Jessica Sherr
presents

BETTE DAVIS AIN’T FOR SISSIES

Livestreaming
July 15 through September 24, 2020

Written & Performed by JESSICA SHERR
Directed by KAREN CARPENTER

https://m.onthestage.com

No bumpy flight here. JESSICA SHERR slips into Bette Davis like an evening glove and dazzles like candlelight on a knife blade. Glamor, attitude, talent, claws, Bette is there in front of us like a pet tiger. We love her, but we know what she is capable of. Our admiration is tempered with a little fear of what she’s going to do next.

It’s 1940. Bette is 31, and she’s lived a lot in that time. Marriage, divorce, abortion, a stage career in the east followed by a film career in Hollywood. Doted on by her mother, ignored by her father, she is a steam locomotive. Unstoppable.

Except for tonight, Oscar night. The L.A. Times leaks the results early. Bette learns that she has lost Best Actress to Vivien Leigh. I’ll let JESSICA/Bette take it from there. Pour yourself a drink and smoke ’em if you got ’em.

SHERR premiered her Bette show at the 2008 Fringe Festival and has been performing it ever since. She has lengthened it and remolded over the years, performing to rave reviews. She is not a caricature, not an impersonation, not the drag-queen version. She becomes Davis. Period. With stunning result.

Like a prism, SHERR lets Davis’s light shine through her to create a rainbow of enjoyment.

-Karen D’Onofrio-