THEATER: ‘The Giggling Granny’ Eerily and Entertainingly Tells the Story of Serial Killer Nannie Doss

It’s not often you hear the story of a female serial killer, let alone one from the early 20th century. ‘The Giggling Granny,’ running from Jan. 9 – Jan. 26 at Theater for the New City, gives audiences a first-hand account from famous serial killer Nannie Doss herself as she regales how she murdered four of her husbands to “a reporter at Life Magazine” (read: the audience).

Written by Marsha Lee Sheiness, this one-woman show starring Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning actress Marilyn Chris, is both unsettling and entertaining.

As soon as Chris emerges from behind the curtain with Doss’ signature Southern drawl, it is clear she is portraying a woman with a storied past and a zany personality.

I went in with a limited knowledge of who Doss was — she killed four of her husbands across four different states between 1927 and 1954 — but other than that, I thought it would be best to hear the details from Nannie herself. I’m satisfied I did so, as the play outlines most of the major details — I didn’t feel anything was missing from not knowing her full backstory.

Sheiness did an artful job of weaving Doss’ life story into an intricate 90-minute tale, beginning with Nannie’s most recent husband Samuel Doss.

Nannie and Sam were married three months — “the longest three months of [her] life.” After Nannie was fed up with Sam’s controlling ways, she poisoned him enough to send him to the hospital, where doctors treated an infection and sent him back home. After a failed first effort, Nannie poisoned him again, sprinkling some rat poison in his stewed prunes. But unfortunately, his timely death raised some eyebrows to his doctor who had just treated him — he eventually pushed for an autopsy, which was what led to Nannie’s demise. The autopsy found massive amounts of arsenic in Sam’s body, and Nannie was arrested and charged with murder.

Her previous three husbands that she murdered — Frank, Arlie and Richard — also get their spotlight in the play.

Frank Harrelson, a poet and romantic, married Nannie in 1929. After they wed, Nannie discovers his alcoholic, criminal and abusive history. Their relationship culminates with Harrelson raping Nannie, which was “the last straw” for her. The next day, she put rat poison in his glass of whiskey and killed him. Arlie Lanning and Richard Morton were Nannie’s third and fourth husbands, whom she also poisoned.

The audience also gets a glimpse into Nannie’s childhood traumas that may have contributed to her criminal activity and lifelong need for attention — a severe head injury at seven years old that left her with chronic headaches and an abusive father who had her working on their family farm as young as five.

Chris truly captured the crazy essence of ‘The Giggling Granny,’ with no shortage of attention-seeking maneuvers, spontaneous intermissions to sing a line or two from Doris Day or Nat King Cole, and — obviously — many giggles along the way from both her and the audience alike. Most of all, she truly paints the picture of how Nannie wanted to be painted — a woman who was truly just seeking genuine love like the stories in her romance novels, and if she received some attention at the funerals and life insurance money along the way, that wouldn’t hurt, right?

Even still, while Nannie is living out her prison sentence and dying of leukemia, she continues looking for love, whether that’s through her lovers via snail mail or in her “private prayer” time with the prison chaplain.

‘The Giggling Granny’ runs at Theater for the New City until Jan. 26 on Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are $18 for general admission and $15 for seniors and students.