Wings flies away . . . get set for the Scottish play . . . Elaine Stritch acts up in The Royal Family of Broadway

THE FOLDING OF WINGS

Both Betty Bacalls were in attendance at the little bash she threw for cast and crew of Waiting in the Wings at Joe Allen’s the night before it closed. Mostly it was Lauren Bacall the Luminous, fluttering here, fussing there, charming the crowd as is her wont. Then came the acid test for divas–an autograph hound from a nearby table, wondering if she would mind signing his program. She started to oblige him with some of her residual graciousness, then noticed the Playbill wasn’t even from Waiting in the Wings. “Do I mind?” she asked the guy. “Yes, I mind. I only sign programs from my show.”

There were tears, cheers and roses all the way when the curtain fell emphatically on Wings the next day; a super-supportive, sentimental audience applauded that curtain back up for one last goodbye, and the glistening eyes on stage responded warmly. Even Bacall’s…I kid you not. If anything, this run of a 30-year old Noel Coward play proved the public will still come out for an authentic Star (even when she’s uncomfortably cast, as Bacall was here). And she came out for them, like a true Star, eight times a week, not missing a single performance (contrary to what you might have read on Page Six). Carol Lawrence–like Bacall’s understudy in Applause, Gretchen Wyler–never got a chance to go on.

The case of champagne Crista Moore delivers in the second act turned out to be the real thing at the closing matinee, and the cast stayed on stage after the final curtain to partake of some bubbly and brie–just the thing to help that lump-in-the-throat go down. Rosemary Murphy was the only one of the performers who knew where her next role was coming from; she departed for Madagascar on Friday to film Dust. “My scenes take place in New York, but they’ll be filmed in Germany,” she said, accepting cinematic logic with remarkable matter-of-factness.

Two member of the cast, Simon Jones and Anthony Cummings, lost their mothers during the run of the show. (Cummings’ mom was Mary Elliott, a pert MGM starlet who played Gene Kelly’s sister in As Thousands Cheer before she married actor Robert Cummings.) Graham Payn, who created Jones’ role in the original production of Wings, London, lost his mother during that run. And, of course, Waiting in the Wings was the 101st and final production of the late, great Alexander H. Cohen. His titian-haired partner, Chase Mishkin, proposed the closing toast in the absence of yet another partner, Leonard Soloway, who had to rush to Florida to be with his ailing father. “If this keeps up,” remarked Jones, “Waiting in the Wings is going to be known as The English Play.”

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A SHOT OF SCOTCH

The Scottish Play (aka Macbeth, but don’t ever speak that title while you’re in a theater) is on the brink of a Broadway comeback, set to begin a 60-performance run at the Music Box on June 9, starring Kelsey Grammer and Diane Venora as Mr. and Mrs. M. Although Grammer played the role 20 years ago (and got some better response than Philip Anglim, whom he understudied), Venora has emerged the critics’ darling during the Boston run of the present production. Even the show’s controversial (and clever) logo seems to be pushing her center stage: Depending on how you look at it, that logo is either a crown or a bodice.

In related news, one of the ads Worldwide Cinemas runs prior to its feature films poses the question, “What Shakespearean role did Mel Gibson play in 1990?” The answer given is McBeth. Even if that were spelled right, the answer would still be wrong; Gibson played Hamlet.

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NEW MOON RISING