Elaine Stritch (1925-2014), part 2

We'll hear Elaine singing "The Ladies Who Lunch" when Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Company was new, but I thought it would be nice to hear and see again this September 1998 performance, which we first looked at in December 2010. (It's from the Carnegie Hall cavalcade-of-stars concert My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies.)

by Ken

I know it seems like an odd thing to say, but in the first part of my remembrance of Elaine Stritch, earlier today, I wrote with singular lack of grace:

It was quite a career, Elaine Stritch's. . . . Still, one thing you can say about the career is that, given the epic scale of her abilities, it's a shame more producers, directors, and writers didn't find (well, create) more vehicles that took full advantage of what this "force of nature" could do.

By way of example, though, let's take Company (1970). The creator of the music, Stephen Sondheim (doing both words and music himself for the first time, remember), and the book, George Furth, have made it clear that the role of the super-cynical Joanne was written with Elaine in mind, and she was brilliant, as everyone knows.

STEPHEN SONDHEIM: Company (1970)

"The Little Things You Do Together


"The Ladies Who Lunch"


Elaine Stritch (Joanne) and (in "The Little Things You Do Together") company; Original Broadway Cast recording, Harold Hastings, musical director. Columbia-CBS-Sony, recorded May 3, 1970

Still, except for the central role of Bobby, around him all the other relationships revolve, Company is a genuine ensemble show, and while Elaine's performance was probably the one most attendees had in their heads as they left the theater, it was hardly a large role.

That said, Joanne was a great role for Elaine, and in the end even the most compelling performer has to work with the material he/she has to work with. Elaine had been at the center of things in 1961 in Sail Away, the last "book" musical for which Noël Coward wrote both music and lyrics. Everyone who saw the show loved her and remembered her performance, but the show itself wasn't exactly memorable. A lot of the score is still worth listening to, though. Here's Elaine as Mimi Paragon, the hard-boiled, divorced cruise hostess.

NOËL COWARD: Sail Away (1961)

As I wrote when we first heard these excerpts in December 2010: Sorry about the LP surface noise [from my very own copy, bought when the thing was released 52-plus years ago -- Ed.] early on in the "Why Do the Wrong People Travel?" track. I came close to paying the 99 cents to download this great song, but the noise cleared up, and as I like to say, 99 cents saved here and there adds up to 99 cents saved here and there.]

"Come to Me" (opening number, the Stewards and Mimi)


"You're a Long, Long Way from America" (Act I finale, Mimi and company)


"Why Do the Wrong People Travel (When the Right People Stay Back Home)?"


Elaine Stritch (Mimi Paragon) and company, Original Broadway Cast recording, Peter Matz, arr. and musical director. Capitol-EMI, recorded October 1961


FINALLY, HERE'S AN OUTSTANDING NYT "LAST WORD"
RETROSPECTIVE, STARRING ELAINE (FILMED IN 2008)

At 8:01 Elaine talks about Sail Away, Noël Coward, and her mother. At 10:27 her attention is turned to Company.

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Elaine Stritch (1925-2014), part 1

by Ken

In one of the tributes to Elaine Stritch I glanced through, Colleen Donaghy, the character she and the 30 Rock team created, was described as "cantankerous." Um, yes, I suppose. But this is sort of like describing Genghis Khan as "outgoing." The Entertainment Weekly people who put up the above too-shredded collage of Colleen moments, got it better: "On the show, Stritch turned Jack Donaghy's (Alec Baldwin's) mother into a force of nature, emphasizing her irascible nature and ability to induce a heady amount of Irish-Catholic guilt."

Here's the start of the NYT obit by Bruce Weber and Robert Berkvist:

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 to be near her family, she lived for many years at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan.

Ms. Stritch’s career began in the 1940s and spanned almost 70 years. She made 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 had 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. 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 has been a frequent presence in this space, including a December 2010 post called "The 30 Rock gang shows us the true spirit of Christmas -- from which 'as hard as you try, no one can escape'." That post was inspired by the 2010 Christmas episode of 30 Rock, in which, as I wrote:

Jack (Alec Baldwin) explains, "We Donaghys believe that when there is something at all delicate to talk about, it is best to suppress it -- until it erupts into a fistfight in a church barbecue," and his seven-months-pregnant lady friend Avery (Elizabeth Banks) chimes in, "The symbol on the Jessup family crest is a knight refusing to talk about his feelings."

