I’ll Eat You Last - A Chat with Sue Mengers
I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers is a 2013 American one-person play by John Logan, about the talent agent Sue Mengers.
Productions
The debut 2013 American production starred Bette Midler.[3] The play cost $2.4 million and recouped its cost in eight weeks.[4]
The Australian premiere of the play will be a new Melbourne Theatre Company production in October 2014, starring Miriam Margolyes as Mengers..[1][2][5]
Sue Mengers
Sue Mengers (September 2, 1932 – October 15, 2011) was a talent agent to many significant filmmakers and actors of the New Hollywood generation of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.
Mengers entered the talent agency business in 1955 as a receptionist at MCA, at the time the dominant company of the trade, with a roster of clients that included Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift. She also worked for a while as a secretary for freelance theatrical agency Baum & Newborn. Eventually, she was hired as a secretary at William Morris Agency, a powerhouse in the emerging TV business,[16] where she remained until 1963, when a former Baum & Newborn colleague, Tom Korman, formed his own agency and hired her as a talent agent.[17]
Her first big score was actress Julie Harris, who was primarily a stage performer. To Mengers’ surprise, Harris wanted to appear on an episode of Bonanza. Mengers contacted the producer, who commissioned a specially written episode for Harris.[18] Mengers represented Anthony Perkins, who had not worked in the United States since Psycho (1960). She contacted producer Ray Stark and obtained Perkins a role in director René Clément’s film Is Paris Burning? (1966).[18]
In the late 1960s or early 1970s, she was hired by Creative Management Associates (CMA), a boutique agency owned by Freddie Fields. CMA’s clients included Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and Robert Redford.[19] On December 30, 1974, Fields sold the agency to Marvin Josephson’s International Famous Agency (IFA), to become International Creative Management (ICM).[20] Mengers represented Candice Bergen, Peter Bogdanovich, Michael Caine, Dyan Cannon, Cher, Joan Collins, Brian De Palma, Faye Dunaway, Bob Fosse, Gene Hackman, Sidney Lumet, Ali MacGraw, Steve McQueen, Mike Nichols, Nick Nolte, Tatum O’Neal, Ryan O’Neal, Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shepherd, Barbra Streisand, Gore Vidal, and Tuesday Weld, among others.[6] She retired from International Creative Management (ICM) in 1986 and came back for a brief stint at the William Morris Agency from 1988-90.
Chinatown Controversy
In the play, Mengers claims that Jane Fonda turned down the role of Evelyn in the 1974 film Chinatown, which ended up being a defining role for Faye Dunaway. In 2013, Fonda responded by saying that director Roman Polanski had never really offered her the part, and that it was written for Dunaway.[6]
Video
References
- Peter Biskind, “When Sue Was Queen”, Vanity Fair April 2000 accessed 12 July 2013
- Maureen Dowd, “Baby It’s Sue!” Vanity Fair April 2013 accessed 12 July 2013
- Patrick Healy, “After Years of Playing Bette, Another Role”, New York Times, April 10, 2013 accessed 12 July 2013
- “Bette Midler Pushes B’way’s ‘I’ll Eat You Last’ Into the Black” Variety 30 May 2013 accessed 12 July 2013
- Melbourne Theatre Company accessed 17 September 2013
- http://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/and-more/roman-polanski-never-offered-me-the-role-in-chinatown-jane-fonda_135862.html, first published, June 02, 2013, 11:35; viewed 7-3-2014
External Links
- New York Times review
- Review by Liz Smith at Huffington Post
- Review by Rex Reed
- Review at Hollywood Reporter
- Official website
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Category: Play
