"Back with a vengeance" in her new show (at the Music Box) is that slinking violet with lavender locks, Dame Edna Everage, who graciously took time out from advising Queen Elizabeth to talk with TheaterMania about Christmases past and about her plans for this holiday season. That gave the saucy Aussie a good excuse to cancel high tea with manager Barry Humphries, with whom she claims to have a good relationship (despite rumors that they are never seen together).
Dame Edna's favorite holiday memory is "when I was the original desperate housewife, sitting on Moonee Ponds Beach, Australia, with my three little kiddies, eating roast turkey under a blazing Australian sun. Little did I dream then, while eating slices of hot roast turkey on toast, that there was another kind of toast: The toast of Broadway, which I have since become! But I sometimes long for those scrummy Christmas dinners on those cloudless days of early motherhood -- before my husband's prostate blotted out the sun."
How does the good dame plan to spend the holidays this season? "I will celebrate on stage, bringing joy and laughter to my American possums, who have never needed me more." (Dame Edna: Back With a Vengeance is scheduled to continue its run at the Music Box through March.)
Before sweeping off into the twilight, a trail of gladioli in her wake, Dame Edna shares her holiday wish for the theatrical community: "My wish for all the other shows on Broadway -- and I mean it from the bottom of my heart -- is that I hope and pray, in the coming year, their shows are nearly as successful as my own."
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Enjoying one of the happiest experiences of his lengthy career, Philip Bosco delights in playing Juror No. 3 in Twelve Angry Men at the Roundabout's American Airlines Theatre. "It's great fun to go to work every night with that group of actors and that crew," says the Tony winner (1989, Lend Me a Tenor). Though the show's run has been extended through March 27, Bosco will exit the courtroom drama on January 30 in order to start rehearsals for the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, in which he'll play Grandpa Potts.
Says Bosco, "I understand that Dick Van Dyke [who played Caractacus Potts in the 1968 movie version] was their first choice but, for whatever reason, he didn't get it." The London hit is set to begin previews on March 29 and to open on April 28 at the newly named Hilton Theatre (formerly the Ford Center), located a few doors east of the American Airlines Theatre (formerly the Selwyn), where Twelve Angry Men is playing. Directed by Adrian Noble and Gillian Lynne, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang will also star Raúl Esparza, Erin Dilly, Marc Kudisch, Jan Maxwell, Robert Sella, and Chip Zien.
The fact that Bosco is an actor who knows what his next job is -- and that he doesn't have to work on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day -- makes this holiday a particularly happy one: "It makes a huge difference in my ability to help my wife, Nancy. Our [seven] kids are all grown up now and we all gather here [at their New Jersey home] for a very big Christmas breakfast, then dinner at four o'clock. With the in-laws and the outlaws, as they call themselves, it's about 32 people. Between meals, we open packages -- and there are lots of them. That's what we plan to do."
Growing up, the New Jersey-born Bosco was the eldest of four sons. Christmases, he recalls, were mostly sad occasions because "my mother's second child, Joseph, died on Christmas Eve at the emergency room. He was a year or two old and died of whooping cough. That soured the holiday of Christmas for as long as I can remember living with my parents.
"The memory that sticks out most during my married years -- Nancy and I will be married 48 years in January -- is one when my youngest two daughters, Lisa and Celia, were about five and four. We had bought them nightgowns, which they adored. They were opening packages and we had a fire in the fireplace. Suddenly, Lisa started screaming; her nightgown had caught fire. Fortunately, she wasn't burned, but she was inconsolable because her new nightgown was ruined. I got in the car and drove to Stern's Department Store. It was closed, but I saw a security guard inside and I banged on the door. Finally, he came over and I explained the situation. I begged him to let me go in and get another nightgown, which I then brought home. It saved the day."
