru August 29th. Tickets available at: www.GreenhouseTheaterCenter.org