Recently in Broadway Category

Mario Lopez is all smiles here as he is being inducted onto the Wall of Fame at Tony's Di Napoli Restaurant in Times Square. Mario's stint on "A Chorus Line" ends soon but it has been eventful. Among the most amusing news has had to do with his equally buff co-star Nick Adams whose guns Mario allegedly wanted covered up while he was next to him on stage. But they look chummy in the photo below.

That Tony Awards hosting gig last month musta given Whoopi Goldberg the Broadway bug again.

Whoopi said this morning on "The View" that she is going to be spending her month off from the morning chatfest in August as a cast member of the musical "Xanadu."

"I always wanrt to be on a stage somewhere and I wanted something fun," Whoopi said. "If I have vacation, it's dangerous."

Whoopi's role in the roller-skating musical "Xanadu" is as one of the show's evil sisters, Caliope. Her previous Broadway stints were her own one-woman show as well as in revivals of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."

She begins her six-week "Xanadu" run on July 29.

...Broadway star (and stud) Cheyenne Jackson who turned 33 today! He makes us proud by being an openly gay perfomer as he basks ib the success of the Tony Award nominated musical "Xanadu."

Cheyenne earned a 2008 Drama Desk Award nomination for outstanding actor in a musical In June 2007 for a role he assumed less than a week before the scheduled opening night,. He replaced actor James Carpinello who had been injured during rehearsal.

The performer also starred in the 2005 musical "All Shook Up" and won the 2005 Theatre World Award for outstanding Broadway debut. He had previosly understudied the leads in ."Thorougfly Modern Millie" and " Aida." In film, Cheyenne won praise for his performance as Mark Bingham in "United 93."

Next up: a New York production of "Damned Yankees."

Well, well, I just became Facebook friends with "A Chorus Line" star Nick Adams - the hunk who is outhunking Mario Lopez on stage - and he had posted some photos of himself and friends from the benefit "Broadway Bares 18." Above, he is with Brian Patrick Murphy and below, with Tommy Berklund.

I. Can't Breathe.

Earlier post:
-- Mario vs. Nick: Battle of the Broadway hunks rages on...
-- Mario Lopez: Is he starring in "A Chorus Line" or "Top Guns"?

This is an excerpt from a column Alec Baldwin recently wrote for The Huffington Post:

Before I get into Obama, the SAG strike and renewable energy, I wanted to talk about Patti LuPone. Yeah. That's right. Patti LuPone. What the world needs now is Patti LuPone. I have worked in my business since 1980 and I have seen a lot of changes. One thing that hasn't changed is Patti.

That year, the year I started, Patti won the Tony for Best Actress in a musical for Evita. And now, more than twenty-five years later, Patti is as heartbreaking and wicked and volcanic and gorgeous as ever. Maybe more so. Go see her in Gypsy on Broadway. Surrounded by Boyd Gaines and Laura Benanti (both also Tony winners for this show), Patti makes the story of Mama Rose worth seeing again and then some.

Where movies today all too typically use the name of a big star to draw you into a theatre, only to have special effects people take over, what happens at the St. James theatre is live. Real. It is a stage covered with remarkable actors, directed by Arthur Laurents himself, breathing new life into an old story. And, it is Patti. As I left the theatre. a young man turned to me and said, "I liked that a lot and I normally don't go to musicals." Another woman near us smiled and said, "That was no ordinary musical. That was Patti." I told the young man to consider himself lucky. "You're not likely to see that again on Broadway for a long time.

"Go see Gypsy. Go see Patti LuPone, one of the great actresses of all time, give the performance of her life.

It's so nice that one a day when something crummy happens like Heinz wimping out and pulling a commercial because about 200 people don't like the gay kiss in it, that I can read that the handsome and talented actor Paulo Szot is an out and proud gay man.

Less than two weeks ago, Paulo won the outstanding actor in a musical Tony Award for his performance in "South Pacific." That is the same category that David Hyde Pierce won in last year for "Curtains" and publicly thanked his male partner,

I love the Tony Awards...they get even more gay after I finish watching them! AfterElton.com reports: There had been some speculation about Szot (who was rumored to be openly gay in his native Brazil, where he is a celebrated opera singer), but not much was known about him in the States before he took the stage in Pacific. And of course the sight of him and sound of his pipes set tongues wagging and Internet speculation afire the day after the Awards. We contacted his publicist and were told that yes, he is gay, and we're welcome to say as much.

