Book News

Biography of Late Broadway Vet Elaine Stritch Heading to Bookstores

Author Alexandra Jacobs will explore the life of the ”Company” and ”30 Rock” star in print.

A biography about late Broadway vet Elaine Stritch will be written by Alexandra Jacobs.
A biography about late Broadway vet Elaine Stritch will be written by Alexandra Jacobs.
(© David Gordon)

New York Times fashion and features reporter Alexandra Jacobs will pen a forthcoming biography of the late Broadway veteran Elaine Stritch, to be published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

"I think I'm the only person in New York who not only never met Elaine Stritch, but never saw her perform live," Jacobs said in a statement. "I'm frantically spinning that as an advantage because I feel like most people who interacted with her had a very strong reaction to her…Since I never met her in the flesh, I lack any bias."

Stritch died on July 17, 2014, at the age of 89. Her many Broadway credits include the original production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's musical Company (in which she premiered the songs "The Ladies Who Lunch" and "The Little Things You Do Together"), Bus Stop, Sail Away, A Delicate Balance, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Pal Joey, and her award-winning solo show, Elaine Stritch At Liberty. Stritch's final appearance on Broadway was as Madame Armfeldt in the 2009 revival of A Little Night Music.

On television, she made appearances on several programs including The Cosby Show, Law & Order, One Life to Live, and 30 Rock, in which she played the mother of Alec Baldwin's character, network president Jack Donaghy. A documentary about Stritch's life called Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me premiered in 2013. A longtime resident of the Carlyle Hotel, Stritch moved back to her home state of Michigan before her death.

No official timeline for Jacobs' biography has been revealed.