The late, great columnist and author Molly Ivins has been immortalized in a new play,Red Hot Patriot — the Kick Ass Wit of Molly Ivins. A lot of friends and fans of Ivins, who was raised in River Oaks and attended St. John's School before graduating from Smith College and embarking on a career as one of the nation's great liberal writers, turned out for the opening night performance at Main Street Theater Chelsea Market.

The performance benefited the Texas Observer, the muckraking Austin-based monthly where Ivins launched her journalism career. "In Molly Ivins' hometown, we're all here to support the Texas Observer, one of the last bastions of real journalism that we can all hold onto," said Caroline Starry LeBlanc, who chaired the event with Kate Allen Stukenberg and Kitty C. Allen.

Many in the audience were moved to tears by the poignant performance of Houston actress Sara Gaston, who channeled Ivins in what is essentially a one-woman show that runs close to 80 minutes. They also laughed a lot as Gaston-as-Ivins skewered the Texas legislature ("Can you believe God gave me all that material for free?"), former President George W. Bush (whom Ivins nicknamed "Shrub"), and Texas congressman Jim Collins, about whom she once said, "If his IQ were any lower, we'd have to water him twice a day."

Those who knew Ivins, who died in 2007 at age 62 after several bouts with breast cancer, said the play captured her essence. "She usually wore a prairie skirt and cowboy boots (instead of jeans), but other than that, it was dead on," said Houston attorney Kate McConnico who got to know Ivins in 1992 when McConnico worked at the Texas Observer and Ivins dropped by regularly.

"I thought it brought back many, many memories," said iconic Texas liberal activist Sissy Farenthold, a close friend of Ivins. "The words were hers."

Susan Longley, president of the Texas Democracy Foundation Board, which publishes the Observer, has seen the play several times and noted it was still a work in progress. (She saw the premiere in Philadelphia in 2012 starring Kathleen Turner and a production in Austin last year.)

"I didn't expected tears in my eyes at the end," Longley said. They have tightened it up and made Molly more of a person. It gets the real Molly."

"It captured her sadness, too," Farenthold added. "It reminded me of many things."

Kitty Allen, who knew Ivins well when Allen's late husband, Joseph Hugh Allen, served in the Texas legislature, said she thought the play did a great job of showing Ivins' humanity. "Actually, Molly was even more colorful (that portrayed in the play)," Allen said.

Among those in the throng were former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and his wife Diana, Houston City Council member Ellen Cohen, Carlton Carl, Gertrude Barnstone, George Barnstone, Katharine Lord, Emily DePrang, who is the Houston-based reporter for the Observer, and Progressive Forum founder Randall Morton and his wife, Suzanne Longley (no relation to Susan Longley, although they posed for a photo together).

Also seen at the reception before the play began, where guests nibbled on munchies from Chelsea Grill and drank soft drinks, wine and Saint Arnold Beer: Barbara Canetti and Carlos Rios, Jeannie Kever and Scott Merville, John Everett, Barbara Davis, Catherine Anspon, Karen Steele, Jared LeBlanc, James Glassman, Caroline Gallay and Liz Dennis.

Jason Nodler, creative director of Catastrophic Theatre, and Miki Johnson, author of the acclaimed play, American Falls, which was recently staged by Catastrophic, also dropped in to lend their support.

A production of Red Hot Patriot will travel to Washington, D.C. to kick off the Arena Stage's fall season Aug. 23. Kathleen Turner will again take on the role of Ivins in the D.C. production, which will run through Oct. 28.

The Main Street Theater production will run through July 1.