By Matthew Wexler
Ava Gardner was one of the biggest stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She also had a mouth like a trucker. At least as interpreted by Elizabeth McGovern, who wrote and stars in Ava: The Secret Conversations.
McGovern, who most audiences know most recently through her role as Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham, in the Downton Abbey TV and film franchise, takes big swings at Gardner’s life, both as a playwright and as an actor. And she knocks it out of the park.
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Crafted as a pas de deux fever dream opposite Aaron Costa Ganis as journalist and celebrity biographer Peter Evans, Ava follows a mostly chronological path. The aging actress, after suffering a stroke and needing financial resources, engages the well-known wordsmith to document her life, which included stormy marriages to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra.
McGovern acutely embodies Gardner’s magnetism and toxicity. Foul-mouthed and flirty in her youth, frail and ferocious in later years, the Oscar-nominated actress (both subject and star) is a force to be reckoned with. Costa Ganis provides a formidable sparring partner, not only as Evans but also as an uncanny embodiment of Gardner’s ex-husbands.
Director Moritz von Stuelpnagel keeps the pace tight, despite the script occasionally losing its sense of urgency. Scenic designer David Meyer’s unexpected end-of-play reveal, combined with Alex Basco Koch’s saturated archival projection design, gives the 90-minute intermissionless evening enough sensory jolts when the dialogue stagnates.
Still, plenty of moments land big. When asked why she never had children, Gardner responds, “When you get blown up so big, Peter, you end up paper thin.”
Gardner was as big as they get. But McGovern finds agency in her subject, particularly in an industry that continues to commodify women. At one point, Ava suggests to her biographer, “Let’s just make it up.” Fortunately, they didn’t.
Ava: The Secret Conversations plays at Stage 1, New York City Center, through September 14, 2025.
‘Ava: The Secret Conversations’ takeaway
Curious about whatever happened to the pair’s writing project? Gardner died in 1990; Evans in 2012. The book finally made it to print in 2014, with mixed reviews.
NPR described Evans’ portrayal of Gardner as “an ailing, cranky, vain, annoying, profane and fiercely stubborn has-been.”
Fortunately, we have Elizabeth McGovern delivering a more nuanced onstage portrait.
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