A new play finally captures who Joan Rivers was

Larry Amoros first met Joan Rivers in 2008 to write material for the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor ceremony. In getting to know her comic sensibilities, he asked: Is anything off-limits? For example, would she make jokes about the suicide of her late husband and manager, Edgar Rosenberg?

“She said, ‘I had 10 new minutes before they closed the casket,’” recalled Amoros, who went on to write jokes and books with Rivers until her death in 2014. “She wasn’t afraid of crossing the line. She was very smart, she had quick instincts, she worked incredibly hard and she was absolutely fearless.”

Ten years later, Amoros is again punching up sets for Rivers onstage, as part of the creative team of the play “Joan,” opening Friday at South Coast Repertory and running through Nov. 24.

The world-premiere production showcases Rivers’ career trajectory — her start in New York comedy clubs in Greenwich Village, her bittersweet relationship with “The Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson, her own short-lived late-night series and her reinvention on Hollywood’s red carpets — with her signature acerbic wit. (Naturally, her character makes jokes about the frequency at which she has sex, gets plastic surgery and attends funerals.)

Joan Rivers, photographed in 2010. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) Joan and Melissa Rivers, photographed in 2005. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

“We want to make it as authentically Joan as possible so that the people who see this will feel like they recognize her and that they’re in the room with her,” said Daniel Goldstein, who was approached about writing the play in 2019 by the comedian’s daughter, Melissa Rivers, and live-experience production company Mills Entertainment. Goldstein was given free rein to extrapolate material from Joan’s books, documentaries, stand-up sets and joke catalogs, even if it was never performed.

But the new stage show isn’t just a retread of professional highlights and clever punchlines. “We’re not just making an excuse to tell Melissa and Joan’s jokes, not at all,” said director David Ivers.

“This is the story of a woman who broke barriers in every way, and how she was both relentless and kind in her pursuit of that vision for herself. And what I love about this piece is that you can see the DNA of her work ethic and resilience in her parents, that unique and beautiful grit that comes with being a first-generation American and choosing to turn adversity into opportunity.”

And while it is a memory play, Melissa Rivers considers it to be truthful in a specific way. “I’m most thankful that this play so artfully differentiates between the public persona and the true, private person,” she said.

The character of Joan Rivers was as much a part of her identity as Joan Rosenberg, who she was off-camera and at home, Melissa said. “But she was so much more than that character in real life, and I think her elegance, compassion and generosity are finally being shown as part of the same person everyone knew her to be.”

Tessa Auberjonois as Joan Rivers and Andrew Borba as Edgar Rosenberg in “Joan” at South Coast Repertory.

(Scott Smeltzer)

While many of the words said onstage are those of Rivers herself, the four-actor production is looser in terms of performance: Elinor Gunn initially portrays the up-and-coming comic as she butts heads with her Russian Jewish immigrant mother, played by Tessa Auberjonois. With a metatheatrical nod and a graceful swap of a shawl, Auberjonois then plays the comedian for the majority of the piece.

“Joan was so theatrical in her way, and she always had a deep love of theater,” said Goldstein. “When we realized that this story is so much about mother-daughter relationships, and how legacies are handed down and interpreted between generations, we thought that, rather than having one person try to play Joan from 18 to 80 years old, we’d make that actor switch of the mother-daughter dynamic become part of our storytelling method.”

Both Auberjonois and Gunn participated in the play’s first readings two years ago, and have since worked with a dialect coach and studied archival footage to adopt Rivers’ signature mannerisms and vocal qualities — to an extent.

“This is an interpretation, not an impersonation,” said Auberjonois of her approach. “I took the pressure off myself to do this perfectly because it’s such an impossible task, and told myself to just get as close as I can to Joan’s comedy rhythms and emotional journey. Melissa has been so encouraging and given me some real gems that have helped me with certain scenes of the show.”

Elinor Gunn as Melissa Rivers in “Joan” at South Coast Repertory.

(Scott Smeltzer)

Meanwhile, Gunn portrays Melissa Rivers (a playwriting decision that surprised the icon’s real-life daughter, “but considering that my mother went into labor onstage, it’s not like I’ve ever really had that much of a choice!” she said with a laugh.) When the play sees Auberjonois’ Joan in private moments of frustration, rage and grief, Gunn’s Rivers is watching it all unfold from the side of the stage, and the two occasionally debrief about what Joan just experienced alone.

“How beautiful it would be to get that time back with your parent, especially in those moments when you would want to be strong for them and take care of them,” said Gunn of the effect. “I love playing that because so much of Joan’s story is about Joan and Melissa, the bond between the two of them and how connected they were.”

It’s intended for the audience to occasionally at least crack a smile during the show’s tougher scenes. “The most important thing is that it’s still funny,” said Melissa Rivers. “To my mom, that was always the most important thing of anything. And my family’s biggest coping mechanism is humor — allow yourself to be in those darker moments, yeah, but then come out of it by finding the light.”

The producers of “Joan” have “big hopes and plans for this to go elsewhere after South Coast,” said Melissa Rivers. Possibly all the way to Broadway, where the comedian’s co-written 1972 debut, “Fun City,” closed after nine performances — a flop that’s reenacted in “Joan” itself?

“For a woman who always wanted to be a big Broadway actress to now have her story told in that format, that would be beautifully ironic,” said Melissa Rivers. “Life’s funny that way sometimes.”

Tessa Auberjonois as Joan Rivers and Zachary Prince as Jimmy Fallon in “Joan” at South Coast Repertory.

(Scott Smeltzer)