John Tufts

American actress Elizabeth McGovern is best known today for her role as Lady Cora, Countess of Grantham, in the long-running "Downton Abbey" series. However, she is also an Academy-Award winning nominee for her performance in the film of "Ragtime" as chorus girl and actress Evelyn Nesbitt. Since the early 1990s when she moved to London, she has often appeared on the West End stage. Now she has come to our shores as Hollywood icon Ava Gardner in a play of her own devising: "Ava: The Secret Conversations," adapted from the 2013 book of the same name by celebrity journalist Peter Evans and Gardner herself. Although not the first name that comes to mind when one thinks of actresses to impersonate sex symbol Gardner, McGovern is charming and surprising, profane and coy, an independent woman who knows her own mind and has a great deal to say. She gives off flashes of fireworks along with the witty dialogue taken from Gardner’s own words. She is not only convincing but sympathetic as she recounts the mistakes and tragedies in her life. On stage throughout is Aaron Costa Ganis as British journalist Evans who we don’t learn as much about but makes an interesting foil for the flamboyant Gardner, even in these later years after her screen fame. [more]