Loose Lips

IT’S ALWAYS FAIRWEATHER
Having already played some of the musical stage’s sexiest women — from Ziegfeld’s Favorite in The Will Rogers Follies to her Tony Award-winning turn as Ulla in The Producers — Cady Huffman is ready to tackle another one: blonde bombshell maid Sabina Fairweather in All About Us, the musical version of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth which begins a short run at the Westport Country Playhouse on April 10.

“I wasn’t familiar with the play before, but I loved the idea as soon as I heard about it,” she says of the long-aborning project. “I loved math as a kid, and what I like about the story is that it’s about problem solving. And I’m a very literate person. I’ve read Wilder before; I’ve even read Plato.”

Not surprisingly, Huffman is finding Sabina, who travels throughout the centuries, to be a truly fascinating character. “She gets to go through a lot and doesn’t stay the same, which is great for an actor,” says Huffman. “I really love how ordinary and simple she is; everything is pretty much black and white to her. But she learns a lot over the course of the play, and learning is a huge thing for her. Sabina is not a deep thinker, so when deep things happen, it hits her more deeply than other people. As for her sexuality, it’s just her way of getting more of what she wants.”

Huffman is also relishing working closely with the show’s creators, librettist Joseph Stein and composer John Kander — who wrote the score with his late partner, Fred Ebb — as well as her celebrated co-stars, including Shuler Hensley and Yvette Freeman as Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus and Eartha Kitt as fortune teller Esmeralda. “Working with Joe and John as they craft this show is a dream come true,” she says. “And I could just watch Eartha every moment. It’s amazing to see someone who totally commands your focus every minute.”

GRUMPY OLD LEN
Len Cariou may forever be the Demon Barber of Fleet Street to many theatergoers, but in the past two decades, the Tony-winning actor has focused exclusively on doing plays. His latest outing is the Geffen Playhouse’s upcoming production of the Olivier Award-winning comedy Heroes, in which he co-stars with Richard Benjamin and George Segal as a trio of grumpy old World War I veterans. “These guys are not going to be around too much longer and their only entertainment is themselves,” Cariou says of the bickering threesome. “They’re trying not to die of boredom.”

He admits that, if he had his druthers, he’d be playing a different role. “I play Henri, who is the most logical of the three; the one who tries to bring some kind of sanity to the situation,” he says. “But I would have liked the role of Gustav, the blowhard, since it’s the biggest part, and I like big parts. But our director, Thea Sharrock, had worked with George before in London, so she offered it to him right away. But we’re all on stage the whole time, so it’s fine. And we’re having a great time, laughing a lot. Plus, I think we’ve all become a bit smitten with Thea. It’s not often I get to say that about a director.”

This is Cariou’s third visit to the Geffen; he most recently triumphed there as Joe Keller in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. “It was a wonderful experience. I think it’s the best play Miller ever wrote and it’s so relevant to what’s going on in the world today,” he says. “I hear Howard Davies may direct a revival in New York next year, and I’ve definitely thrown my hat into the ring.” There’s also a chance Cariou may finally return to the musical stage. “I’m doing a reading of the musical Grumpy Old Men, based on the film, and I’m playing the Jack Lemmon part,” he says. “I think people still want me to do musicals, and I’m totally open to that. But I’d also like to get back to doing Shakespeare — Lear, Prospero, Richard III — there are all kind of roles I’d like to play.”

DARK MATTERS

Michele Pawk and Donna Lynne Champlin first bonded when they played mother and daughter in Carol Burnett’s autobiographical play Hollywood Arms — for which Pawk won the Tony Award — and have remained close friends ever since. But the ladies are now acting together again for the first time, brilliantly portraying unhappily married sisters Lottie and Cora in the Transport Group’s riveting revival of The Dark at the Top of the Stairs at the Connelly Theatre. “When I heard she was cast as my sister, I thought, ‘Yes, I’m getting older not younger,’ ” Pawk says with a smile. “So I said, I’ll take the job!”