And Liz Lemon summed it all up: "You know what I learned tonight? As hard as you try, no one can escape the horror of Christmas."

It was quite a career, Elaine Stritch's, and I plan to gather some of the musical reminiscences we've shared here, probably in the next DWT post slot, 9pm PT/12m ET -- that is, barring unforeseen developments (and you know how they are -- who could have foreseen?). Meanwhile, you have to feel relief that she made it to 89, dying at home after working so productively pretty near to the end. Still, one thing you can say about the career is that, given the epic scale of her abilities, it's a shame more producers, directors, and writers didn't find (well, create) more vehicles that took full advantage of what this "force of nature" could do.

Which may be why I'm thinking so much today of her incandescent late-career run on 30 Rock, whose creative team made such stunning use of her talents.

Colleen speaks her mind

Here's what Hollywood Reporter calls "Stritch's 10 best (and most acid-tongued) one-liners from 30 Rock." Well, some of them certainly are. Naturally some of these pop up in the Entertainment Weekly collage up top.

from "Haitus" (Season 1, Episode 21)
• "Tell him his mother's here, and she loves him, but not in a queer way.”
from “Ludachristmas” (Season 2, Episode 9)
• "Nice? I'll show you nice. Let's all meet down at the soda shop while this country turns into Mexico. "
• "You give me ten minutes with the Lemon family, and I'll have them tearing at each other like drag queens at a wig sale."
from “The Moms” (Season 4, Episode 20)
• "Oh, for crying out loud, Liz. You see, that's what feminism does. It makes smart girls with nice birthing shapes believe in fairy tales. Stop waiting for your prince, Liz. "
• "Two women, Jack! At the same time. What are you, Italian?"
from “Christmas Attack Zone” (Season 5, Episode 10)
• "I see you brought the bag that my bastard grandchild will come in."
• "Is she drunk, Jack? Because you know when you're pregnant, one bottle of wine a day, and that's it!"
from “My Life is Thunder” (Season 7, Episode 8)
• "I have a few things I want to say to you before I meet the Grim Reaper, who is black, I assume, what with the hoodies he wears."
• "I was watching TV, and they started interviewing an Asian Santa Claus, and my arm went numb. "
• "Don't talk to me like that, Jack. I breast-fed you for nine years!"

For myself, since I do have all the 30 Rock DVDs, what I'm planning on doing this weekend is going through what I think of as "The 30 Rock Nine."

Colleen Donaghy lives!
Here are "The 30 Rock Nine"

Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), Colleen Donaghy (Elaine), and
Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) smile for the camera --


Thanks to IMDb, it's a snap to determine that Elaine did nine 30 Rock episodes, and here they are (with IMDb links):

"Hiatus"
Season 1, Episode 21, first aired Apr. 6, 2007
"Ludachristmas"
Season 2, Episode 9, first aired Dec. 13, 2007
"Christmas Special"
Season 3, Episode 6, first aired Dec. 11, 2008
"Señor Macho Solo"
Season 3, Episode 7, first aired Jan. 8, 2009
"The Natural Order"
Season 3, Episode 20, first aired Apr. 30, 2009
"The Moms"
Season 4, Episode 20, first aired May 6, 2010
"Christmas Attack Zone"
Season 5, Episode 10, first aired Dec. 9, 2010
"Meet the Woggels!"
Season 6, Episode 17, first aired Apr. 12, 2012
"My Whole Life Is Thunder"
Season 7, Episode 8, first aired Dec. 6, 2012

Now here they are in action --

AS NOTED ABOVE, MORE AT 9pm PT/12m ET

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"The Ladies Who Lunch": an Elaine Stritch encore

In an earlier post today, I offered Elaine Stritch's legendary performance of "Here's to the Ladies Who Lunch," from Stephen Sondheim's Company, the song with which, in her relatively modest role in the large ensemble cast, she nearly stole the show. That was in 1970. Here she is in a significantly more recent performance of the song. -- Ken

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The "30 Rock" gang shows us the true spirit of Christmas -- from which "as hard as you try, no one can escape"

"Christmas Attack Zone": In this year's Christmas episode of 30 Rock, Jack (Alec Baldwin) explains, "We Donaghys believe that when there is something at all delicate to talk about, it is best to suppress it-- until it erupts into a fistfight in a church barbecue," and his seven-months-pregnant lady friend Avery (Elizabeth Banks) chimes in, "The symbol on the Jessup family crest is a knight refusing to talk about his feelings."

