William V. Madison, author of "Madeline Kahn: Being the Music • A Life," joined several of Kahn’s friends and colleagues for the event celebrating the biography, published by the University Press of Mississippi. Author Eddie Shapiro ("Nothing Like A Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater") moderates.
The panel featured Peter Bogdanovich, who presided over Kahn’s transition from Broadway to Hollywood, casting her in her first feature film, "What’s Up, Doc," and the subsequent hit "Paper Moon"; Robert Allan Ackerman, who directed Kahn in a musical adaptation of Kafka’s "Amerika" and in Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit at Santa Fe Festival Theater in 1982–83; Maris Clement, a member of the ensemble of On the Twentieth Century; Julie Dretzin, a co-star of Wendy Wasserstein’s The Sisters Rosensweig, for which Kahn received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in 1993; Michael Karm, a co-star of the Broadway musical Two by Two and Kahn’s acting coach for her first film roles; actress and colleague Cybill Shepherd; and J.D. Lobue, director of every episode of the sitcom “Oh Madeline,” Kahn’s first foray into series television.
