Joy Davidson, mezzo-soprano, began her career with a professional debut in Rossini’s LA CENERENTOLA with Greater Miami Opera and went on to sing 45 roles throughout Europe and North America. Her debut with the Metropolitan Opera National Company was Bizet’s CARMEN which she has performed some 300 times in the next 30 years. Other frequently performed roles were Dalila (SAMSON & DALILA), Charlotte (WERTHER), Adalgisa, (NORMA: her Metropolitan Opera debut), Azucena and Amneris in Verdi’s IL TROVATORE AND AIDA.  Touring 6 to 8 months of the year, Joy performed at New York CIty Opera, Chicago Lyric, San Francisco Opera, Opera companies in Canada, Spain, France, Brazil, Austria (Vienna Staatsoper), Germany and with numerous companies in Italy, her debut at La Scala being Dalila. She was a Columbia Community Concert Artist and was soloist with orchestras such as Boston, NY Philharmonic, Los Angles, Leningrad, and with RIccardo Muti and the Maggio Musicale Orchestra of Florence, Italy. While still touring, Miss Davidson was summoned to build an opera department at New World School of the Arts in Miami where she taught and directed opera for 13 years. She was honored with an Endowed Chair as Outstanding Professor of Music. Since her retirement from teaching and from the operatic and concert stage, Joy has returned to the theatre with performances as Maria Callas in MASTER CLASS (Terrance McNally) and three one woman dramas: MARIA: The Life and Loves of Maria Callas (Alma H. Bond) and ALICE: An Evening with the Tart-Tongued Alice Roosevelt Longworth (Kitty Felde), and Tea at Five, (Matthew Lombardo) the one woman tour de force of Katharine Hepburn. Miss Davidson also garnered rave reviews for her performance as the NURSE in MEDEA (Euripedes/Jeffers) for Theatre Conspiracy in March 2011. Sharing her passion for Opera and experiences through 30 years of performing, Joy presents BACKSTAGE AT THE OPERA for Lifelong Learning at the Philharmonic Center for the Arts.

Story by Glenn Miller

Joy Davidson has enjoyed many roles: Opera singer, wife, mother and performer.

Now, the Naples resident has a new role – that of Katharine Hepburn in “Tea at Five,” a one-woman show at the Naples Philharmonic.  Shows are scheduled for Sunday and Monday as part of the Phil’s lifelong learning program.

Davidson has been working with Fort Myers resident Annette Trossback, artistic director of the Laboratory Theater of Florida and the Gulf Coast Shakespeare Festival, to capture the Hepburn essence.

“The rhythm of her personality,” Trossbach said.  ”What sets her off.  What makes her laugh.  So in many senses it’s like sitting in a room with Katharine Hepburn and watching the joys in her life and how she dealt with pain.”

Hepburn died nearly a decade ago at the age of 96 and remains a screen legend whose roles and distinctive voice and characters remain well known to movie fans.  Her career included films such as “The African Queen,” “The Philadelphia Story” and “Bringing up Baby.”

She did it all on screen and off with an independent spunk and spirit, wearing slacks in the 1930s when that was very rare for women.

When interviewer Barbara Walters once asked if she owned a skirt, she told her, “I have one, Ms. Walters.  I’ll wear it to your funeral.”

Davidson’s goal is capturing that Hepburn.

In the first act, the 75-year-old Davidson plays Hepburn at 31.  In the second act, Hepburn is 76.  Davidson has immersed herself for months in Hepburn, reading the actresses’ autobiography, “Me: Stories of My Life,” and A. Scott Berg’s biography of the actress.  She’s also watched Hepburn clips on You Tube.

“I have to tell you I’m not sure how fond I am of Hepburn,” Davidson said.

As Davidson spoke, she sometimes spoke in her Hepburn voice, as when she talked about how the screen legend’s father did not approve of her career choice.

“Becoming an actress is more despicable than becoming a prostitute,” Davidson said, channeling Hepburn.  ”Because at least hookers have plenty of employment opportunity. ” The prostitute line is from the play.

As a youth in Fort Collins, CO, Davidson participated in community theater and wanted to pursue acting, but her father didn’t think that was the way to go.

“You’re going to be a teacher,” she said, recalling her father’s directive.

Instead, she became an opera singer and she recalls that on her first national tour she was on the road 48 weeks. She and her husband, Rob, had two babies at the time.

“Not everyone can imitate a voice,” Trossbach said.  ”Joy is being very, very modest because she’s got the voice. You’ll listen to her in the play and close your eyes and you’ll think it’s Katharine Hepburn.”

Through it all, Davidson skips ladylike around the simple set, pouring tea, chatting on the phone and telling stories. Telling stories is what the actress does best because she gets to use that marvelous, beautiful, amazing, mellifluous opera-trained voice that draws you into the action so easily. – NDN, Chris Silk

NAPLES — One lump or two? Milk? How about a surging round of applause? That’s the conclusion of Joy Davidson’s one-woman show “Tea at Five,” which examines the life of screen legend Katharine Hepburn. Captivated by Davidson’s powerful voice, audiences sat enthralled for two hours.

