Camille Paglia has this to say about the Birds. It was at the end of her rant about Hillary Clinton and Ellen DeGeneres.
The Chicago Tribune gave a rave review to "Hell in a Handbag," a satirical play by David Cerda and Pauline Pang inspired by my British Film Institute book on Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." I'm a character in it -- a know-it-all psychotherapist sent as a deus ex machina by Hitchcock to straighten out Bodega Bay.I'm proud of my friends. I finally saw the show last night. My lovely wife and I house managed. They sold out on a Wednesday night. Imagine! Incredible. Good stuff. Try to get tickets if you can. The show closes this week. Posted by tripp at November 15, 2007 05:04 AMTippi Hedren and Veronica Cartwright, who starred in the original film, attended the Chicago premiere last month. The party photos are posted online: Tippi and Veronica can be glimpsed quaffing champagne in a limo and mingling with their vibrant stage doubles. The production photos of the charismatic Tracy Repep as Tippi/Melanie comically trapped in a minimalist telephone booth are not to be missed.
The play is a half-drag burlesque: The goody-two-shoes child Veronica/Cathy is played by a man, as is Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette in the film and David Cerda here), for whom my character (played by a "hawkish" Merrie Greenfield) conceives a sometimes buffoonishly irrepressible lesbo passion. Here I am effusively mourning over Annie's sprawled-out corpse, her foot caught in a rose trellis and her head heraldically ringed by stuffed birds. Love it!