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Elaine
Stritch studied acting at the New
School for Social Research in New York City under the tutelage of
Erwin Piscator, in a class that included Marlon Brando. After
making her Broadway debut in the revue Angels in the Wings (1948),
she went on to understudy Ethel
Merman in Call Me Madam, eventually playing the lead in the
national tour, and then came to the attention of the New York theatre
crowd by nightly stopping the show with her rendition of "Zip"
in a revival of Rodgers & Hart's Pal Joey. She also
went on to create the role of Grace in William Inge's Bus Stop
on Broadway, and succeeded Uta Hagen in the role of Martha in Edward
Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? No stranger to
flops, Stritch somehow managed to come out smelling like a rose in
Walter Kerr's Goldilocks, Noël Coward's Sail Away,
and George Abbott's 1954 revival of Rodgers & Hart's On Your
Toes. However, it was her Tony-nominated performance as
Joanne in Harold Prince's production of Company which most view
as her greatest triumph, and her show-stopping performance of Stephen
Sondheim's "The Ladies Who Lunch" has rightfully gone down in
Broadway history. She appeared in Neil Simon's The Gingerbread
Lady and Tennessee Williams' Small Craft Warnings in
London, and received Tony nods for her performances in a revival Albee's
A Delicate Balance and in Hal Prince's revival of Show
Boat. But it wasn't until 2002 when Stritch would win her
very first Tony Award (after over 50 years in the business) for her
highly-acclaimed, tell-all one woman show, Elaine
Stritch: At
Liberty. |
