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My favorite Elaine Stritch story:
In 2010, Lonny P. gave me the opportunity to P.A. Sondheim's 80th birthday concert at Lincoln Center. My assignment was basically: "Patti". I was Patti LuPone's personal production assistant and she could not have been more wonderful to me.
In 2010, Lonny P. gave me the opportunity to P.A. Sondheim's 80th birthday concert at Lincoln Center. My assignment was basically: "Patti". I was Patti LuPone's personal production assistant and she could not have been more wonderful to me.
We took over an office at Avery Fisher Hall and made it into her dressing room for the week and in between rehearsing "A Little Priest" (with George Hearn and Michael Cerveris) and "The Ladies Who Lunch", Patti was rehearsing backstage with her teenage son for a project...
... he was working on, Samuel French scripts in hand, & taking calls about her upcoming show, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. I coordinated her entrances and wardrobe and food and rehearsals and everything else for the week that had to do w putting the show together.
And when she didn't need me, I walked the halls & stood in the wings. I saw Jenn Colella & Matt Cavenaugh wrestling on the carpet like BFFs at summer camp & Alex Gemignani imitating every instrument in an orchestration w his body as he watched Joanna Gleason & Chip Zien rehearse.
I talked about Follies w John McMartin on stage left and couldn't believe Jim Walton remembered who I was on stage right. I ran to grab a microphone and tripped over a West Side Story girl's dress and skinned my knee and David Hyde Pierce ran from across the room to help me up.
At one point I rode an elevator with Audra McDonald, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, and a man delivering sandwiches and just tried not to cry/ stop breathing/ throw all the sandwiches on the ground and yell “WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW".
During the final rehearsal before the performance, everyone gathered in the wings to watch Elaine Stritch sing "I'm Still Here". Everyone. Tony Award winners and production assistants and everyone in between.
She was breathtaking, it was unbelievable, and at the end of the final phrase she would sing, "I'm still here... look who's here... I'm still here..." and then as the New York Philharmonic conducted by Paul Gemignani would complete the musical phrase she would yell, "FUCK!"
Lonny would come over the god mic, loving, patient, amused & in charge of 100s of ppl on a tight schedule & say, "Elaine, you know you can't say that during the taping." and she would start again. And everyone backstage would clap w joy that we got to watch her do it another time
Then there was Marin Mazzie. Marin in her red dress singing "Losing My Mind".Marin sharing the stage w her husband Jason Danieley for 1 of my fave underappreciated Sondheim songs bc of course Lonny found a way to get "Don't Laugh" & "We're Gonna Be Alright" in, alongside the hits
My Marin moment from the week is that I was there w Patti as the 6 women in red waited for their big entrance. Yes. I was there backstage at Lincoln Center with Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Elaine Stritch, Donna Murphy, Marin Mazzie & Bernadette Peters, in their red formal wear.
On the night of the show, everyone was waiting completely silently and then Marin complimented Donna's dress and then Donna complimented Elaine's ensemble and before I knew it, 6 of the most legendary women of the American Musical Theatre were showering each other w kindnesses...
... about jewelry selection and hairstyle and how the other sounded in rehearsal and then before I knew it, they were on stage, watching and supporting each other singing Sondheim's immortal numbers, a sequence that is captured forever on video...
... and that I will always know came seconds after all of the women were joyfully complimenting each other backstage.
And I was there. I was someone in a tree for that Sondheim Week at Avery Fisher because I went to a screening of Company, filmed for PBS and directed by Lonny, at the Laurie Beechman, and I introduced myself to him as the biggest Merrily fan that ever lived and he believed me.
It feels like a lifetime ago but if there’s anything I learned during that magical, insane, life-was-fun-but-oh-so-intense week it’s 
I’m still here, look who’s here, I’m still here...... FUCK!
I’m still here, look who’s here, I’m still here...... FUCK!