The chapter on her being cruelly passed over for the Broadway production of "Sunset Boulevard" after originating the role in London will be worth the price of the book alone! Glenn Close, who starred in the LA production, got the Broadway gig and Patti LuPone - who was contracted to do it in New York - was said to have been devastated - and completely furious. I think things from her dressing room were thrown out a window. She got back on her feet though, like any true diva, and used to $1 million-plus settlement from Andrew Lloyd Webber to build a swimming pool I seem to recall.

Patti, fresh off winning her second Tony Award Sunday for "Gypsy" (her first was for "Evita"), is working on a memoir, tentatively scheduled to be released in 2010 by Harmony Books, an imprint of Random House Inc. The book is currently untitled. I've got some ideas: "Don't Cry for Patti LuPone" or "Patti's Turn" or how 'bout "Life Went On."

The AP reports that according to the publisher, the actress will write about her whole life, "From her beginnings in Northport, Long Island, where she discovered that being onstage was the one place she couldn't get into trouble, she takes us on the roller-coaster of professional highs ... and emotional lows (her humiliating firing from 'Sunset Boulevard,' nightclub work in the Catskills to pay the bills)."

Patti;s other stage credits include the original London company of "Les Miserables" and Broadway revivals of "Sweeney Todd" and "Anything Goes." She has also appeared in such films as "Witness," "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Summer of Sam," as well as four seasons as Libby on the ABC series "Life Goes On."

Here is Patti's bring down the house performance pf "Everything's Coming Up Roses" on Sunday night's Tony Awards. Gives you a good indication of why she won!

Because she is so well-known as Carol Brady from "The Brady Bunch," a lot of people don't know that before the lovely lady met that fellow and they knew that it was much more than a hunch, that Florence Henderson was a major Broadway star. She starred in the original musicals "The Girl Who Came to Supper," " Fanny" and "Wish You Were Here" as well as the 1953 revival of "Oklahoma!"

There were also national tours and regional productions of various shows including "South Pacific," "The King and I" and "The Sound of Music." She was the perfect host of Sunday night's 12th Annual Actors Fund Tony Awards Party in LA.

"Once you taste the theater, once your heart is there, it never really leaves," she said during our pre-show chat.. "That was my first love and when I go to New York, I see as many shows as I can. I just got back from New York a couple of hours ago." But she wasn't there to catch any shows this time: "I went on Friday. Judge Judy is a very good friend of mine and she completed her brand new home which is so exquisite and she had a 30 year anniversary party. It was a grand evening and I promised her I'd go."

But on previous trips to the Big Apple, she had caught some of this year's Tony nominated shows: "I saw "In the Heights" and I saw "Gypsy" with Patti LuPone. What a great, great performance. It's truly memorable. And I saw Ethel Merman in it. I just think when Patti walks out there on that stage, she owns it."

I wondered what Florence's favorite stage roles were?
"I loved doing 'The Girl Who Came to Supper" which was Noel Coward's last show. That was wonderful. Then Maria in "The Sound of Music" which I loved because it appealed to everybody, it didn't matter what their religion was. They just loved the show. I loved doing Nellie Forbush ("South Pacific"), I loved opening the (LA) Music Center here as Anna in "The King and I."

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.

What a terrific show! I watched the telecast honoring the best of Broadway at the 12th Annual Los Angeles Tony Awards Party at the Skirball Center in LA. Florence Henderson charmingly hosted the evening where Carol Channing presented Tommy Tune with a lifetime achievement award after the Tonys were over.

I can't imagine a more fun way to watch the Tonys (except maybe actually being there at Radio City Music Hall in New York). What a crowd! At my table was Tony winning composer Jeff Marx, who co-wrote "Avenue Q," and throughout the room were such stars as Charles Durning, Betty Garrett, Carol Cooke, Anne Jeffreys, Charlotte Rae, Shari Belafonte, and William Schallart, among others.

I did a joint interview with Miss Channing and Mr. Tune that I will share with you in a post later today as well as an interview with Florence Henderson.

Here are some of my impressions from the ceremony:

HOSTESS W/THE MOSTEST: Whoopi Goldberg, God bless ya. You were perfection as you showed up for little comic bits at just the right time and held the show together wonderfully. Please host again next year.

POPULAR PATTI: The crowd, which watched the show on giant screens as well as smaller flat screen TVs, was really wild about Patti LuPone. When she finished singing "Everything's Coming Up Roses" from "Gypsy," the room burst into sustained applause. Then when she won, the crowd erupted with cheers. A very popular win for this Broadway legend who, stunningly, had not won a Tony in 28 years. She had three losses since her 1980 win for "Evita" including a few years back for "Sweeney Todd." It was Patti's night and everyone loved how she takked the orchestra down when it tried to play over her.

