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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2008 > June > 11 > Entry
Review: ‘Love, Janis’ at the Long Center
There’s an irony in watching a Janis Joplin stand-in talk about the Monterey Pop Festival, the hazy launching pad for the Summer of Love, in the Michael and Susan Dell Hall at the Long Center, where you can’t even bring in a glass of pinot grigio.
There’s also plenty of fun to be had.
“Love, Janis” tells the story of the Texas native from the time she makes her way through her first audition with Big Brother and the Holding Company to her death, jumping from letters she sent home, read Tuesday night by Marisa Ryan, to the songs she made famous, sung by Mary Bridget Davies. It doesn’t make for much of a narrative arc — they are, after all, letters and songs, not chapters — but it’s enough.
Ryan offers a take on Janis’ letters that’s more lonely and filled with a need for approval than the singer’s brassy music would let on. Davies, though, belts out some of her own interpretations that, especially in “Summertime” and “Ball and Chain,” offer an alternative to Joplin’s while still celebrating the original.
The two Joplins complement each other, but, as could be expected, the music overpowers the story. Because while Ryan’s reading of the letters can be funny and heartfelt, it feels most like Boomer nostalgia. The music, though more familiar, feels fresh.
(“Love, Janis” continues at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive. $34-$59. 474-5664, thelongcenter.org.)
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