Anyone familiar with Jean Smart’s incredible versatility on stage and screen might still be surprised by her remarkable performance in the solo show Call Me Izzy. The role of an innocent backwoods woman trapped in an abusive marriage is the polar opposite of her Emmy-winning turn as the brilliant, ego-driven stand-up Deborah Vance in the HBO Max series Hacks. Yet Smart is so good in the part that she manages to elevate what is a fairly minor work that has great, yet unmet, potential.
Playwright Jamie Wax says he based the story on an aunt in Louisiana. The abuse he describes is harrowing, but as written the narrative doesn’t achieve the full dramatic effect it deserves.
[Read David Finkle’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
Smart plays Izzy, a smart woman with limited experience who is living in a trailer park in the tiny town of Mansfield, La. Married since the age of 17 to Ferd, a real brute who’s obviously intimidated by her innate intelligence, she tries to make the best of what is a dreary existence. She loves to read and has a gift for writing, but sadly, as she puts it, there’s no one to appreciate her work — least of all, Ferd, who does everything he can to smother her passion. And that includes setting fire to all of her cherished journals.
In this day and age, it’s hard to fathom how any woman could stay in such an oppressive relationship. Perhaps that’s why it’s set in 1989. It still sounds so foreign to sophisticated audiences today, but as Izzy’s mother tells her “There’s nothing worse than being an old maid… The pickins’ in this town are real slim. It’s better to have a broken arm than no arm at all.” With that motherly advice, Izzy stays in the marriage, forced to do her writing in the bathroom using an eyebrow pencil on toilet paper in the middle of the night so as not to alert her husband.
The play runs about 90 intermissionless minutes, which still seems too long. It starts slowly and feels rather disjointed as Izzy jumps back and forth in time explaining her unhappy life with occasional dry humor. Smart brings the character to vivid life but she can only do so much to engage the audience when the writing falls short.
The set design by Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams, dominated by a bathroom and with muted trees in the background, does little to establish time and place. And Sarna Lapine’s direction could do more to clarify the action, which tends to be confusing as Smart plays all the roles and we’re never quite sure who’s doing the talking. The great T. Bone Burnett is credited with composing original music, but I wish there were more of it.
Of particular note are the moments when Izzy recites her poetry, which is quite impressive. With all her talent, it should feel heartbreaking to see how it’s squandered by a man who routinely tries to beat it out of her. Izzy refers to her poems as her children. And yet even with Smart’s bravura acting and the extreme cruelty Izzy experiences, the playwriting never quite manages the emotional depth that the story requires.
I’m very glad to see Jean Smart back on a Broadway stage. She could literally entertain us reading a grocery list. And even with the play’s shortcomings, she makes it all worthwhile. But there were moments when my mind drifted to wondering how great it would be if only Smart could morph into her kick-ass character from Hacks and take care of business as only Deborah Vance could do.
Call Me Izzy opened June 12, 2025, at Studio 54 and runs through August 17. Tickets and information: callmeizzyplay.com
