Theatremania is Negative:
"Billed as "Blonde in T-bird" at the end of the American Graffiti cast credits, the future Three's Company star discovered that her 10-second role in the seminal George Lucas classic was all she needed to launch a mid-level Hollywood career. It also provided her with a handle for The Blonde in the Thunderbird, a show that's a little too grim for its seeming natural habitat -- a splashy, flashy nightclub room -- and a little too tacky for Broadway.
Wearing black tights to draw attention to her ThighMaster-ed thighs and a tight black top that isn't as forgiving of her swell but not perfect 58-year-old figure as she may think it is -- and with a battery-pack sitting just above her bottom like a low-slung papoose -- Somers recalls her early upbringing. In a series of histrionic sequences accompanied by Robert Ludwig's emphatic sound design, she demonstrates how she grew up in a home with a verbally abusive and relentlessly alcoholic father, how she fled that home for an early marriage, how she divorced to go off with her young son and with a propensity for buying designer blouses while running up bills she couldn't pay. Eventually, she lands the American Graffiti part and rehearses her one line -- "I love you" -- only to learn that she has but to mouth the words. On the verge of quitting the business, she's tapped to play Chrissie in Three's Company. The rest, as they say far too often and frequently overestimating it, is history.
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Along with the other pop tunes and Broadway ditties that Somers delivers in a sure and strong voice, she might have thought to slot Billy Joel's "Shameless." She could belt that one while hauling out a large cart laden with items hawked during the 25 hours she mentions devoting weekly to the Home Shopping Network. After showcasing the Alan Hamel-marketed, Suzanne Somers-brand watches etc., she produces a ThighMaster and executes a few squeezes. Besides other genuine-entertainment infractions committed, Somers transforms Broadway into a handy HSN outlet.
http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/6348
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
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"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
