Ed Asner As FDR at Newly Reopened Pasadena Playhouse

Last night I went to the newly reopened Pasadena Playhouse to see Ed Asner's one man show as FDR which was written by Dore Schary. It was a delight to be back at the historic Pasadena Playhouse and to know that it is struggling its way out of bankruptcy. Last time I was at the Playhouse, it was to see Camelot and to mourn its closing.

Ed Asner gave a magnificent performance. Having now done two roles where I've had long speeches to perform without error, I was in awe of the complicated and complex performance he gave. So were other people, because at the end, many gave him a standing ovation.

While I applaud Ed Asner's performance, I can't say the same for the material by Dore Schary. The monologue starts with FDR's polio and how he felt about it, struggled with it, and tried to not let it interfere with his life. That was all great and helped me understand aspects of the man I never knew about. Then the play continues with FDR's viewpoint of his presidency and there's where I have the problem.

Don't get me wrong. I have much admiration for FDR and what he accomplished. But there are a couple of blights on him and a couple of other decisions that should have been explored. The play offers up a viewpoint that FDR was angered by the people who said he invited the Pearl Harbor attack, but it never deals with the central complaint about that tragedy -- the foolishness of having our entire fleet together in one spot, a sitting duck for an air attack, for no apparent vital reason, if not to say, come and get us, with an eye on being able to use it as an excuse to get Congress fired up enough to declare war.

The play doesn't deal with the terrible injustice FDR did to our Japanese American citizens by incarcerating them in relocation/interment camps for the duration of the war and confiscating much of their land and possessions without any consideration that children born here were not enemy traitors and spies, nor were the adults who would've welcomed the opportunity to defend their adopted country.

The play doesn't deal with the fact that FDR wouldn't sanction the boat landing of Jewish children fleeing the Nazis and what would have been certain death for them in concentration camps. That the boat had to turn around and return to the UK to unload its young passengers there.

The play doesn't deal with the fact that FDR set in motion the plan to drop A bombs on the two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Granted it was President Truman who actually gave the order, but it was FDR who gave the greenlight to develop and get them ready. He would have been the one to deploy them as will, if it hadn't been for his untimely death.

And the play glossed over the complex relationship he had with his wife Eleanor, of whom we learned little, despite the number of times he called out for her on stage.

So while the play was magnificent on the polio beginning, the presidential years were pretty much a white wash, in which you didn't learn anything of great substance. Still, Ed Asner did a great job handling the material and it was great to see the Pasadena Playhouse alive again.