BEST REUNION: The original cast of "Rent" did a moving tribute to the late Jonathan Larsen who died before his ground-breaking show opened. It has now passed 5000 performances on Broadway.

NICE TOUCH: Having Jack Klugman, Broadway's original Herbie in "Gypsy," introduce LuPone's musical number.

ANNOYING PRESENTER: Julie Chen. She did a fine job, for a robot. (Her nickname is Chenbot). So why, other than the fact that she is married to CBS honcho Les Moonves, is the host of "Big Brother" on the Tony telecast? As if she's not already rammed down our throats enough already. A completely uninteresting television "personality."

SCARIEST PRESENTER: Was the the Unibomber accepting Stephen Sondheim's lifetime achievement award? No, it was Mandy Patinkin who doesn't seem to have shaved since quitting "Criminal Minds" a year ago.

HOTTEST GUYS: Hands down, Cheyene Jackson wearing those short shorts and singing a number from "Xanadu." He's so handsome, so built, so talented and so gay! The perfect man. Runners-up: Anthony Rapp and Taye Diggs from "Rent" cast and, one of the sexiest men alive: Harry Connick Jr.

LOOKING GOOD: A pair of sixtysomething actresses who are also three-time Tony winners looked as good as they ever have when they walked out to present awards: Liza Minnelli and Glenn Close. Glenn always seems to look sensational as she is clearly fit and either has the best genes on Earth or a really superb plastic surgeon. Either way, she's still hot! As for Liza, she walked out in a little black dress and she's thin again! I love Liza even when she married that creepy hair plugs dude so I'm glad to see she is in one of her healthy stretches. Still, Is it just me or did it seem like one side of her mouth was kind of paralyzed?

OK, so back at the Skirball: there was a silent auction and I bid on beautifully framed and signed posters of Bernadette Peters' "Gypsy" (bidding for LuPone's started at $250) and "The Country Girl" signed by Peter Gallagher, Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand. I checked moments before the auction closed and had been outbid on "Gypsy" but "Country Girl" seemed to be mine. But, in the end, someone else got there under the wire and outbid me! Dammit!

Still, it was a good dinner, good wine, nice company. I asked Jeff Marx where his "Avenue Q" Tony Award is kept and he said at his parent's house in Hollywood, FL. "but it comes back to visit every once in awhile if I need it to speak at a college or something." Florence was kind enough to keep the crowd updated on the score of the Lskers-Celtics game during commercial breaks as well as Tiger Woods' US Open progress. They oughta let her host the Tonys themselves. Florence Henderson is an amazing woman and one of the real, great showbiz pros.

This is amusing, especially Cynthia Nixon's regal appearance as a Tony winner giving advice to the cast of "Xanadu." The Tony Awards air on CBS tonight!

The year was 1980 and Patti LuPone beat out, among others, Sandy Duncan in "Peter Pan" and Ann Miller in "Sugar Babies."

It is 28 years later and again Tony Award night. Miss LuPone is the front-runner to win her second Tony, this time for "Gypsy." I'm rooting for her and will be watching the telecast live at a Tony event in LA where Tommy Tune will be honored and Carol Channing will be among the celebrity guests.

I'll have a recap later...

Here is a Tony Awards number from the mid-90s with then-host Rosie O'Donnell, Patti LuPone, Betty Buckley and Jennifer Holliday...

I just cannot top this lede from the New York Post: What started as a battle of the biceps has turned into the battle of the bulges between stars of Broadway's "A Chorus Line."

The paper's PAGE SIX column reported last month that Mario Lopez and co-star Nick Adams clashed when the very buff Mario refused to wear his character Zach's trademark costume of a long-sleeve tan sweater because he wanted to show off his biceps, Who could blame him? If I had those guns, I'd have a xleeveless tuxedo made, OK? So Mario instead wore a short-sleeve shirt on stage.

But apparently Mario wanted tp be the top guns on stage so asked that the also very buff Nick cover up his tank top with a baggy hoodie whenever he danced next to Mario! But payback is a bitch: The Post is now reporting that men's-underwear company 2(x)ist has passed over Mario and wants Adams front and center in a shirtless ad.

Jason Scarlatti, 2(x)ist's creative director, gave final approval and told The Post: "Nick's very masculine, sexy, modern. It's totally all about his body. Mario is a good-looking guy, but Nick had it. He's up and coming, the new face of sexy. He's original. He's hot."

The ad campaign was shot in one day at Via Della Pace restaurant in the East Village. It will appear in Out's August issue first and then in other magazines.

