Trouble

Trouble, written & directed by Michael Smith, revisits the Myerson scandal. A beauty queen brought low by love is the focus of Smith’s “compassionate comedy.” Crowned Miss America at the end of World War II, Bess Myerson went on to a stellar career on television, as a regular panelist on “I’ve Got a Secret,” and in New York government, as Commissioner of Consumer Affairs under Mayor Lindsay and Commissioner of Cultural Affairs under Mayor Koch. But she made a big mistake in 1986 when she gave a city job to the daughter of the judge who was ruling on her lover’s divorce settlement. The press found out and jumped all over the story. Forced to resign, Myerson was subsequently prosecuted (unsuccessfully) by Rudolph Giuliani.

Trouble is a satirical fantasia on Myerson’s dramatic fall, presented as four vignettes that evoke her varied relationships, including a studio visit to inscrutable pop artist “Sandy Morphol” and a final showdown with her lover, in prison on tax charges. A personality of exceptional buoyancy, she rides out the storm bent but unbroken.

Appropriate For Ages: 13 and up