Lady Romeo

Lady Romeo: The Radical and Revolutionary Life of Charlotte Cushman, America's First Celebrity- Tana Wojczuk  
Avid Reader/Simon & Schuster
Release Date: July 7, 2020

Rating:
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Synopsis: From the very beginning, she was a radical. At age nineteen, Charlotte Cushman, America’s beloved actress and the country’s first true celebrity, left her life—and countless suitors—behind to make it as a Shakespearean actress. After revolutionizing the role of Lady Macbeth in front of many adoring fans, she went on the road, performing in cities across a dividing America and building her fame. She was everywhere. And yet, her name has faded in the shadows of history.

Now, for the first time in decades, Cushman’s story comes to full and brilliant life in this definitive, exhilarating, and enlightening biography of the 19th-century icon. With rarely seen letters, Wojczuk reconstructs the formative years of Cushman’s life, set against the excitement and drama of New York City in the 1800s, featuring a cast of luminaries and revolutionaries that changed the cultural landscape of America forever.

A vivid portrait of an astonishing and uniquely American life, Lady Romeo reveals one of the most remarkable women in United States history, and restores her to the center stage where she belongs.

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The story of a little known, but pioneering actress, Lady Romeo introduces the reader to Charlotte Cushman- perhaps the greatest actress of her age and a woman who proved to the world that America was ready to embrace culture, theater, and especially Shakespeare.  Her triumphs and setbacks built Charlotte into a strong and determined woman- determined to provide for her family, determined to prove her own talent, and determined to prove America's cultural place in the world.  She befriended politicians and authors, actors and sculptors, and helped support other women in their professions.  Described here by Tana Wojczuk as America's first celebrity, Charlotte Cushman also had to learn to balance her public and private lives.  Especially when she was young, Charlotte worried about the effect on her American career if it was discovered that she had married another woman.  But in Europe as a leading actress her relationships with women and tendency to wear men's clothes were less remarked on.

I loved learning about the enterprising, determined, and pioneering Charlotte Cushman.  Wojczuk is at her best when writing about Charlotte's time on stage, bringing to life Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth or Romeo.  At these times Charlotte herself comes to life, much as she breathed life into her characters.  Wojczuk describes how Cushman left an entire generation of women (including Louisa May Alcott) star-struck; redefined Romeo and reintroduced the original Shakespearean text of Romeo and Juliet to English audiences; and broke restricting 19th-century gender roles on both sides of the ocean.

 I would have enjoyed a deeper exploration of Cushman's inner life- her emotions and thoughts, her family, and her romantic relationships- instead of the often flat or surface look we get here.  Lady Romeo is often so fast-paced that it feels like we've skipped years of Cushman's life and development.  At other times repetition or time-period hopping take away some of the emotional impact of scenes like Cushman's final performance- beautifully written and detailed but put in the beginning of the book, before we get to know Cushman, and then ignored completely at the end when it might have had an even larger emotional impact.  The people around Charlotte had no life to them, we get no real idea why Charlotte loved someone, what attracted her to a person (platonically or romantically).  Whether this is because there wasn't anything in the resources used to flesh out the people, or often Charlotte herself,  is impossible to say. But Lady Romeo definitely left me wanting to know more about Charlotte and her world- how she fit into it and how she changed it to fit her.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review