Los Angeles Times
By David Ng
July 4, 2013, 7:16 a.m.
“I’ll Eat You Last,” John Logan’s stage play starring Bette Midler as the late Hollywood talent agent Sue Mengers, recently closed up shop on Broadway after a profitable run at the Booth Theatre. Now there’s speculation that the one-woman show is destined for Los Angeles, though there has been no official confirmation.
Midler told the New York Times in an interview published this week that producers are considering taking the play to L.A. A publicist for the New York production of “I’ll Eat You Last” said that its producers had no comment.
The play would seem like a natural fit for L.A. audiences — it is set entirely within Mengers’ spacious Beverly Hills home and serves up dishy stories about Tinseltown politics. Wearing a roomy caftan and a blond wig, Midler incarnated the late Hollywood doyenne whose client roster included Barbra Streisand, Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Faye Dunaway and many other top stars of the ’60s and ’70s.
One possible venue is Center Theatre Group. Douglas C. Baker, the company’s producing director, said in a statement sent to The Times that “CTG has expressed keen interest for ‘I’ll Eat You Last’ to come to either the Ahmanson Theatre or the Mark Taper Forum, but nothing has been confirmed as this time.”
CTG produced Logan’s Tony Award-winning play “Red” at the Taper last year. Other non-touring Broadway productions to come to CTG include “God of Carnage,” with the original New York cast, and “Seminar,” with Jeff Goldblum.
“I’ll Eat You Last” turned a profit on Broadway, recouping its $2.4 million investment. But neither the play nor Midler received Tony nominations.
