David Mirvish & Hannah Mirvish and Karl Sydow/Ava: The Secret Conversations, written by Elizabeth McGovern, based on the book “The Secret Conversations” by Peter Evans and Ava Gardner, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel (with the support of the Ava Gardner Trust), CAA Theatre, closes Nov. 30. Tickets here.
There is much to admire about the Hollywood female actors of today, but you cannot compare them with the great movie stars of the past.
Just think about Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner, and Ava Gardner — the redhead, the blonde, and the brunette. They had a charisma that modern actors simply cannot match. Their glamour, their mystique, their magnetism was as huge as the their pictures that were splashed across billboards.
The play Ava: The Secret Conversations reflects that over-the-top personality those women had.
The Play
In the play, however, we are not meeting the dazzling Ava Gardner of old. We are meeting an Ava at 66, who has suffered a stroke, who is in declining health, and who needs money.
That is why she hires British journalist Peter Evans to ghostwrite her memoirs.
This is a sad Ava. She declares she hates foul-mouthed women, but she is one herself. It is a raw Ava, defensive and volatile.
Evan’s agent pressures him to get the dirt on her husbands — Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra. Yet Evans knows that it is Ava’s story that matters, not theirs.
The Background
The background to the play is fascinating.
Elizabeth McGovern, who stars as Ava and who wrote the play, draws on the real tapes recorded by Peter Evans when he interviewed an ailing Ava Gardner in 1988.
The sessions ended abruptly when Ava learned that Evans had been sued by Frank Sinatra years earlier after accusing him of Mafia connections. Ever loyal to Sinatra, she fired Evans and turned to other ghostwriters, whose sanitized version — Ava, My Story — was published posthumously in 1990.
Only after her death did Evans revisit his raw, unfiltered recordings.
With the permission of the Ava Gardner Trust, he began to shape them into what would become the book The Secret Conversations. Evans died in 2012, and the book was published in 2013.
It is from those transcripts that McGovern drew the material for her play, preserving the tension and volatility of those interviews.
The Structure
McGovern has structured the play with intelligence.
We watch Evans tread on glass, trying not to set off Ava’s temper as he coaxes her memories.
Then we flash into scenes with Ava and each husband, with actor Aaron Costa Ganis transforming from Evans into Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra.
Mickey Rooney, whom Ava calls a child who could not control himself. The intellectual Artie Shaw, whose arrogance masks deep insecurity — he cannot believe she beat him at chess. And Frank Sinatra, controlling and needy, desperate for her attention. These vignettes are both moving and revealing.
From time to time Evans breaks away to have conversations with his agent which is a third layer of drama.
Between these scenes, lavish projections of the young Ava — film clips, studio portraits, the glamorous goddess — remind us of the woman the world adored, even as we see her decline before us.
The Acting
Elizabeth McGovern suits the role of the older, frail Ava. Her thin frame, the short-cropped dark wig, and that gravelly voice all evoke the real woman near the end of her life. Her performance captures both Ava’s wit and her weariness.
Aaron Costa Ganis is strongest as the American men, and very irritating as the British accented Peter Evans where he sounds very mannered at best. Yet his portrayal as each of the husbands is quite remarkable, including his singing as Frank Sinatra.
Michael Bakkensen’s offstage voice as Ed Victor, the pushy agent, adds a sharp note of realism to the exchanges.
The Production
The set, by David Meyer, is a visual treat — a lime-green and pink London hotel suite, framed by three Georgian windows, bathed in warm light that subtly shifts as the day passes.
The lighting, by Amith Chandrashaker, glows beautifully on the pastel furniture, and the costumes by Toni-Leslie James give Ava a succession of lounging gowns that shimmer with faded glamour.
Epitaph
Remembering Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner, and Ava Gardner — you simply realize they do not make them like that anymore. Those Hollywood goddesses were larger than life, that no one today can match them.
Even the faded Ava of The Secret Conversations can still evoke those memories of yesteryear.
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