Theatre 2025: Ava - Secret Conversations

Ava Gardner (1922-1990) was a famous American actress working under contract for MGM between 1941-1986, which overlapped Hollywood’s Golden Age.  Known for her stunning looks and famous husbands as much as for her movie roles including “The Killers”, “Show Boat”, “The Barefoot Contessa”, “Night of the Iguana” and “Mogambo”, Gardner was dubbed “The World’s Most Beautiful Animal”.  She was briefly married to Mickey Rooney (1942-43), Artie Shaw (1945-46), and Frank Sinatra (1951-57).  All this can be discovered from a basic Google or Wikipedia search.

It was a bit of a disappointment to watch the play “Ava: Secret Conversations” which was based on a collaborative autobiography of Gardner that was ghost-written by Peter Evans.  Despite the implicit promises of the title, there were not really any new insights about the star.  Rather, the play focuses on the period in 1988, towards the end of Ava’s life, when Evans and Gardner held multiple private interviews in preparation for the book, only to have it all fall apart at the end. Gardner walked away from the project out of loyalty to Sinatra after learning that Evans had been successfully sued for libel by Ava's last husband, who she considered the love of her life despite their divorce.  Instead, Gardner worked with other writers on “Ava: My Story” which was published a few months after her death in 1990.  Peter Evans’ book was not published until 2013, a year after his death, after Gardner’s estate finally granted permission.

The role of Ava is played by Elizabeth McGovern of Downton Abbey fame, who also wrote the screenplay adapted from Evan’s book.  If McGovern’s portrayal is accurate, in the last years of Ava’s life, she was skittish, acerbic, foul-mouthed, temperamental and elusive in revealing much detail about her personal life.  The sole humorous moment in the play was when Ava protested about all the swearing that Evans had included in the biography but did so by cursing like a sailor. On the whole, I thought her performance felt overwrought and whether that was because of the acting or what was required by the screenplay, both can be attributed back to McGovern.

Aaron Costa Ganis, in the role of Peter Evans, fares much better.  He also portrays all three of Ava’s husbands, aptly mimicking each of them while video cues in the background help to clarify which character he is playing.  In particular, in the role of Sinatra, Costa Ganis does such a great job of singing “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” that I watched closely to determine whether he was lip-syncing (he wasn’t). Towards the end of the show as the relationship between Evans and Gardner was fraying, there was implication that Evans had fallen for Gardner, which does not seem to be substantiated by history and could have been added just for dramatic purposes.

In the end, I found this play to be lightweight and not that memorable. For me, the two most intriguing questions that arose from attending this show were not even about the content of the play.  The first was why no photographs were allowed, even at curtain call.  Most shows encourage you to take photos at curtain call and post them as part of free publicity, which you would think this show could use.   The second was why Elizabeth McGovern looked so shockingly thin? Perhaps she always looks like this but you couldn’t tell from watching Downton Abbey since she wore long sleeves and flowing outfits and we never saw her bare limbs.