Holland Taylor as Ann Richards in Ann

Ann, the one-woman show about the late Texas Governor Ann Richards, is an odd little thing: Governor Richards falls well short of the stature one would normally associate with having a major theatrical production dedicated to one’s life—if she is remembered at all, she will be remembered as a specimen belonging to a transitional species in the evolution of politics into a sub-phylum of celebrity, a missing link between Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Her career was bookended by two generations of Bushes: Her famous 1988 speech at the Democratic National Convention (partly ghostwritten by Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner) was celebrated for its half-clever personal attack on George H. W. Bush—“born with a silver foot in his mouth”—and her 1994 gubernatorial campaign against George W. Bush was likewise light on issues and heavy on personal opprobrium—she famously dismissed her opponent as “some jerk.” She was on the losing side in both campaigns: George H. W. Bush placed his silver foot firmly in the Democrats’ posterior with a forty-state Electoral College triumph, since unmatched, while in 1994 Governor Richards suffered an intraparty revolt when Gary Espinosa claimed more than a fifth of the Democratic primary vote and the debilitated incumbent was crushed by the future president. The most notable innovation of the Richards administration was the institution of a state-monopoly lottery in Texas—which is to say, a regressive opt-in tax on the poor and innumerate. But her most