Farewell, Elaine Stritch - 1925-2014

Tonight they dimmed the lights on Broadway in honor of Elaine Stritch, who passed away yesterday at the age of 89.  Even without the salute, the lights will be a bit dimmer without her living presence.

Stritch’s reputation was that of a tough old broad with an inexplicable talent that could both attract and repel. She appeared in movies and television, of course, but always and ever she was a Broadway baby, a what-you-see-is-what-you-get mix of chutzpah and vulnerability who could charm the cream from a cow or scare the manure out of it. As playwright/actor Harvey Fierstein tweeted yesterday, she was  “a great pain in the ass [who] cooked with atomic power.” 

My only non-theater encounter with her showed me a bit of both one late night a few years ago. As I was walking south on Fifth Avenue, she was headed north, accompanied by a young woman who I imagine had been entrusted with getting her home safely to the Carlyle. But Stritch would have none of being fussed over, and was clearly in a foul mood as she used some of that atomic power to lash out at her assistant. I decided this was not a good time to express my admiration, and so I kept on walking like any good New Yorker, pretending not to notice.   

Pain in the ass she may have been, but there is no doubting she was a  amazing performer, with the uncanny ability to sell anything through the act of selling herself. 

She will always be remembered for “The Ladies Who Lunch” from Stephen Sondheim’s Company, and I did see her in that show a couple of months into the run. But what made the performance an indelible piece of theater history is the unforgettable filmed recording session for the original cast album, in which she struggled mightily to get a good take of the song. Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf52APstI0A and see what I mean about chutzpah and vulnerability.  

I first discovered Stritch through recordings of Goldilocks (1958) and Sail Away (1963). I was barely into my early adolescence when Leroy Anderson’s Goldilocks came out, and while I did not see it, it became a much listened to album during my regular visits to the library’s listening room in my hometown of Baltimore. By the time Sail Away opened, I was already a regular theatergoer, though again I only knew this Noël Coward work from the recording (by then, I had quite a growing collection of original cast albums).  When most people speak of Stritch’s work on Sail Away, they single out the song “Why Do The Wrong People Travel,” but I was more taken with a novelty number called “The Little Ones’ ABC,” which she sang in her role as a cruise ship social director stuck with caring for a group of bratty children. The tone of tooth-sucking exasperation and sarcasm with which she sings it left a permanent image of the performer in my mind. Again, a link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEWXd-_wdjU

I also enjoyed her performance as Cap’n Andy’s cranky wife Parthy in Hal Prince’s lavish 1994 revival of Show Boat. In it, she was given the song “Why Do I Love You” to sing as a lull-a-bye to her infant granddaughter. It did seem out of character, but she did a fine job. I do recall, however, reading a review in which the critic said that he had been afraid she was going to eat the baby instead of sing to it. 

Fast forward to more recent appearances, I will always remember her singing “I’m Still Here” during Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday bash at Avery Fisher Hall in 2010 (Stritch was 85 at the time). When she took center stage, she looked so frail, I wasn’t sure she’d make it. She was tentative at first, but as she got into it, she dropped 20 or more years from her appearance and from her voice and absolutely nailed it, to loud and rapturous applause.  At that gala, it was Patti LuPone who sang “The Ladies Who Lunch,” and she fearlessly sang it directly to Stritch. On the line “does anyone still wear a hat?” Stritch smiled and tipped her hat. Another priceless moment.

That was the same year Stritch took over the role of Mme. Armfeldt from Angela Lansbury in A Little Night Music.  During the early weeks of her performances, the buzz was all about her inability to remember the words to her big and difficult number, "Liaisons," yet when I saw her in it, she pretty much nailed that as well.  She did it by incorporating her own frailness into her depiction of the elderly doyenne. 

I regret missing her one-woman show At Liberty, which she performed to great acclaim and a Tony Award in 2002, but I can absolutely commend the recording of the show as a must-have, in which toughness and vulnerability and, at least so it seems, honesty come together in an extraordinary way. If you want to see the performance, that is available as well, and as of this writing, it can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15a5jz6J0lM

So farewell, Elaine Stritch. Your journey through life in the public eye was a force of nature to be reckoned with. May you rest in peace!

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A Little Night Music: Don't You Love Farce?