After winning "American Idol" a couple years back, Taylor Hicks didn't go on to sell nearly as many records as fellow "Idol" champs Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson.

But the silver-haired singer from Birmingham, Ala., remains upbeat and is following in the footsteps of Season 3 winner Fantasia Barrino ("The Color Purple") by making his Broadway debut in "Grease."

Taylor called from Manhattan on Monday afternoon to talk about his latest gig, which kicked off last Friday.

"It's definitely country come to town," he said of his presence in the Big Apple. "The traffic, all the people and the fast pace that New York is an adjustment. But I love it and I'm starting to become more comfortable with my role in the show."

The role is that of Teen Angel, played by Frankie Avalon in the 1978 movie version, and Taylor gets a nice, big solo in the production.

"The music is classic and the part is a perfect fit," he said. "I couldn't turn down the opportunity to perform on Broadway for the first time."

But don't expect an imitation of Avalon or anyone else. Like everything else he does, the 31-year-old performer said his number has been "Taylorized."

"The great thing about this role is I was able to be Taylor at the same time as Teen Angel," he said. "It allows me to get my feet wet a little bit before I really dive into acting."

He will be living in New York until at least Sept. 6, when his run in the show is due to end. But he will be multitasking all summer: writing songs for a new album planned for later this year and an appearance on "A Capitol Fourth," which airs live on July 4 (on PBS).
Taylor will join such stars as Huey Lewis and Jerry Lee Lewis on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol and he will be performing "This Land is Your Land" as well as songs "Dancing in the Dark" and "Heaven Knows."

"The numbers will be Taylorized," he promised. "You just gotta put as much soul as you can into it."

So what did he think of this season's "Idol" competition and the champion, David Cook?

"I think he's got a great shot to be successful in the pop-rock genre," he said. "He's an accomplished instrumentalist and it was nice to see that on the show this year. I wasn't allowed to play harmonica or guitar."

Taylor's self-titled first album after winning "Idol" reached platinum status but was still considered a disappointment and he parted ways with his record company earlier this year.
I wondered if he felt more pressure to succeed as a former "Idol" champ?

"What's the measuring stick for an `Idol' winner? Is it sales? Everyone has their own opinion," he said. "I'm not worried about it at all. I'm just excited to be an entertainer.

"It is a wild ride (winning `Idol') and it still is. You have to just understand that you've been working as an entertainer for years and want to keep working and you have to re-invent yourself. Some of these things that I'm doing now, it's going to allow me to do that."

Whatever the sales of the upcoming album, Taylor is confident the effort will be better music than his first.

"This time around, I've just had the time to be able to write music," he said. "You're really under the gun to create an album in a short period of time post-`Idol.' With this next album, I'm going to be able to breathe."

This is hilarious! Enjoy!

Just discombobulated this week. In a good way because of the gay marriage ruling and in a bad way because of my bad allergic reaction to some laundry detergent and the energy-sapping medication I've had to take since.

This is my way of explaining why I had neglected to report on various news items this week starting with the Tony Award nomination for the great Patti LuPone! The Broadway legend has, stunningly, only won once (for "Evita") but if ever there was a role that will win her that second Tony it is Mama Rose in "Gypsy."

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After watching Sunday's episode of "Brothers & Sisters" with Kevin and Scotty, I was not in the mood to deal with the silliness of "As the World Turns" and the stupid storylines the writers have Luke and Noah involved in. So, didn't even bother to watch their scenes this week but I did want to post them for you. They have to do with Ameera and Col. Meyer and naive Noah and long-suffering Luke and on and on...and on... I beleive these clips are from an episode that aired Wednesday:

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A 26-minute documentary about the efforts to save Laguna Beach's now shuttered Boom Boom Room has been accepted for the 2008 LA Outfest Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. John Keitel's "Saving the Boom" will be among those screened at the fest held July 9-21, 2008 at the Directors' Guild of America in West Hollywood and selected theaters throughout Los Angeles.

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We all know relationships can be tough - gay or straight - but what is with the drama between Reichen Lehmkuhl and Ryan Barry. We had Ryan back in March changing his Facebook status to no longer in a relationship then a few weeks back, Reichen publicly vented on his MySpace page about someone who could only have been Ryan. And yet, here they are kissing on a red carpet at some event (that's actor Peter Paige in the other picture). Oh brother. Those crazy kids. I'd advise against them taking out a CA marriage license anytime soon!

