Did Norman Mailer’s swaggering misogyny drive Marilyn Monroe to overdose?

American Devotion is a fictitious exploration of a fascinating “what if” scenario: what if Norman Mailer (Mark Rittinger) came over for drinks at Marilyn Monroe (Misha Harding) and Arthur Miller’s (Holm Bradwell) Connecticut home?

In reality, Mailer never met Monroe, though his fascination with her is well documented, culminating in his provocative and controversial book Marilyn: A Biography. The play unfolds against the backdrop of McCarthyism and 1950s America, making for an intriguing premise concocted by playwright Franca Miraglia.

I’d never heard of By the Word Productions before, so I did some internet sleuthing. The name appears to connect back to Miraglia’s professional development company, By the Word, which offers storytelling, presentation, and media interview training. Elsewhere, By the Word Productions is described as a theatre collective that has co-produced exclusively Miraglia’s plays in both Canada and the U.S. From what I can gather, Miraglia is self-producing her own plays under this umbrella. Love the entrepreneurship!

The production also appears to have strong roots in Scarborough’s community theatre scene. Apart from Miraglia, virtually every other member of the creative team and cast lists affiliations with Scarborough Village Theatre, Scarborough Players, or Scarborough Theatre Guild (they’ll all affiliated with one another). Curiously, none of these companies are listed in the thank-you section of the program. Perhaps this group met doing community theatre and then decided to self-produce the play at a professional venue (Crow’s Theatre)?

The premise of the play is genuinely novel, but the execution is uneven. There are moments that are thoughtful and insightful, alongside others that feel underdeveloped or repetitive. The pacing occasionally drags, particularly in the latter half, and I found myself wishing the play were about 30 minutes shorter. Still, it was interesting to encounter a version of Mailer different from my first exposure to him – his cameo appearance in Season 5 of Gilmore Girls. In the stage version, he drinks considerably less iced tea.

The performances are committed across the board. Harding, Bradwell and Rittinger all throw themselves into the material, and each gets moments to shine. The set is unfussy and functional (designed by Petra Bockus), and the costumes by Denise Daly mostly work, though I couldn’t quite get past Mailer’s skipper hat, which looked distractingly flimsy.

I would also like to point out a specific note at the bottom of the program that stuck out to me: “NOTE: No USA-produced alcohol was purchased or consumed during the rehearsals or performances of American Devotion. Elbows Up!!” I found this somewhat odd given that the play itself is entirely about Americans living in America during the McCarthy era. If the production is taking such an emphatically “Elbows Up” stance, it raises the question of why this particular story was chosen in the first place.

At the end of the day, American Devotion didn’t leave me thinking differently about any of its three central figures. The script ultimately presents Monroe as the troubled and melodramatic star, Mailer as an obnoxious prick, and Miller as a polite intellectual anxious about communist accusations. For a play built around the collision of three larger-than-life personalities, I wanted more complexity and surprise.

Playing until June 21, 2026.

Featured Image: By Julie Adams