"You know what I learned tonight? As hard as you try, no one can escape the horror of Christmas."

-- Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), in this year's
Christmas episode of 30 Rock

by Ken

Liz, who'd been ducking "the annual Lemon family blow-up" of Christmas back in White Haven, planning to travel on Christmas Day and swoop in in time for presents, but instead has found herself immersed in the Christmas dramas of all her NBC-TGS nearest-and-dearest, went on to say:

As hard as you try, no one can escape the horror of Christmas. So it might as well be with your onw family. I'm going to go get a bus to White Haven now, and I should be home just in time for Aunt Linda to try to prove that she's sober by holding someone's baby while cooking.

I know Christmas is over, but I'm so imbued with the holiday spirit that I just rewatched the 30 Rock Christmas episode, which is just chockful of it, what with Liz accepting an invitation to the Donaghy family Christmas, figuring it's safe thanks to the dependable old-line right-wing tradition of keeping feelings safely bottled up, only to find herself in the midst of a family free-for-all -- starring, of course, the reigning queen of family dysfunction, Colleen Donaghy, direct from the Death Shore Retirement Community -- another memorable appearance by the great Elaine Stritch, but also featuring the return of Jack's "hippie pacifist" real father, Milton Greene (Alan Alda), who reported excitedly from Vermont that they've just gotten caller ID there!

It's also an episode in which Tracy, still trying to establish his new image as a "serious actor" in hopes of winning a Golden Globe, appears at a Christmas Eve charity function, as Dotcom (Kevin Brown) points out many stars do, including Russell Crowe, who's holding one "for victims of his own mood swings." Resuming tomorrow there'll be plenty of time for the Social Security mess, the Obama triangulation mess, the Afghanistan mess, the Irish mess, and all those other messes and messes-to-come. For now let's just revel a bit more in the spirit of the holidays. (Of course Jack Donaghy would insist on "Christmas" rather than "holidays." He's the pathologically Jesus-defiling Bill O'Reilly's and Bill Donohue's kind of guy.)


SOME ELAINE STRITCH MUSICAL MEMORIES

It seems to me we're going to need a DVD compilation of Elaine Stritch's memorable 30 Rock episodes. Meanwhile, I yanked these records off the shelf, memorializing two memorable Stritch Broadway roles: the first a smallish one in a landmark musical with a large ensemble cast in with which she darned near stole the show, the second a starring role in a not very successful and now (despite the distinction of its principal creator, Noël Coward) mostly forgotten show.

Regular readers won't be surprised that I'm presenting these numbers in exactly backwards order (both the two shows, and the numbers within the Sail Away group). Note that tonight's late-night post (midnight ET, 9pm PT) features a much more recent Elaine Stritch video performance of "Here's to the Ladies Who Lunch."

From Company (1970), music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

"Here's to the Ladies Who Lunch"
Elaine Stritch, from the Original Broadway Cast Album, Harold Hastings, cond. Capitol, recorded 1970

From Sail Away (1961), music and lyrics by Noël Coward

(Sorry about the LP surface noise early on in the "Why Do the Wrong People Travel?" track. I came close to paying the 99 cents to download this great song, but the noise cleared up, and as I like to say, 99 cents saved here and there adds up to 99 cents saved here and there.)

"Why Do the Wrong People Travel (When the Right People Stay Back Home)?" (Mimi Paragon)

"You're a Long, Long Way from America" (Act I finale, Mimi and company)

"Come to Me" (opening number, the Stewards and Mimi)

Elaine Stritch and company, from the Original Broadway Cast Album, Peter Matz, arr. and cond. Capitol, recorded October 1961

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