Loose Lips

GIVENS TAKES OVER
Roxie Hart may be interested in grabbing the headlines, but Robin Givens, who has just taken over the role of the merry murderess in Chicago, has seen her name in 24-point type enough to last a lifetime. “I’m not so into the celebrity thing, especially with everything I’ve been through,” says the former Mrs. Mike Tyson. “But I have to say, I love Roxie. She’s a character I’m extremely comfortable with. She’s really in touch with her own feelings — okay, maybe only her own feelings — but what I love is that she sees the good in everything. I used to be more cerebral and analytical, and I needed to process all the downside before I could see what it all means. Now, I’m trying harder to see the good right away.”

The one-time teen model turned television and film star jumped at the chance to fill Roxie’s shoes when the show’s producers, Barry and Fran Weissler, called her. “But I had to audition,” says Givens — “and, let me tell you, that table of people was like the American Idol judges to the nth degree. Fortunately, Ann Reinking and I immediately bonded.” Givens has also bonded with fellow co-star John O’Hurley, who has just stepped into the soft shoes of suave Billy Flynn: “I told him it’s like we’re the new kids on the first day of high school. It’s nice to have someone else going through that with you.”

Although she’s been out of the limelight for a while, Givens is focusing on pursuing her career goals. “My dear friend Lou Rawls, who just died, taught me that. I grew up admiring people like Cicely Tyson and Eartha Kitt and I aspire to have their kinds of careers,” she tells me. Does she have a dream role? “Someone suggested to me that I should do a show about Billie Holliday, and I just love that idea.”

Givens may be a bit nervous about singing and dancing on Broadway, but she has no reason to worry about fitting into Roxie’s skimpy costume. She’s in fantastic shape — especially for a 41-year-old mom of two sons (Michael is 13, and William is 6). So, what’s her secret? “It’s my two boys who keep me in shape,” she says. “But the trick is not to eat after them. If I’m not careful, I find myself finishing two Happy Meals when we go to McDonald’s or licking the bowl after I make Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.”

LAWRENCE OF CALIFORNIA
Having spent several seasons on NYPD Blue as the girlfriend and then wife of an older man, Sharon Lawrence turns the tables in Dale Griffiths Stamos‘s Dialectics of a Heart, opening January 20 at Santa Monica’s Edgemar Center for the Arts. She plays Dr. Elizabeth Drewer, a renowned philosophy professor who becomes sexually involved with her hunky teaching assistant, Richard (film star Nicholas Gonzalez).

“I wasn’t aware of how stringent the policies at colleges have become about teachers fraternizing with their students,” says Lawrence. “Even though Richard is not a kid, this relationship poses ethical problems for Elizabeth because she’s been very vocal when other professors have crossed the line.” The actress has been doing lots of research for the part, including reading many of the world’s great philosophers. “I really like Espinosa,” Lawrence tells me, “because he was very clear about stilling your mind.”

She feels that Elizabeth’s biggest dilemma is “facing a different way of thinking about life,” and adds that the same thing applies to her since she married Dr. Tom Apostle in 2002: “I’ve had to learn to be a more integrated version of a female and to recognize that I don’t have to be as an ambitious and driven in my personal life as I was in my professional life. I’ve even learned how to cook; I’ve become a pretty good one, and no one is more surprised about that than me! I always thought I didn’t need the hearth and home, but now I realize that wasn’t true.”

Lawrence’s reluctance to leave her husband for long periods of time may limit her New York stage opportunities, but she’d be interested in a Broadway transfer of the L.A. production of Paint Your Wagon that she did last year at the Geffen; or she might turn up in NYC in a production of No Time for Comedy, which she starred in last summer at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor. Fortunately, there’s plenty of television work for her in L.A. — including the upcoming Lifetime film Augusta Gone, in which she plays the mother of a troubled 14-year-old girl. “It was a challenging role,” she admits, “but such an important film to do. Everyone on the set knew someone who had gone through this with their teenager. I think the big difference is, when I was that age, teens weren’t pressured to sexualize themselves so early.”

Speaking of sex: Might she return as dominatrix Maisy Gibbons on the smash hit Desperate Housewives? “I know [series creator] Marc Cherry is very much interested in having me as part of the show,” says Lawrence. “I originally tested for the role of Bree [which went to Marcia Cross], but I’m so happy to be able come and go and do such juicy things as a guest star. Maisy is in prison, but she’s gotta get sprung sometime!”

A WOMAN ALONE
Eve Ensler will bring her acclaimed solo show The Good Body to D.C.’s Lincoln Theatre, January 17-22; Tony Award winner Bebe Neuwirth will perform at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts’ Birthday Gala on January 21; Michele Ragusa has shuffled off to Buffalo to star in the Studio Arena Stage production of Bad Dates through January 29; Broadway veteran Jacqueline Antarmarian will star in the Wilma Theater production of Heather Raffo‘s extraordinary Nine Parts of Desire, Feb 1-March 12; the singular Laurie Anderson will perform The End of the Moon at Philadelphia’s Prince Music Theatre, February 2-4; and the fabulous Lynn Redgrave will perform Nightingale, her solo piece based on the life of her grandmother, at L.A.’s Mark Taper Forum on February 27.

On the New York cabaret front, the peerless Julie Wilson returns to Helen’s on January 17 and 18; the delightful Maude Maggart brings her new act Comes Love to the Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room, January 31-Feburary 25; former Bare star Natalie Joy Johnson makes her solo cabaret debut at Joe’s Pub on February 1, while the divine (and expecting!) Melissa Errico shows up there on February 13. Also, the roof-raising Mary Bond Davis checks into Danny’s Skylight Room, February 3-25; the super-sultry Ute Lemper returns to the Café Carlyle, February 7-25; and rising star Suzanne Fiore is one of four performers set to alternate in the Duplex’s new Fridays at the ‘Plex series through June.

SURPRISE PARTY
Producer Marty Bell pulled out all the stops for John Lithgow‘s last performance in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on Sunday, January 15. Bell created a truly grand finale for the show that featured surprise appearances by Lithgow pals David Hyde Pierce, Frances Sternhagen, Melissa Errico, Brian d’Arcy James, and Jack Noseworthy, not to mention Scoundrels composer David Yazbek and director Jack O’Brien, and — the biggest surprise of all — Jonathan Pryce, Lithgow’s successor in the role of Lawrence Jameson. Also on hand to celebrate were music man Ted Sperling, All Shook Up choreographer Sergio Trujillo, and former Wicked star Michele Federer (the gal pal of Scoundrels’ star Norbert Leo Butz). Oh, and Tony Award winner Jane Krakowski was there to salute former Nine co-star Sara Gettelfinger, who is taking a four-month absence from Scoundrels to appear in Grey Gardens.

JAZZ SINGER
Those of you who read my Best of 2005 list know how highly I regard singer Darius de Haas. If you want to see (and hear) what’s got me all agog, head to Birdland on January 30, where he will conclude The Winter Season at Birldand with a brand new show.

“It’s sort of a recap of songs I’ve acquired or sung over the past year and a half,” says de Haas. “I did a lot of traveling; I was touring with Vanessa Williams, I did my Stevie Wonder shows around the country, and I’ve been working on a new musical about a young, gay black man who’s dealing with love and romance and not doing so well. All of that will be part of the show, plus I’ll do some of my favorite Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn tunes.”

He was mindful of the performance venue when putting together the program for the evening. “Since we’re going to be at Birdland, I didn’t want this to be a regular cabaret show,” he tells me. “It will have a jazz bent, which speaks to my roots, since my dad is a bassist and my uncle, Andy Bey, is a great jazz singer.”