Bettyboy, you said it yourself- there's no reason at all that Vera still can't be "sexy and viable." It's taking way too much of a surface interpretation of the material to think that her relationship with Joey is based purely on her being over the hill and him seeing dollar signs.
Vera is someone who married a wealthy man as his trophy wife, but, as she's getting older, she's finding that she no longer serves that function, so she turns to a younger man like Joey to find the purpose she doesn't have in her own marriage anymore. Ultimately, even if she knows she's being taken advantage of, she just wants to be able to do something for someone else again, since her whole life has been defined in relation to someone who is needing less and less of her. A woman in her late 40s to early 50s would
certainly be able to experience that sort of dilemma, since it's incredibly common in society for men to stray toward younger women when their wives are still very much "viable." The pendulum swings both ways.
If anything, you can argue that it provides a pretty sound basis for some of Vera's questionable judgement to have her at an age where the tricks of her sex appeal are just beginning to fail her for the first time. Someone like Channing, as sexy as she still is in her 60s, would have long since seen that side of the coin. Mazzie, on the other hand, is at the interesting age where you wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see
Vera surprised to find herself starting to lose her touch. That could certainly send her into the arms of someone like Joey.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Updated On: 10/17/11 at 01:06 AM