[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of BIG HAIR: A Rad and Wild Love Affair, written and performed by Maegan Mandarino at the Whitefire Theatre Solofest 2025.
Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder, two of the most loved comedic actors of our time. Both gone, but far, far from forgotten. BIG HAIR: A Rad and Wild Love Affair is Maegan Mandarino’s sweetly funny biopic of their love affair, narrated by Gene Wilder as Dr. Frankenstein and Gilda Radner as Roseanne Roseannadanna. Both are wonderfully portrayed by the phenomenally talented Maegan Mandarino.
There’s nothing traditional about Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder’s love affair. Nothing. And this solo show, while somewhat confined by the structure of a theatre, a stage and one performer, is just as genre defining. Is it a documentary? Is it a satire? Is it a clever, intimately drawn impersonation? Is it a drama? Is it a comedy?
The answer is, of course, yes…and. BIG HAIR: A Rad and Wild Love Affair really defies all of the above while also being absolutely all of them at once. There are a lot of really wonderful film and TV interview clips to make us smile and laugh and sigh in our missing of them. All are related to their relationship, along with some wonderful outtakes and clips from SNL and Young Frankenstein, and that is at the heart of the show. But because these two people were so extraordinary and are such a huge part of the American culture still, I found myself so mesmerized by just how good they were, that their love affair took second place, just a little. Although, of course, it is love that is the lens through which Ms Mandarino explores who they were. The love we have for them, as well as the love they had for each other.
In these desperate and turbulent times, I find such comfort in the exquisitely unique and profoundly talented Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner. There was such an innocence to them, a buoyancy, a joyful oddness that truly transcended language and country and even time. I saw Young Frankenstein at the Ford last Halloween. It’s still as good as ever. And Roseanne Roseannadanna is and always will be one of the most iconic SNL characters.
What made this show all the more moving was how charmingly Maegan Mandarino performs as Radner and Wilder. Switching crazy wigs, clothing and voices, she mimics them but endearingly, subtly, if that’s a word one might use to define either of these incredible artists. But with this thoughtful, loving interpretation of who she believes them to be, Maegan Mandarino doesn’t impersonate them. She allows them to speak through her. Covering herself with their vivid colors and textures and irony and heart. She carries them with her, like memories or inspiration. And that flows through her, forming a strange kind of version of them. But one that somehow feels utterly genuine and true. I can’t explain it really. I think you just have to experience this show and allow the nuance and the craft, and the heart of her performance to reach you. And it does, by reaching right through your chest to your heart, making your throat tighten a little as you laugh and cry and feel so many emotions all at once. It’s quite extraordinary. I came away feeling blessed to have been there, honestly.
These two people will always be a couple in our memories, although their relationship was on and off and Gilda’s life was sadly far too short. Maegan Mandarino reminds us how precious some humans are to our collective consciousness. How pivotal their lives were in our lifetime. How transcendent their influence and how permanent their echo.
If you have the chance to see this wonderful wonderful show, BIG HAIR: A Rad and Wild Love Affair, I highly recommend that you do. If you want to feel as happy as these two people made us feel over and over again. If you want to be reminded of gentler times in your life, or a moment when everyone watched the same shows and talked about them the following day. That kind of deep connection through performance art doesn’t happen in the same way anymore. Although it does still happen. But Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner were something else, something very very special, something magical…and they will always be.