Chatting up Tommy Tune and Carol Channing on Tony night...

There are certain moments in my career that I will remember forever and one of them occured last night when I conducted a joint interview with theater legends Tommy Tune and Carol Channing. These longtime friends were at the 12th Annual Los Angeles Tony Awards Party where Miss Channing presented Tommy with the Julie Harris Lifetime Achievement Award. The evening was hosted by the enternally youthful Florence Henderson.

Carol: Did you know that I gave my son - well, he's known as my son - I gave my spiritual son one of his Tony Awards. They hooked up the New York Tony Awards with a show he was doing in Seattle. Which show?
Tommy: It was 'Bye Bye Birdie."
Greg: How many Tonys do you have?
Tommy: I've got nine.
Carol: I've got four and a lifetime achievement. I'm very happy about that.
Tommy: And every one of them was very deserving.
Greg: When you won for "Hello Dolly," was that one of the greatest nights for you?
Carol: When you're up for an award, you get a case of the willies. It won for best sets and best prchestration and now they're not gonna give it to me at the end? You get very nervous about it. You can't lose or else it will look like everyone else won for the show in spite of me. But I could have lost it because Barbra Streisand was up at the same time."
Greg: But you beat her!
Carol: We don't mention that whenever she's anywhere near.

Greg: Tommy, what are your feelings about being honored tonight?
Tommy: It's a great honor, it's thrilling. The people who have won it before, Carol being one of them, are great people. Julie Harris herself, Liza Minnelli, Gwen Verdon, Jerry Herman. Greats. Theater greats. I'm very proud to be following in their footsteps.
Greg: What keeps you going after all these years?
Tommy: I work out all the time and I do yoga and I take dance class and I have ideas and I have shows. I got shows I gotta do!
Greg: Will you be back on Broadway soon?
Tommy: I'm directing a new show called "Turn of the Century" and I hope it will be back on Broadway very soon. We're trying it out ijn Chicago in September.

Greg: How about you, Miss Channing. Will you be on stage telling stories and singing songs anytime soon?
Carol: I'm doing it all the time, three shows a week, for the universities. But that isn't important today. I never forget my son and I'm very honored to be here. He's got NINE Tony Awards! I've seen them, he's got them all lined up.
Greg to Tommy: Where do you put all those Tonys?
Tommy: I just moved and I have a mantle in the new place and they link up just exactly right. It just fills it. I can't win any more otherwise I'd have to move! But I could move.
Carol: I'm SO proud if him.