“To play sisters is the easiest part of the job, because we have this history,” says Champlin. “We just look at each other and it’s all there. The hardest part for me is to play this woman who has been married for 17 years with two children, because I’m neither a wife nor a mother. But I understand Cora’s loneliness and feeling of disconnection, since her husband isn’t home a lot, and I know what it’s like to do everything by oneself. Michele has been a great resource for me, since she has a 7-year-old son, Jack. My instinct is so different than Cora’s, who doesn’t do anything when her kids scream, but Michele has reassured me about my own instincts.”

And what does Pawk think is the hardest part about playing Lottie? “Well, being married to John Dossett, it’s unfathomable that no husband of mine would want to sleep with me,” she says with a laugh. “Seriously, it’s a bit hard to understand why this woman who loves glamour and fashion would choose to be in an unfulfilled, unsexed marriage. Also, with this play being set in the 1920s, it’s difficult in 2007 to realize what a big deal it was in those days to live one’s life as a barren woman. But I have to say I’m a big fan of Inge; I think he’s one of our most underrated playwrights.”

Both actresses are renowned for their work in musical theater — they’ve even each played the accordion on stage (Pawk in Cabaret and Champlin in Sweeney Todd) — but they’re enjoying this break from that art form. “I love musicals, but I can’t stand waking up every morning wondering if I can get through the show that day or if I forgot to cool down afterwards,” says Pawk, who sings very briefly at the top of the second act. Adds Champlin, who will return to the musical stage this summer in the Pittsburgh CLO production of The Full Monty: “People think plays are so much harder, but in terms of preparation, they’re a walk in the park. Still, there were times during rehearsals we kept thinking, ‘Is there a song there?’ And sometimes, even though there wasn’t one, we’d break into song anyway.”

WHERE THE STARS ARE
Acclaimed actress Leslie Lewis Sword will bring her solo show Miracle in Rwanda to the Ohio Theatre, April 5-29. New plays by Adam Rapp, J. Holtham, and Amy Fox will be performed at Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Young Directors Benefit on April 8. Jefferson Mays, Roberta Maxwell, Brian Murray, and Michael Stuhlbarg will headline the Acting Company’s staged reading of For Services Rendered on April 9 at the Laura Pels; that same night, Richard Todd Adams, Jessica Grové, and Michael Hunsaker will star in a special benefit concert reading of The Alchemists, hosted by Malcolm Gets, at the Lucille Lortel. Bridget Everett and Cheryl Stern will be among the entertainers at Gotham Stage Company’s Vegas in Gotham benefit on April 10 at the Players Club.

More on the benefit front: on April 16; Christine Ebersole and Billy Stritch will perform at Playwrights Horizons’ 16th Annual Gala Benefit at Gustavino’s; the same evening that Manoel Felciano and Michael John LaChiusa will be among the special guest stars at the Play Company’s annual Cabaret Gourmet benefit at the Angel Orensanz Foundation. Looking ahead, Jenn Gambatese and Jose Llana will perform at the annual Mai-Yi Theatre Company Benefit at the New York Hilton on April 23; Tony nominee Calvin Levels will perform his solo show James Baldwin: Down from the Mountaintop at the James Baldwin School on April 26; Karen Finley, Murray Hill, and Julie Atlas Muz will be among the performers for Franklin Furnace’s benefit The History of the Future on April 27 at the Harry de Jur Playhouse.
Lastly, Mary Steenburgen and hubby Ted Danson will be saluted at the Atlantic Theatre 2007 Gala on April 30 at the Rainbow Room.

Heading over to the West Coast: The national company of Jersey Boys will perform a special One Night Only benefit at San Francisco’s Club Fugazi; beloved Broadway composer-lyricist Marc Shaiman will be honored with the prestigious Henry Mancini Award at the 22nd Annual ASCAP Film and Television Awards on April 17 at Los Angeles’ Kodak Theatre; Billy Porter and Tierney Sutton will perform with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles in Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn, April 20-22 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale; San Francisco’s New Conservatory Theatre Center will host A Conversation with Bill Irwin on April 23; Stephanie Zimbalist and dad Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. will appear in the Rubicon Theatre Company’s Hamlet, April 26-May 20; and Oscar winner Helen Mirren will receive the Geffen Playhouse’s Distinction in Theater Award at the Backstage at the Geffen Gala on April 30.