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Sep 2011  |  By Marjie Killeen  |  Comments

"Love, Loss and What I Wore": A Great Ladies' Night

The Broadway hit “Love, Loss and What I Wore” is perfect for a girls’ night out (preceded by some Michigan Avenue shopping).

But, a number of men in the audience were also roaring with laughter, so don’t count the guys out entirely.

The play, written by renowned playwrights and sisters Nora and Delia Ephron, recently opened at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower. It’s inspired by Ilene Beckerman’s best-selling book that explores the emotional impact clothes carry and the memories they conjure for women throughout their lives.

The Ephron sisters attended Sunday evening’s festive opening and both wore black, looking very chic, slim and New York. When Delia was asked about the garment that means the most to her personally, she answered readily, “It’s the raspberry sweater I wore when I fell in love with my husband on our first date. The menu caught fire, ” she said with a laugh.

She can recall every detail of her outfit 35 years ago, but not the name of that restaurant. “It was open 24 hours, the kind of place you’d go when you didn’t want the night to end,” she said.

For women, clothes and accessories are often the details that stick.

While Delia’s raspberry sweater isn’t in the script, the play includes fashion-fueled stories collected from the Ephrons’ friends as well as their own experiences.

“This topic is so suited for collaboration,” Delia said. “We don’t always work together, but working with my sister—it’s great thing in our lives.”

A diverse cast of 5 talented women with Chicago roots—Nora Dunn, Felicia Fields, Roni Geva, Katie O’Brien and Barbara Robertson—glide through an array of characters whose tales are funny, touching and unexpected.

The play is punctuated by energetic vignettes where the women sound off like a Greek chorus on familiar gripes, like how hard it is to find the right bra and the horror of facing the dressing room mirror. What woman can’t relate? Beckerman’s original drawings and memoirs, portrayed charmingly by Robertson, provide the through line of the 90-minute show.

“Love, Loss and What I Wore” runs through January 1 at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut, Chicago. Tickets range from $68-78, and $1 from every full price ticket sold will be donated to Dress for Success. Call 1-800-775-2000 or visit broadwayinchicago.com.