PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: Who 's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: George vs. Martha in Three-Act Rounds
By Harry Haun
21 Mar 2005
Grizzard's claim-to-fame, being a part of this historic first production along with Arthur Hill, Uta Hagen and Melinda Dillon in the Tony-winning original, didn't last long as he remembers. "I only stayed the first three months, and I did the recording," he said. "I had already been asked to open the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis playing Hamlet so I left after three months. The marvelous part was that we didn't have to do matinees. There was another whole company who would cover for us and do the matinees. That was nice!"
Stritch, who shredded Sheppard Strudwick on matinee days in the original production, later famously laid siege to the role in London—so she was coming from a knowing place when, at the second intermission, she praised this revival. "Kathleen Turner is fantastic!" she trilled in her lower-register fashion. "And this is a brilliant production—just brilliant."
Anderman, the Broadway Honey of 1978, is married to Frank Converse, who did George to Elizabeth Ashley's Martha in Florida. Two of her co-stars in the last Broadway revival of Virginia Woolf 25 years ago have passed on—Colleen Dewhurst and Richard Kelton—"but I did see Ben Gazzara two weeks ago up in Stamford doing his one-man show on Yogi Berra. I'm thrilled to be here tonight, representing that cast."
Gordon Clapp, in rehearsal for the second Broadway coming of Glengarry Glen Ross (along with Frederick Weller, also on hand), caught the opening with an actor pal, Jack McGee, who plays Dennis Leary's boss in "Rescue Me," the firefighter series on television. McGee said he had never seen Virginia Woolf before, but Clapp recalled Uta Hagen's last performance of it in a one-night-only benefit reading at the Majestic with Jonathan Pryce, Mia Farrow and Peter Gallagher.
The after-party was held at a brand-new restaurant with a slightly art-deco mezzanine and lots and lots of leather banquets, called Bond 45 after the gone-but-not-forgotten clothing store that was such a Times Square fixture. It was pretty cramped quarters for all the commotional interviewing that usually accompanies the opening of a Broadway show.
Gregory Jbara from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels made the scene, as did Fuddy Meers's Marylouise Burke. "Nothing right now," she said, "but I have a movie coming up at the beginning of May, called Things That Hang From Trees, from the novella of the same name. It's shooting in St. Augustine, FL. I play a lighthousekeeper." She's still basking in the recent Oscar glory of Sideways but she wants to get back to theatre. "I'm hankering."
Next up for Charles Busch: "On Monday, after 20 years, my Vampire Lesbians of Sodom finally makes it to Broadway. I shall play a young girl of 14 again." The one-night-only Actors Fund benefit will co-star Julie Halston and Ruth Williamson, feature Andy Halliday and Theresa Aceves from the original cast and cameo guest shots by Phyllis Newman, Mario Cantone and Bruce Vilanch. "That's just the second act," said Busch. "The first act has songs from Rebecca Luker, Brent Barrett and Sutton Foster.
"It'll be at the Music Box. Drag is already there. Dame Edna is being gracious enough to let us use her set. Whether she'll let us use her dressing room is another question. When I did Nothin' Like a Dame last week, Gary Beach was sweet enough to let me use his dressing room—and his earrings. I'd forgotten mine, dragging things from place to place."
The four stars and their director, England's Anthony Page who was represented on Broadway last season with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, made wildly cheered arrivals at the restaurant and gamely descended into crowded little pockets of Q&A intensity.
"I love the humor of the play," admitted Page, who certainly mined a mother lode of it during the play. "Edward's like a very black Noel Coward. I like to bring that out in his plays. I did The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? in the West End. Also, I did Marriage Play."
Lindsey McKinley, wife of The New York Times's Jesse McKinley, was drawing compliments right and left for her performance of Honey. She just happens to resemble the redheaded Enos. "We were laughing in the middle of the play that I looked like her," she said.
Enos and Harbour met understudying the young lovers in Lincoln Center's The Time of the Cuckoo and made their Broadway debuts together in The Invention of Love. "For two years, we were following each other around," she said, admitted the history was helpful.
La Turner, a charismatic center of commotion wherever she moved in the restaurant, skipped the Saturday night performance so she would be relatively rested for the opening. "I had bronchitis," she said, "but I'm very well now, thank you." She smiled bravely and wanly, looking to all the world like she'd just gone through three hours of Virginia Woolf.
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The cast gives their opening night curtain call
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben |
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