Love is a many splendored thing, only takes a moment, and can be that moment divine. It can also be a kick in the pants. In honor of Valentine’s Day, TheaterMania asked six Broadway leading ladies — Stephanie J. Block, Mimi Hines, Beth Leavel, Jan Maxwell, Barbara Walsh, and Karen Ziemba — to tell us about their best, worst, and ideal romantic experiences.
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Stephanie J. Block gained fame for playing Liza Minnelli in The Boy from Oz, received a Helen Hayes Award for her sublime portrayal of Elphaba in the national tour of Wicked, and now has moved on to portraying Grace O’Malley, the title role in the upcoming Broadway musical The Pirate Queen.
TM: What was your best romantic experience?
SB: The most romantic was when my boyfriend, Sebastian Arcelus — who’s playing Fiyero in Wicked — proposed to me in Paris.
TM: What was your worst romantic experience?
SB: One year when the only valentine I got was from my mother.
TM: What’s your ideal romantic experience?
SB: I’m a homebody, so it’s to relax at home with my fiancé, share a good meal, and watch a good movie.
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It’s been over 40 years since Mimi Hines first took New York by storm when she succeeded Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. Hines just recently took the town again, receiving well-deserved praise for her show-stopping performance of “Broadway Baby” in the Encores! production of Follies.
TM: What was your best romantic experience?
MH: Husband Number One. [Phil Ford]
TM: What was your worst romantic experience?
MH: Husband Number Two.
TM: What’s your ideal romantic experience?
MH: No husband.
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Beth Leavel has delighted audiences in 42nd Street and Lone Star Love. These days, she is doing it again and is still basking in the glow from winning last season’s Tony and Drama Desk awards for her performance in the title role of The Drowsy Chaperone.
TM: What was your best romantic experience?
BL: The one that comes to mind is right after my husband John [Milne] and I got married. It was our first time apart. I was in the ensemble of Can-Can at the MUNY in St. Louis, and staying in what I would like to call not the most glorious of hotels. It had been about four or five weeks since I’d seen him. He was flying in that afternoon; I was rehearsing outside, and it must have been 150 degrees. I finally was released and went to my hotel room. John had put — it must have been 50 candles all over this teeny room. Somehow, he had prepared dinner, which was on this little table. It was one of the most romantic things in my life.
TM: What was your worst romantic experience?
BL: The one that comes to mind is a blind date I had when I was in college. He was the cousin of one of the girls in my hall, and the shyest person known to man. We went to a football game in the afternoon — not my choice — with a bunch of his friends. They had made a kind of vodka/fruit concoction. Do I have to say more? I think I spoke three words the entire time. They were so into the game and their vodka. I wanted to run.
TM: What’s your ideal romantic experience?
BL: I’d love to be with my husband, my boys [T.J., 17; Sam, 11], and some of my closest friends on a cruise to a really warm island. There’s a person fixing us delicious food and drinks, and we don’t have a care in the world.
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Jan Maxwell makes a welcome return to Broadway later this spring as the villain’s accomplice in Coram Boy, a British import that she describes as “an epic tale about orphans.” She is married to actor Robert Emmett Lunney and mother of Will, age 11.
TM: What was your best romantic experience?
JM: I’ve never had a romantic experience. I could count the lovers on one hand and cut off a few fingers. One time, I met a guy. I set out silk sheets, with rose petals and lingerie. He never showed up. That would have been the best time.
TM: What was your worst romantic experience?
JM: That involved a gun. A stun gun — and the first time is sort of rough. There also was a ferret involved.
TM: What’s your ideal romantic experience?
JM: If the man would show up.
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Barbara Walsh earned a Tony nomination for Falsettos and played the mother in Big. Now she’s knocking them dead as Joanne in John Doyle’s revival of Company; Walsh plays tambourine, glockenspiel, and triangle in the show, and she gets to sing “The Ladies Who Lunch” as well.
TM: What was your best romantic experience?
BW: I’d have to say three years ago, on my birthday. My husband,director Jack Cummings, and I were on vacation in the Caribbean. I’d been at the spa most of the day, and had a massage outside by the ocean — a really gorgeous setting. Later, we had dinner in a restaurant on the beach. It was a very special time.
TM: What was your worst romantic experience?
BW: Back in my single days, I let my girlfriend set me up with a blind date for New Year’s Eve. He picked me up at 6pm. I opened the door and thought, “Do I really have to be with this person for the next six hours?” We double dated with my friend and went to dinner. But it was a very long six hours.
TM: What’s your ideal romantic experience?
BW: I’ve been married 10 years. At this stage of the game, I’d just like some time together with Jack. You have to book it. We kind of set aside Monday nights for date night; that can range from taking the dog to the dog-run to a candlelight dinner to just being together. I find that very romantic.
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Karen Ziemba has long been considered one of Broadway’s greatest dancers, as evidenced by her turns in such shows as Steel Pier, Never Gonna Dance, and Chicago; but in the new backstage musical Curtains, she plays a lyricist. Ziemba has been married for 20 years to actor Bill Tatum.
TM: What was your best romantic experience?
KZ: Well, I’ve been married 20 years, and there have been a lot of them. The best one would be for me to make fabulous finger food, share a bottle of Syrah with my husband, and watch An Affair to Remember, with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr — followed by heavy petting.
TM: What was your worst romantic experience?
KZ: Once, I recommended a restaurant — I think I know so much about good food! — but I was 15 minutes late. We had to wait another 20 minutes, since our table was given away. Then, when they served us, the food was mediocre. Because I was late in the first place, everything was ruined.
TM: What’s your ideal romantic experience?
KZ: To see a Tony Bennett concert, walk in a light snowfall to a jazz club, have steak and martinis — and, later, nookie.
