‘Ode To The Wasp Woman,’ Starring Sean Young, Opens Off-Broadway Today
by Tom Smithyman
A new Off-Broadway play with music will examine the lives of four 1950s B-movie actors opens today.
Ode To The Wasp Woman chronicles the last 48 hours in the lives of Susan Cabot, leading lady of the Roger Corman’s cult classic The Wasp Woman; George Reeves, the man who brought Superman to life on TV screens across America; Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer of the Our Gang comedies; and B-movie queen Barbara Payton.
“I wrote Ode To The Wasp Woman as a paean to my boyhood TV heroes of the 1960’s and 70’s,” said playwright Rider McDowell, who also directs. “When I learned on the same rainy day in 1970 that Superman and Alfalfa were both dead, it shocked me. Fold in the deaths of ‘Wasp Woman’ Susan Cabot and Barbara ‘I am not ashamed’ Payton, actresses I admired, and the grim picture was complete. Ode To The Wasp Woman reveals the who, what, where, if not the ‘why,’ of the deaths of these fallen stars.”
Actress Sean Young, known for her film roles in Blade Runner and Fatal Instinct, makes her New York stage debut as Cabot. Young leads a company that include Josh Alscher as Switzer, Douglas Everett Davis as Reeves, and Payton Georgiana as B-movie queen Payton.
“I’m ecstatic about coming to New York and working onstage,” Young said. “This is something I’ve wanted to do since graduating from Interlohen Arts Academy. I can’t wait to start rehearsal. The play is a sly cautionary tale about ambitious people who work in Hollywood, become desperate, and how show business chews them up. I’m looking forward to purging my own personal experience of being eaten alive in Hollywood.”
The 13-week engagement will run from October 30, 2023, through January 31, 2024, at The Actors Temple Theatre in New York City. Opening night is tonight.
