Call Me Izzy
(Photo: Marc J. Franklin)
By Fern Siegel (Posted 6/14/25)
Secrets can save your sanity. But once revealed, anything can happen.
That’s the case in Call Me Izzy, set in rural Louisiana in 1989. Jean Smart delivers a remarkable, compelling performance in the solo show. Now at Broadway’s Studio 54, Izzy is a portrait of an artist in peril. Her reality — domestic violence — is one millions of women silently endure. But the strength of Izzy’s convictions in the face of abuse results in a quiet, but shattering drama that will haunt audiences long after they leave the theater.
Jamie Wax’s play is set in Izzy’s trailer-park home. The confined space, coupled with a troubled marriage, translates into a severely limited life. Yet she possesses a saving grace: talent. An engaging storyteller, Izzy miraculously manages to be funny and imaginative. A sympathetic neighbor, a friend of the library, introduces her to the world of books, and Izzy exclaims: “I didn’t know libraries had friends!”
Grateful for the smallest kindness, she is trapped by a lack of education and a union, at 17, to an unseen abusive husband. Her only refuge is writing beautifully crafted poems that she hides. Yet Izzy takes refuge in humor and extraordinary personal expression, narrating her own story, even the learned helplessness, with unvarnished truth and lyricism.
Her honesty in this 95-minute, no intermission show is both heartbreaking and powerful.
Given the intimacy of the story, a smaller theater would have brought the character in closer contact with her audience. Still, Smart, best known for her TV work, including “Designing Women” and the Max comedy “Hacks,” commands the stage. The Emmy winner is smoothly directed by Sarna Lapine, who has neatly calibrated Izzy’s emotional upheaval. Smart is also aided by T-Bone Burnett’s original music, Donald Holder’s beautiful, evocative lighting and Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams’ spot-on set design.
Wax based “Izzy” on his aunt, as well as interviews with survivors of domestic abuse. As he told Broadway Buzz: “Art is the only way some people can reflect a sense of identity. It’s as much of a need as water, fire and shelter.”
When his memorable play opens, Izzy wonders: “If you write something and no one reads it, does it exist? Do I exist?” It’s a humbling question — and underscores the life of quiet desperation that too many women endure. Wax doesn’t stint on her resilience, or how being trapped in emotional and economic poverty can feel inescapable. The moving work is a tribute to survival at all costs.
It’s been 25 years since Smart appeared on Broadway, earning a Tony nomination for the revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner. She deserves another for Call Me Izzy.