I Wanna Be Loved By You

Who really was Marilyn Monroe? I Wanna Be Loved By You tries to answer this question. Charting her life journey, from Norma Jean’s rise to fame up to her controversial death, this play centres around the private persona of America's most infamous sex symbol.

In I Wanna Be Loved By You, Monroe’s character is played by all three of the female cast members at different points in the play. This strategy works well to emphasise Monroe’s conflicting personalities, the pre-celebrity young girl, the iconic actress and pin-up, and the private Marilyn, known to nobody but herself. This production also cleverly depicts Monroe’s love/hate relationship with the press. Each scene is broken up by a frantic media scrum, intruding into the play in the same interfering fashion they had in Monroe’s short life. At one point, Joe DiMaggio, Monroe’s second husband, states that “the press are either at your feet or your throat,” a line reminiscent of today’s treatment of celebrity.

I Wanna be Loved By You is excellent at detailing the events of Monroe’s life, from her marriages - including those to DiMaggio and Arthur Miller - to her relationship with her mum and her drug addiction. Yet this production doesn’t unravel any of the secrets it promises to and this is a problem. I Wanna Be Loved By You tries to do too much. Fifty minutes is not enough time to accurately comment on every aspect of Monroe’s life. Focusing on one would have been difficult enough. As a result, this production provides an interesting account of a complex character, but barely scratches the surface.