War Paint tells the remarkable story of cosmetics titans Helena Rubinstein (Patti LuPone) and Elizabeth Arden (Christine Ebersole), who defined beauty standards for the first half of the 20th Century.
Brilliant innovators with humble roots, both women were masters of self-invention who sacrificed everything to become the country's first major female entrepreneurs. They were also fierce competitors, whose 50-year tug-of-war would give birth to an industry that would forever change the face of America. From Fifth Avenue society to the halls of Congress, their intense rivalry was ruthless, relentless and legendary- pushing both women to build international empires in a world dominated by men.
The fierce, always formidable lightning rod that is Patti LuPone, plays a heavily accented, not always vocally distinct Rubinstein, while the vital, vivacious Christine Ebersole plays Arden. The production becomes a spellbinding study in the competition of wills. It also explores the difficulties of that their confidantes - Douglas Sills as Rubinstein's gay associate and John Dossett as Arden's husband - faced, as men in a women's world. Michael Greif's production is a multi-layered, extraordinarily textured story of the business of beauty and fashion that lets the women put, as the show has it, their best faces forward. As Arden says, 'Every woman has a God-given right to loveliness!'
'War Paint' is never better than when it puts its two heroines in the same space and mind set. Also exquisite is 'Pink,' which is Arden's 'Is that all there is?' moment. These songwriters are good at the reflective; they know how to get under a character's skin and make us feel her pain, as well as her fierce determination.
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