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Nov 2011  |  By Kerry Reid  |  Comments

Holland Taylor Commands as Ann in “An Affectionate Portrait”

Ann Richards earned her place in American political history at the 1988 Democratic National Convention.

That’s where she famously described George H.W. Bush as a man who was “born with a silver foot in his mouth”—a quip that made her reputation, though it didn’t do much to help elect Michael Dukakis.

So there is perhaps a sad irony that this true daughter of the Texas working class lost her own race for re-election as Texas governor in 1994 to the wealthy and well-connected New England-born son of her onetime comic foil.

In Holland Taylor’s self-scripted, one-woman portrait of the late Richards (who died of esophageal cancer in 2006), “ANN: An Affectionate Portrait of Ann Richards,” the political takes a backseat to the personal. And while the script itself feels less than satisfying—particularly in its homiletic conclusion—Taylor’s performance is completely beguiling.

Sporting a cream-colored suit that matches Richards’ trademark hairdo (she tells us fellow tart-tongued Texan Molly Ivins called it “Republican hair”), Taylor’s incarnation of the late governor catches the sweet-but-stiletto-sharp drawl that drew blood from the elder Bush. If you mostly know her as the blue-blooded Harvard law professor from “Legally Blonde” or as the arms-length mother on “Two and a Half Men,” Taylor’s uncanny turn as the salt-of-the-earth Richards will prove that there is far more than cool patrician reserve in her quiverful of acting range.

The show begins with a commencement speech at fictional Bugtussle College in the Lone Star State in which the now-ex governor reminisces on her childhood. Then, as the young wife of a politically ambitious civil rights attorney and the mother of four children, Richards found herself moving from Total Woman to Totaled Woman. “I thought my duty in life was to be perfect,” Taylor’s Ann tells the new grads. She ended up divorced and with a drinking problem that she only licked at age 47. However, her relentless ability to schmooze, charm, and keep going no matter what moved her up the always-colorful ladder of Texas politics and into the governor’s mansion.

And the Richards we meet never sheds her persistent need for perfectionism. The centerpiece and most successful element of Taylor’s show is a section set on a hectic day-in-the-life of the governor in 1993, where she fields dozens of calls from staff members, her children and President Clinton, alternately praising and chiding and agonizing over matters of state—particularly whether or not to grant a stay of execution to a man convicted of raping and killing a nun. “I suppose I owe you an apology,” she tells one browbeaten subordinate, followed by a deliberate pause and, “You aren’t getting one.”

The section contains more dramatic heft than the bookending monologues, which, while serviceable in terms of exposition, don’t work as well at exposing what made Richards tick. Right now, the end of the show has Richards delivering feel-good insights dusted with a degree of cheap sentiment unworthy of Taylor’s take-no-prisoners subject.

But as a portrait of a vanishing breed of politician—one who came of age before focus groups and faux-populism ruled the day—and as an antidote to the current poisonous political discourse, “Ann” is a joy. Taylor, who plans on taking the play to Broadway in the spring, knows her subject well. Now she just needs to take off the gloves and trust that we can figure Richards out by how she acts, not what she says.

“Ann” runs through December 4 at Bank of America Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St., Chicago. For tickets, call 800-775-2000 or visit broadwayinchicago.com.