Little Night Music
Buzz Buzz Buzz
Who can do Armfeldt
Like Angie does?
Let’s go with Stritchie
Cuz Cuz Cuz
She’ll help us get through summer’s slump


With CZJ’s leaving
Bye bye bye
No one was grieving
Why why why
With Bernadette Peters
Standing by
We can get through summer’s slump

I cannot recall so much chatter around a production of a Broadway musical as has occurred with the current revival of A Little Night Music, with book by Hugh Wheeler and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

First there was the brouhaha about the production itself, yet another minimalist gift from London’s Menier Chocolate Factory (single drab set and minuscule orchestra). Then there was the noise about the celebrity casting of yet another movie star in a Broadway show, in this case Catherine Zeta-Jones in the lead role of Desirée Armfeldt, an actress longing to escape the “glamorous life” of her career and to settle down with the man who is the love of her life, not to mention the father of her daughter.

Anyway, the show opened in December of 2009 to mixed reviews, with the only unabashed kudos reserved for Angela Lansbury in the role of Madame Armfeldt, Desirée’s mother and a former highly successful courtesan who despairs at her daughter’s lack of skill in using men, as she herself had done, to assure her financial security.

At the 2010 Tony Awards, Ms. Zeta-Jones walked off with the prize for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, and it appeared that the show would come to a halt at the end of the two stars’ contracts in June of this year.

But then something most unusual happened, and the buzzing revved up again. Maybe the producers could find replacements with enough star power to keep the show running.

The rumor mill and wish lists churned out dozens of names, but two started showing up with greater frequency: Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch, both true stars of Broadway, and both with histories of performing in Sondheim shows (Peters in Sunday in the Park With George and Into the Woods; Stritch in Company).

The choice of Bernadette Peters was a no-brainer, pretty much on everyone’s short list for the role of Desirée. But brassy, raspy, tough-as-nails Elaine Stritch, in the role of the sophisticated, worldly Madame Armfeldt? Singing that most difficult of Sondheim’s numbers, Liaisons? Would she dare? Could she pull it off? Would she crash and burn?

Daily reports on A Little Night Music began to pour in when it reopened in July with the new stars. And yes, Ms. Peters immediately won everyone’s hearts. And, yes, it did seem that Ms. Stritch was showing signs of both crashing and burning—forgetting her lines, struggling with defining her character, driving some of her long-time fans to publicly call for her to step down or to use an assistive device (like the earpiece Ms. Lansbury used so that forgotten lines could be whispered as needed by someone backstage).

I did not see A Little Night Music with Ms. Zeta-Jones and Ms. Lansbury, nor had I been particularly interested. I saw the legendary original production back in 1973, with Glynis Johns as Desirée and Hermione Gingold in the role of Madame Armfeldt, and a later first-rate production in 1994 at Chicago’s Goodman Theater.

While I like the show, I felt that twice was enough; it would take something pretty special to get me to return for a third viewing.

And then they went and did do something special.

And so I went, waiting a couple of weeks for the new stars to settle in.

Here is my report:

Bernadette Peters is perfectly cast, lives up to all the high expectations, and gives a wonderful performance.

Elaine Stritch has made the role of Madame Armfeldt her own, and she has such a command of the stage that even her eccentricities, including her talk-through of Liaisons, work. I noticed one hesitation and a few scrambling of words the day I saw it, but neither interfered with the performance or pulled me out of the moment.

The rest of the cast is fine, if not extraordinary, and I can live with the minimalist set. I am glad that, with the exception of Henrik’s cello, we don’t have to see the actors double up as the musicians.

My one quibble has to do with Trevor Nunn’s directing. A Little Night Music, like a Chekhov play, deals with the follies of the young, the middle aged, and the elderly. These follies are fully expressed when the city folks head out for a weekend in the country. There is a lot of letting loose contained within the script, but the humor is, in my view, best performed in a manner that is arch and urbane.

Nunn, however, has opted for an exaggerated air of silliness, as if he had honed in on the line from Send In The Clowns: “don’t you love farce?” For my taste, there is way too much shtick and mugging and running around that threaten to undermine the production toward the end. Send in the clowns, indeed!

Still there is much to enjoy, and Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch help turn this revival of A Little Night Music into a truly memorable occasion. If, like me, you hesitated to see it in its Hollywood-Comes-To-Broadway version, now is your chance to see a couple of terrific veteran Broadway stars giving it their all. I wouldn't advise missing it.

Feel free to tell your friends about this blog, and to share your own theater stories by posting a comment.