Actress Elaine Stritch Dies At Age 89

Via the New York Times:

Elaine Stritch, the brassy, tart-tongued Broadway actress and singer who became a living emblem of show business durability and perhaps the leading interpreter of Stephen Sondheim’s wryly acrid musings on aging, died on Thursday at her home in Birmingham, Mich. She was 89. Her death was confirmed by a friend, Julie Keyes. Before Ms. Stritch moved to Birmingham last year, she lived, famously, for many years at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan.

Ms. Stritch’s career began in the 1940s and included her fair share of appearances in movies, including Woody Allen’s “September” (1987) and “Small Time Crooks” (2000), and on television; well into her 80s, she played a recurring role on the NBC comedy “30 Rock” as the domineering mother of the television executive played by Alec Baldwin. But the stage was her true professional home, where, whether in musicals, nonmusical dramas or solo cabaret shows, she drew audiences to her with her whiskey voice, her seen-it-all manner and the blunt charisma of a star.

Elaine Stritch On Being A Gay Icon

In an interview with a gay website, Broadway star Elaine Stritch, 89, says that she's only recently become aware that she's a gay icon. Via PrideSource:

A Broadway legend has to be aware the community thinks she's an icon, but no, not Stritch. "I'm just becoming aware of it," she admits, but why now? "By articles such as this one. I really have become very much aware, first of all, what great audiences they are. And it isn't that I finally discovered that gay people understand me and straight people don't - oh, no no no. Not a word of truth in that. I can't tell you how many straight people I know that think I am the cat's pajamas." But not knowing you have a gay following until now, 70 years into your career ... a career in one of the gayest professions pursuable: the theater? Stritch is as surprised as you are.

Stritch goes on to talk about the famous gay men that have been in her life and says that the trait she most savors in them is their sense of humor. Hit the link and read the full article. As is typical for the famously frank Stritch, it's not an entirely light-hearted interview.

Elaine Stritch Drops F-Bomb On Live TV

TRAILER: Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me

The film played many festivals in 2013 and opens in limited release on February 21st.

Broadway Friday

- Next month openly gay heartthrob and Torchwood star John Barrowman will release an album of recent Broadway hit songs, including numbers from The Boy From Oz, Dreamgirls, and Mamma Mia. This week Barrowman battled Neil Patrick Harris in an amusing Twitter war over who would be named After Elton's "Man Of The Decade." NPH won.

- Green Day's American Idiot musical begins Broadway previews on February 24th at the St. James. Casting has not been announced.

- Despite her "discernible fragility," 85 year-old Elaine Stritch is winning positive reviews for her Sondheim retrospective at the Cafe Carlyle.

- Original cast members Rosie O'Donnell and Natasha Lyone will return to the Off Broadway production of Love, Loss, And What I Wore beginning in March.

- This week the revival of Chicago becomes the sixth longest-running production in Broadway history. On Tuesday the show reaches 4562 performances, edging the now-closed Beauty And The Beast. The top five: The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Les Miserables, A Chorus Line, and Oh! Calcutta. Former Destiny's Child member Michelle Williams takes over the role of Roxie Hart in February, replacing Ashlee Simpson.

- Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz will star in Enron as disgraced company president Jeffrey Skillings. Previews begin April 8th at the Broadhurst. In July 2009, Butz' lesbian sister Teresa was raped and murdered in a Seattle home invasion. The apprehended killer faces the death penalty.

- Off Broadway's gay sex and politics drama Loaded will close a week early on January 17th. Great show, see my review.

- Jon Marans' The Temperamentals begins a new Off Broadway production February 18th at the New World Stages. The show tells the story of Harry Hay and the early gay activist group The Mattachine Society. Ugly Betty's Michael Urie returns as Rudi Gernreich. The play sold out every performance at its earlier run last spring at the Studio Theatre. Great show, see my review.

How The Stritch Stole Christmas

Strictly for the show queens. "Every one down on Broadway liked Christmas a lot. But the Stritch who lived just north of Broadway, on Mount Carlyle, did not!" I love that one of the keywords for this on YouTube is EGOT.

(Tipped by JMG reader Alan T.)