“Tea at Five,” from Matthew Lombardo, picks two occasions in Hepburn’s life. Audiences see the actress in September 1938, after a series of under-performing films sees her labeled “box office poison” and again in February 1983. If the script sometimes wanders in search of a deeper theme, Hepburn’s vibrant spirit and independence shines. Lombardo also sprinkles in amusing anecdotes from Hepburn’s career.

Davidson, dressed in stylish black slacks and a glittering ebony pullover for the first half, manages to embody the sheer presence that Hepburn would have radiated. The actress’s stage persona, diction and magnificent voice captures the attention and holds the room spellbound while her Hepburn creation holds court.

In the 1938 segment, Hepburn retreats to the family home in Connecticut after a series of failed movies. Even though she’s won an Oscar (1933′s “Morning Glory”), Hollywood and the press had turned its back on her.

Director Annette Trossbach, the founder and artistic director of the Laboratory Theater of Florida, plays up Hepburn’s girlish qualities during this half. Davidson bounces and lounges on the ornate loveseat, curls into the chair and squeals into the telephone.

Phone conversations run through the show, offering a glimpse of the outside world. During this half, Hepburn pursues the role of Scarlett in “Gone With the Wind,” calling agents and demanding updates. Ex-husbands also ring. Watching Davidson coo and snarl into the phone – especially when the audience knows the eventual outcome – delights. The outburst over Vivian Leigh – when it comes – brings peals of laughter.

Through it all, Davidson skips ladylike around the simple set, pouring tea, chatting on the phone and telling stories. Telling stories is what the actress does best because she gets to use that marvelous, beautiful, amazing, mellifluous opera-trained voice that draws you into the action so easily.

Kate taking voice lessons. Kate trying to blow out a candle by aspirating the letter “H.” Kate going on as the understudy in her first play – and failing. Kate getting married. Kate triumphing on Broadway after making an entrance carrying a stag over her shoulders in “The Warrior’s Husband.”

Hepburn’s long affair with actor Spencer Tracy falls into the second half. Davidson dips into the subject tenderly, caressing a red sweater thrown over her shoulders (it was Tracy’s) and sharing memories of their time together. Other moments look back at Hepburn’s long career, including musical “Coco.”

Davidson plays Hepburn’s medical problems with sensitivity and grace. The actress had developed a tremor by the early 1980s and suffered a broken leg in a car crash. A breakdown scene drives home the impotence the lively actress must have felt at being so constricted. Pill bottles dot the pastel 1983 set, complete with slim mint green telephone.

The show’s one truly serious theme, the death of Hepburn’s brother, is explored deftly. Davidson slows her speech, makes the audience feel as if she’s talking directly to them, recounts the story and how her family reacted. Unfortunately, Sunday’s scene was ruined by a ringing cell phone during a key moment.

“Tea at Five” offers a singularly fascinating peek through the blinds of a screen legend. Even if many details of Hepburn’s life and career were well-chronicled by an actress that loved the press, Davidson brings them to life in stirring, thrilling fashion. Her brilliant storyteller’s skill lifts the play’s modest ambitions to entertaining delight.

Online Source: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/mar/13/review-joy-davidson-katharine-hepburn-tea-at-five/

The first act takes placae in September 1938. Despite Broadway performances and her first Oscar, Hepburn has just been labeled “box-office poisoin” after a series of film flops. With her professional future in doubt, she contemplates her childhood in Hartford, education and her start in show business.

The second act takes place in February 1983, after Hepburn was injured in a car crash. The accident affords the now-legendary star and oppotunity to reflect on the triumphs of her career and her heartbreaking romance with Spencer Tracy.

Photos by Debi Pittman Wilkey

High-resolution are available upon request. Please send an e-mail to joy@joydavidsonpresents.com

(click on the thumbnail photo to retrieve a high-resolution copy)

Naples Philharmonic Center

March 10 & March 11, 2012
A fantastic team!
Director: Annette Trossbach
Makeup: Sandra Kaseto
Husband: Rob Davidson
Photography: Debi Pittman Wilkey, Gary Jung

Erin Williams writes in the Washington Post on July 19, 2011: 

If you haven’t got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to Alice Roosevelt Longworth.

The 81-year-old eldest daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt has a lot to get off her chest, and she doesn’t hold her tongue about anyone in the walk-through-history stage production written by Kitty Felde and directed by Stevie Zimmerman, “Alice: An Evening With Alice Roosevelt Longworth,” based on her life and times. She’s portrayed by a sassy and boisterous Joy Davidson.

(…)

Read the rest of the review on the web site of the Washington Post

Tea at Five
Actress Joy Davidson returns to the Phil with an invitation for Tea at Five – Matthew Lombardo’s stunning one-woman play based on Katharine Hepburn’s book Me: Stories of My Life.

Davidson breathed vivid theatrical life into the remarkable personas of Maria Callas and Alice Roosevelt Longworth in seasons 2009 and 2010. Now she returns with an intimate look at Hepburn at home in her Fenwick estate in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.

The first act takes place in September 1938. Despite Broadway performances and her first Oscar, Hepburn has just been labeled “box office poison” after a series of film flops. With her professional future in doubt, she contemplates her childhood

in Hartford, education and her start in show business.

The second act takes place in February 1983, after Hepburn was injured in a car crash. The accident affords the now-legendary star an opportunity to reflect on the triumphs of her career and her heart-breaking romance with Spencer Tracy.