MY HOLLYWOOD

This story of competing priorities—between family life and career—is told from the contrasting perspectives of a mother and a nanny. Bhama Roget’s talented performance alternates between a subtle, flat accent for Claire and a lilting intonation for Filipina nanny Lola. Claire is torn between her career as a cellist and composer and her life with her husband, a TV joke writer, and her son, Willie. Claire is always looking for something she doesn’t have, and Roget portrays her as flat, sad, and unfulfilled. In contrast, Roget’s engaging reading of Lola’s life as a nanny to American children shows how Lola charms her way to success in America. While Hollywood seems glamorous from the outside, Roget dramatization of the contrasting dreams of each character makes this world seem more real. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2010]