Stefanie Today

Very American in its sentiment and very Jewish in its comedy content, this new play by Michael J folie has been a huge success in the States.  I'm not sure English audiences will find it so appealing.

The play features Hollywood stars Stephanie Powers and Michael Brandon.

She is Sharon, a sassy, high-flying, wheeling-dealing, manipulating, tough cookie of a political lobbyist who goes to a chiropractor for an "adjustment" on her stiff neck
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His own medical condition is given away by the tremor of his hands.  His Parkinson's Disease is in an advanced stage, he reveals, but his adherence to a strict Jewish sect means he is unlikely to get permission from its leader for a life-changing operation.

The play contains several improbabilities, not least that she fall so hopelessly in love with him.  It is, perhaps, more a meeting of minds, because one of the tragedies of Parkinson's is that its symptoms are
physically unattractive.

She literally sacrifices a great deal for her love.  Her reward is the child she conceives during a single night of passion.

This is another aspect of the drama which I found difficult to accept.  Although the character is meant to be younger, it is hard to forget that this actress, though very attractive, is on the wrong side of 50 - an age unlikely to get pregnant at one attempt.

The political slant of the piece washed very much over my head but the religious content is more absorbing.  American cult leaders have a bad reputation over here and that is where the play seems to be leading - until Sharon experiences a blinding white light when she opens a door to reveal the
mysterious Rabbi.

Is this her road to Damascus?  The scene is enigmatic but thought provoking.

Powers is poised and sleek as Sharon, softening as her attraction to Matt takes over her life.  Brandon awakens sympathies with his finely-observed portrayal, though he is a character of contradictions.  A married man, he disobeys rabbinic teaching by making love to Sharon but he will not disobey
it in order to save his life.

The scene in which he lies on a hospital trolley, shaking uncontrollably, is agonizing to watch.

STEFANIE NEAR THE PEAK OF HER POWERS Cambridge Evening News  May 18, 2000

Hollywood star Stefanie Powers will be at Cambridge Arts Theatre, next week, starring in The Adjustment.  Hannah Singleton spoke to her.

Whether popping up at the BAFTA's to give Michael Gambon his latest award, or teaching Richard and Judy how to drink wine, Stefanie Powers is proving herself to be a very well-adjusted lady.

She is currently touring in The Adjustment with Michael Brandon (Dempsey in Dempsey and Makepeace) and Tony Anholt (Charles Frere from Howard's Way).
 
In this new play by Michael T Folie, Powers has added the unscrupulous, sharp-talking political lobbyist Sharon to a long list of stage and screen roles.  Hating politics herself, and devoting much of her life to wildlife conservation, Powers is a million miles away from her character; nevertheless she seems to be rather enjoying the role.

Born in Hollywood, Powers began her career at 15, dancing for Jerome Robbins in the film West Side Story.  When Blake Edwards cast her to play Lee Remick's sister in the thriller Experiment In Terror, it was the beginning of a long term contract with Columbia Pictures in the final golden years of the Hollywood star system.  Within five years, she had co-starred in 15 motion pictures, working with such legendary names as Lana Turner, John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara and Bing Crosby.

Her first television series, The Girl From Uncle, was followed by the classic Disney movie Herbie Rides Again, and countless other films, musicals and mini-series, including Mistral's Daughter.  But it was with Robert Wagner as one half of the perfect American couple, Jennifer and Jonathan Hart, that she made her name around the world.  The early 1980's television series Hart to Hart featured two intrepid investigators fetchingly attired in red silk pajamas, a shaggy dog called Freeway and Max, who took care of all of them.  Hart to Hart proved to have a phenomenal popularity which continues to this day.

>Powers, though, has now left Jennifer far behind.  Sharon represents a kind of sub-species, the tough side of New York.  The character comes from an immigrant family, most of whom were lost in the Holocaust, and she has decided she's not going to be a victim in life.  She will use every scheme she can to propel herself forward.  That is until she encounters real altruism in the shape of her chiropractor, Matthew Cohen.  That really stops her, it touches her more deeply than anything has ever done.

The other main character in this highly unusual love story is played by fellow American Michael Brandon, who made his professional debut on the New York stage opposite Al Pacino, and met and married his co-star, Glynis Barber, whilst filming one of the most successful British TV series ever, Dempsey and Makepeace.

Brandon, whose career has included making love to Jacqueline Bisset in a bathroom on a plane, is taken with his latest leading lady.  "I'm sitting there in my little chiropractic bench," he says, "and I find myself just looking at her, thinking to myself, they're paying me to do this? Have I picked the right career or what?"

On a serious note, though, Brandon's role consists of a lot more than doing physical adjustments on Stefanie Powers (mostly in her bra).  In Cohen, an orthodox Jew suffering from Parkinson's Disease, two extraordinary facets are combined in the same man.

"I was doing a movie with William Hurt in Budapest when the script came through", Brandon recalls.  "One day, I was walking along, thinking should I or shouldn't I, when all of a sudden I looked up and found myself standing in front of the oldest synagogue in Europe.  Inside, it was awesome and at
that moment the decision was made."  It is certainly not one he regrets.

"Matthew is a wonderful creation, and I love playing him because he is so different from anything I've ever seen before.  Some 120,000 people in the UK suffer from this terrible illness, and I've been on the phone to the Parkinson's Disease Society incessantly with questions.  I wanted to do the role honestly, without making it uncomfortable for those watching who are not touched by the disease.  For those who are, I wanted to project in a real way the issues that they are dealing with".

Out of an incongruous selection of ingredients, most of which are based directly on his own experience, Folie has fashioned a strangely compelling play which manages to be both funny and moving, a combination that has ensured packed houses all around the country.