Tea at Five (Unabridged)

Rating:
Summary: Kate Mulgrew is wonderful as Kate Hepburn
Review: After seeing Tea 3 times it is wonderful to listen to the audio cd. Kate Mulgrew is in my opinion the most wonderful and talented actress in the world. When you listen to the audio cd it is like you hear Katharine Hepburn. If you love Katharine Hepburn and/or Kate Mulgrew this is definitely highly recommended. Of course seeing Tea at Five in theater is the best experience ever. The audio cd is second best

Rating:
Summary: Tea at Five - A spectacularly good laugh
Review: Kate Mulgrew is hilarious in this wonderful production TEA AT FIVE, featuring tales from the life of one of the 20th centuries most fascinating women.
The audience is treated to a sitting with Katharine Hepburn herself at the Hepburn family summer house at Fenwick, Conneticutt. What follows is just under two hours of reminscences, both contraversial and comical but altogether charming, and exceptionally well delivered with a tantalisingly sassy and well written script. Based heavily on Miss Hepburn's autobiography 'Me' - TEA AT FIVE offers a warm, respectful and truly satisfying tribute.

Kate Mulgrew as Katharine Hepburn takes this, her most contraversial role, in her stride. The first act, set in 1938, is magnificently funny and yet with an air of tradgedy and Mulgrew delivers with skill and Hepburn-like forwardness the tale of Hepburn's years as box office poison.
The second act is set forty years later and Kate Mulgrew outdoes herself - her impersonation of Kate Hepburn is nearly flawless - as the delightfully droll story of Hepburn's comeback is told in amidst stories of her romance with Spender Tracy.

Just which act is the funniest or the most moving depends on the individuals choice, but anyone with an ear for laughter and an eye for a good performance will just love this audio CD of Michael Lombardy's delightful play TEA AT FIVE.

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous performance
Review: Not a book but a play based on the life of Katherine Hepburn read by Kate Mulgrew. Listening to this 2CD set is the next best thing to seeing Kate Mulgrew perform in public. In 2 parts both taking place in Hepburns living room at her childhood home. The first part when she is about 31 and has left Hollywood after a series of flops she is labelled as 'box office poison'. Mulgrew does the voice extremely well and manages to convey something of the frustration and panic of a performer who is for the first time in a long time 'on the outside looking in'. The second part when Hepburn is in her 70's after her car accident, in effect retired. The voice in this part is even better. A masterful performance, the play paints a picture of a strong, independant woman, with vunerabilities in both her private and personnal life. There are of course omissions and lots of guesswork about her strange relationship with her parents especially her father and brother, but there is only so much you can put in to a two act play. Loved it, and would love to see the play.

Rating:
Summary: Very poor production
Review: This is a highly fictionalized account of some of the events of the life of Katharine Hepburn. Don't take any of it for fact. Mulgrew's imitation of Hepburn is very poor as well.