Anna Nicole Smith was besieged with tabloid ignominy for the most part of her career. Through infamy, the once crowned Playboy Bunny had the accusing cross heir constantly telescoped, waiting for the call to pull the trigger. Her marriage to the 89 year old J. Howard Marshall contributed largely to this – Smith herself was 26 at the time. To suggest this marriage was for reasons other than love would be deplorably hackneyed.
Similarly to Elvis, Smith died alone and fat. Unlike Elvis, whose vice was the meaty seduction of a novelty sized hamburger – Smith’s drug of choice was drugs. Finally catching up on her, the vicious cocktail of prescription medicine brought an end to what can only be described as a fairly tragic life. She never ended up with Marshall’s cash.
Four years on from her passing, the good people who brought you “Jerry Springer: The Opera” have launched the theatrical production (which one could imagine is a Brittish opéra bouffe of some sort) Anna Nicole Smith: The Opera. We hate to insensitively drop spoilers into this article, of which the theatre community would highly detest, but yes, she dies before the curtain is drawn.
After a sold-out opening night, applauds were rapturous from the culture hungry audience members, while creator Richard Thomas summed it up with grace and compassion. “The way we look at it, is Anna in this opera is a fabulous eccentric who fell on bad times”.
In this Opera…not in real life.
