“Everybody Say Yeah”
Ladies and gents,
I’d hoped to open this week’s column with a recap the opening night of Elaine Stritch‘s final engagement at the Café Carlyle, but I couldn’t score a ticket so that’s that. This is what I heard: stars galore – Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Martin Short, Liza Minnelli, Tony Bennett, Bernadette Peters to name a few. She was as feisty and hilarious as ever, if a tad loopy. She did about 20 minutes directly to Hanks. It was mostly meandering anecdotes with only a handful of songs. The crowd ate her up with a spoon.
But I did manage to get myself into the opening night of Kinky Boots last night, which proved the liveliest opening I’ve been to in recent memory. It’s a miracle I’m even able to sit upright after all the Kinky Liqueur I guzzled. (What is in that stuff?) The event was predictably star-studded, with a nice cross-section of some of my absolute favorite luminaries turning out, including Stritch fans Liza Minnelli and Bernadette Peters, as well as the great Christine Baranski (seen wiping away tears during the ten-minute standing ovation), Glenn Close, Brooke Shields, Cherry Jones, Victor Garber, Chita Rivera, and Audra McDonald (to name a few). I also spotted original Hairspray stars Jackie Hoffman and Marissa Jaret Winokur, and my favorite Dynamite, Judine Somerville, there to cheer on Edna Turnblatt herself, Harvey Fierstein, who wrote the hilarious and heartfelt book for Kinky Boots. Composer Cyndi Lauper – who has written the best original score I’ve heard in years – worked the red carpet like the pro that she is in a giant, multi-colored spray of teased up hair. She posed gamely with less flamboyantly attired members of the creative team, including the director Jerry Mitchell (looking dashing in a summer tux) and the great David Rockwell, who designed the pitch perfect set. Also doing the “cigar store Indian routine” for the photogs with nary a complaint were the show’s lead producers Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig. The show everything you love about big Broadway musicals at their tuneful, soulful best. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll try on your wife’s brazier!
Tidbits from around town…
Overheard Stephen Colbert telling a friend that Sigourney Weaver is even more beautiful in person.
Spotted Reeve Carney walking up 8th Avenue with a bag full of women’s shoes. Hmmm…
Caught Amy Adams wildly over-tipping a manicurist on West 38th Street. Either she’s bad at math, or that was on hell of a manicure.
As always, a toast of something sparkling to you and yours!
Kisses,
