Crackling 'Ann' Wins In A Landslide

Ann Richards, the larger-than-life governor of Texas from 1991–1995, is lovingly brought to life on stage in a rousing performance by Holland Taylor in Ann at Vivian Beaumont Theater at New York's Lincoln Center that opens today. A dead ringer for Richards, Taylor, sporting the governor's trademarked helmet of white hair, inhabits the role so thoroughly that your suspension of disbelief simply becomes belief.

Richards, as Taylor points out in the show, was not Texas's first female governor. That honor went to "Ma" Ferguson in 1925. But she was such a singular figure that it seems hard to imagine any other place but Texas could have bred her. Richards shot to national — and global attention — for her keynote speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in which she eviscerated the famously tongue-tied George H.W. Bush. "Poor George," she intoned, "born with a silver foot in his mouth!"

Indeed, her deft skill with language and humor were the very skills that helped her grab the reigns of power in that famously chauvinistic state. Ann is so full of homespun aphorisms and metaphors that your head sometimes reels from the profusion of wit. The salty jokes and barbs fly to hilarious effect. "Fire him," Richards barks, dispatching the man charged with planning her foreign trips. "He couldn't organize a circle jerk!"

Ann is a one-woman show that, indeed, showcases Taylor's talents perfectly. It is neatly organized in two acts. In the first, Richards gives a high school commencement address which allows her to reflect on her rise from Texas housewife and mother to the highest office in the state. In the second, Richards commands the governor's office taking calls intermittently from Bill Clinton and her kids while struggling over staying a death penalty case.

One can't help but wonder how different the world would be if Richards had defeated George W. Bush in her re-election campaign in 1994. Rumor was that Junior launched the campaign out of anger over Richard's humiliating words about his father. But Richards's political shortcomings don't diminish her as a subject of fascination. With such fertile subject matter, it's easy to see how Ann could have gone terribly wrong and verged into caricature in less skillful hands. Taylor's performance is nothing short of brilliant. No wonder that at the show's close, Taylor blows a kiss to a real portrait of Richards. Apparently, this was indeed a labor of love.