Bosco's wish for the theatrical community "is that non-musical theater doesn't die. It's getting close to that, I'm afraid. I'm talking about on Broadway. All they do is musicals -- except for one-person shows. Broadway of the old days is probably gone forever. They've called it 'The Fabulous Invalid' for years, but it's never been like this. You may see a vanity production, but as a money-making proposition, the play is all but gone."
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Judy Kaye, a 1988 Tony Award winner for The Phantom of the Opera, is currently appearing Off-Broadway at the York. In Souvenir, she gives one of the season's finest performances as society matron Florence Foster Jenkins (1868-1944), whose inability to sing did not keep her from giving high-profile charity concerts. Written by Stephen Temperley, the play was directed by Vivian Matalon.
Kaye accepts a compliment on her performance but insists, "Let's face it, it's in the writing, too. It's always been the intent to treat her as a loving human being, one who maybe cared a little too much." Jack F. Lee, the noted arranger-conductor-music director, portrays Mrs. Jenkins' accompanist, the improbably named Cosme McMoon.
Asked to share a favorite holiday memory, Phoenix native Kaye says, "Well, you know, I'm a Jewish person. When I was growing up, my mother didn't want to deny us anything; she didn't want us to feel left out in the neighborhood. We did have a Chanukah bush, decorated in blue and white, with a train set around the bottom of it. The thing that leaps out at me at holiday time are the meals -- sitting around big tables with lots of friends. The memories all kind of merge; the ones where snow is falling are usually the funnest. I still make my mother's brisket recipe and latkes."
How does Kaye, who has no shows on Christmas eve and Christmas night, plan to celebrate this season? She and her husband, actor David Green, "are going to jump on the New York State Thruway, go up to our place in Ulster County, and be with friends. We're going to cook and eat and rest. Maybe it will be a white Christmas!"
Kaye's wish for the theatrical community is "more new American plays, of the quality of Souvenir. Though it is written by a person who was born in Britain, he grew up in the United States. I think of this as an American play. And I want more of them -- meaningful material for me and other actors to perform in, and especially for the audiences. I want new audiences, younger people coming into the theater. The future."
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Garnering a lion's share of laughs in Larry Shue's The Foreigner at the Roundabout's Laura Pels Theatre, Kevin Cahoon plays Ellard Simms, who's as sturdy as wood if not quite as bright. "I'm having the time of my life!" exclaims Cahoon. One of his best scenes is played opposite Matthew Broderick, across a breakfast table: "We have a blast doing it, and we're still exploring."
Cahoon grew up "around Houston, Texas." His favorite holiday memories are of "the hand-decorated Christmas balls that my grandmother made every year. They had so much love. And one year, when I was eight, I got a live monkey that my dad's parents gave to me. I was an only child, and I think they thought I needed a friend. We had Molly for five or six years. My mother was none too thrilled!"
This year, his mom will visit ("She's going to cook dinner") and spend the holidays with him and roommate Gerrard Carter, one of Dame Edna's TestEdnarones: "We'll have a little show business Christmas." Cahoon's wish for the theatrical community "is to keep coming together and supporting new work, realizing that new work is a process. New, original ideas need to be fertilized."
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After a 14-year absence, Maureen McGovern returns to Broadway -- where she appeared in The Pirates of Penzance, Nine, and 3 Penny Opera -- as Marmee to four daughters, most notably Sutton Foster as Jo, in Little Women. The musical is now in previews at the Virginia, where it will open on January 23.
"Marmee is a role that touches my heart very deeply," says McGovern. "Having lost my father this year and my mother many years ago, what I love most about the show is the strength and bond of the family. I love Marmee's strength, compassion, and vulnerability."
Her favorite holiday memory, she says, "was getting my first guitar at age 14. It was a Sears catalogue guitar that my dad picked out for me." McGovern has a show on Christmas Day, "and I'm delighted to be working on Broadway. I'm not going to celebrate until January 24, the day after we open." Her wish for the theatrical community "is a great and fruitful season."
