Joan Osborne is slated to appear in the New York production of V-Day, which will include a special performance of The Vagina Monologues, at Madison Square Garden on February 10th. The event will benefit organizations working to end violence against women.

V-Day is an extension of the groundbreaking three-woman play that has featured dozens of celebrity guests. According to director Abby Epstein, the event will take place in and around Valentine's Day in over 200 locations, including Jordan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Kosovo, Tel Aviv, Mexico City, Costa Rica, Cuba and Buenos Aires.

In countries where women are oppressed, the show, which deals with every aspect of the vagina, from rape and genital mutilation to gynecological examinations and love-making, is forced underground, she says.

While actresses primarily take the roles in the Eve Ensler-penned production, Osborne joins other professional musicians such as Alanis Morissette, Melissa Etheridge and Chantal Kreviazuk who have either guested for week-long runs in The Vagina Monologues or for the annual V-Day event, which also features music.

"I know Janet Jackson wants to do it," adds Epstein. "We've heard from her people. She's interested in doing the show. But she isn't scheduled yet."

The Vagina Monologues currently has stationary productions in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, plus a touring company which just finished up in Toronto and will hit Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa this year.

The play has employed actresses who sing, such as ER's Gloria Reuben, who opened the Toronto run at the Music Hall. The next week, Kreviazuk moaned the roof off the place with the orgasm monologue, containing the stratospheric opera diva bit.

"We have had some opera singers in the play, like Audra McDonald. I don't think a lot of actresses could pull it off quite the same way," admits Epstein of the character-driven multiple orgasms.

Morissette has acted since childhood and Kreviazuk just completed her first role, as a maid, in the independent film Century Hotel, opposite her husband, Raine Maida from rock band Our Lady Peace.

Regardless of their respective acting experience, Epstein says musicians work particularly well in The Vagina Monologues because it's a natural crossover. "A lot of times musicians are incredibly soulful people. They're connected to their voice, they're connected to their message, they're connected to lyrics and to what they're saying.

"I had an absolutely wonderful time working with Alanis. We had a great dynamic and I think that she brought so much soul into her performance," says Epstein of Morissette's off-Broadway run last year.

"One of the monologues that she did was one of the only serious monologues of the show, which was the rape victims in Bosnia. She rehearsed it a few times and I remember the first night she went up in front of an audience, she absolutely broke down. It was really unexpected. It was just so moving and beautiful. It was one of the most vivid performances of that piece.

"I felt that way with Chantal too. I just felt she was a very natural actress and even working the material with her, she's really smart about it. The writing has very particular rhythms and I think sometimes the musical people, they hear the rhythm."

As for the newly married Madonna, one of the most obvious choices for The Vagina Monologues because of her unapologetic sense of her own sexuality, femininity, strength and womanhood, Epstein hasn't heard a word.

"I don't know if Madonna's ever been offered. I don't know the history on that. It's really hard -- because you do have to share the stage," she quips.

KAREN BLISS
(January 9, 2001)