Linda Lavin
The Performance
TV's beloved "Alice" - Golden Globe & Tony Award-winning actress Linda Lavin - serves up a heaping plateful of great music & fun reminiscences in her autobiographical concert Songs and Confessions of a One-Time Waitress.
Linda Lavin's distinguished career has earned her two Golden Globes for TV's groundbreaking sitcom Alice, plus the Tony, Helen Hayes, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Awards as Best Actress for her starring role in Neil Simon's Broadway Bound. Additional Tony nominations have honored her portrayals in Tales of the Allergist's Wife, The Diary of Anne Frank, Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers and, in 2010, as Best Actress for her searing triumph in Donald Margulies' Collected Stories. She starred as Mama Rose in the 1990 revival of Gypsy, in The Sisters Rosensweig and in the Carol Burnett/Carrie Hamilton-penned Hollywood Arms, directed by Hal Prince. Perhaps still best known for her nine years as Alice Hyatt, America's most earnest, indefatigable waitress at Mel's diner, Lavin's delectable touring one-woman show Songs and Confessions of a One-Time Waitress ("with a few men on the side") recalls those experiences and many more in an engaging theatrical concert. In a warm and revealing musical journey through the ups and downs of her illustrious career, she tips her apron to "Alice" with its familiar theme song she recorded for each of the series' nine seasons. But that's only a mouth-watering appetizer to the full course menu of great tunes and entertaining anecdotes as Lavin shares touching and hilarious morsels of a life being well-lived — and truly relished. Backed up by a sassy, swinging trio led by the inimitable Billy Stritch, Linda Lavin easily illustrates why that "new girl in town" is as endearing and lovable as ever. Lavin is a recent inductee into the American Theater Hall of Fame. During 2011, Lavin will be featured in the new play Other Desert Cities at Lincoln Center, and in the revival of Follies in Concert at the Kennedy Center.
In a Word…
"UNA hit it out of the park with Linda Lavin. In every regard, on stage and off, she personified everything we wanted for the UNA Summer Theatre. The students who were able to watch her, be around her and engage with her, will literally never be the same. This, in my opinion is the highest aspiration of higher education. To quote a noted theatre scholar, 'What should theatre ultimately do? Leave them with fleeting moments of greatness emblazoned on their souls....' That's what happened here this weekend with Linda Lavin." - Will Stutts, Producing Artistic Director, University of North Alabma/Professional Summer Theatre Program
"impeccable timing … the precision of a soufflé chef." - Isabel Heblich, Wilmington Star-News
"She's spectacular." - Liz Smith, NY Newsday
"...a pro with a pedigree...better timing than a sudden cool breeze on a hot summer night." - Talkin' Broadway
"Linda Lavin has mastered the art of expressing all the vowels of the alphabet in a single sigh." - Newsday
A Presenter's Point of View
She's hysterically funny one moment — and then so touchingly open and real that you feel you're sitting cradling the hand of your closest, dearest friend. From a presenter's viewpoint, it's one of those events that leaves permanent marks — when the artist "invites you in" — and then truly opens the door. The show, one of the most expertly crafted I've ever seen, includes an audience Q&A ("Well, no, actually, Elaine Stritch is not Billy's mother but thank you for asking...."), wonderful moments of musical interplay with her musicians ("Yes, I married the drummer — wouldn't you?"), with Linda even occupying the piano bench for a couple of her special accomplishments in the key of C. There's never a second you feel anything but lucky when this show is on. The whole experience is a scrumptious, heart-healthy, delicious dessert.