"Gypsy" starring Patti LuPone opened on Broadway this week and most critics agree that the great LuPone triumphs in a major way. I saw Patti on Broadway in "Master Class," in her one woman show "Patti LuPone on Broadway" and own the soundtrack to her "Sunset Boulevard" on the London stage, a show from which she was cruelly dumped before Broadway in favor of Glenn Close. But "Gypsy" is the show I've always wanted to see her in and hope to make it to New York later this year to do just that!

Here are some of her reviews:

New York Times: Watch out, New York. Patti LuPone has found her focus. And when Ms. LuPone is truly focused, she's a laser, she incinerates. Especially when she's playing someone as dangerously obsessed as Momma Rose in the wallop-packing revival of the musical "Gypsy," which opened on Thursday night at the St. James Theater...When Ms. LuPone delivers "Rose's Turn," she's building a bridge for an audience to walk right into one woman's nervous breakdown. There is no separation at all between song and character, which is what happens in those uncommon moments when musicals reach upward to achieve their ideal reasons to be. .

Los Angeles Times: This is not the brassy tour de force that we can reconstruct from the cast recording of Ethel Merman's patented original. And one shouldn't expect Angela Lansbury's tragicomic finesse, Tyne Daly's working-class realism or Bernadette Peters' sex-kittenish wiles, to cite the other previous Broadway Roses. ... What distinguishes LuPone's accomplishment is the fiery fusion of music and drama that she pulls off with seemingly spontaneous expressiveness. Speech slides into song as naturally as water returns to air, and the ensuing rainbow of vocal color is like the proof of some rarely observed scientific law.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Patti LuPone is a star reborn. Her potrayal of the legendarily pushy Momma Rose in Gypsy, which opened Thursday in an extraordinary Broadway revival, is a stellar achievement in a career of achievements on stage and TV, in movies and concert halls. ...She unleashes "Rose's Turn," the take-no-prisoners finale, with a fury that leaves her shaking. If there were a Tony Award for Most Menacing Diva, LuPone would get it. As it is, she'll probably have to settle for Best Actress in a Musical.

Newsday has compiled a list of the actresses who has played Mama Rose on stage and screen:
Ethel Merman, Broadway: (1959) Brassy belter was the first and, many still say, best Mama Rose.
Rosalind Russell, Film: (1962) Russell took a hit from critics upset that Merman hadn't been allowed to re-create the role.
Angela Lansbury, Broadway: (1974) One of two Roses to win a Tony. (Lansbury is pictured at this week's opening night of "Gypsy."
Tyne Daly, Broadway: (1989) The other Tony winner.
Bette Midler, TV: (1993) Campy, but well-received "Gypsy" packed in all the Jerome Robbins choreography.
Bernadette Peters, Broadway: (2003) Kewpie-doll actress was the most controversial "Rose," in the only Broadway "Gypsy" not directed by Arthur Laurents.

Related post: Meeting Angela Lansbury...

...the glorious Bernadette Peters!!!

Why we love her? Anyone who has ever seen her in concert or on the Broadway stage knows that she is one of the great divas of her time. A two-time Tony winner, her stage triumphs have included "Annie Get Your Gun," "Sunday in the Park With George," "Song and Dance," "Into the Woods" and "Gypsy" (I love her Mama Rose and think it ranks right up there with Merman's).

Happy birthday and best wishes to this great talent...

Audra McDonald has accomplished so much in show business over the past 15 years but she had never before been in a hit television series until ABC's "Private Practice."

She plays Dr. Naomi Bennett on the "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff which had a strike-shortened first season but returns in the fall. She is part of a cast that includes such stars as Kate Walsh, Tim Daly and Amy Brenneman. But Audra is most asked about working opposite hunky Taye Diggs who plays her former husband but current co-worker.

"There's such an amazing cast and everyone's like, 'Oooh! Taye Diggs! You get to kiss Taye Diggs! I've known Taye since we both started out in (the Broadway musical) 'Carousel' in 1994 so he's like a brother. For me it's not that big a deal."

But what is a big deal is Monday's airing of "A Raisin in the Sun" on ABC. "Raisin" became the first television film to ever premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Audra is reprising her role from the 2004 Broadway production along with Sean Combs and Phylicia Rashad. She won both the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for her stage performance.
But the transition from stage to screen was not effortless.

"It's difficult because it's a different set of muscles you're flexing," she said. "For theater people, it's learning how to tone it down yet still have the same intensity. We're so used to making it huge and throwing it to the back wall and you can't do that. There is an adjustment to be made."

Audra, 37, is one of the few actresses to have four Tony Awards, an accomplishment that puts her in the company of such theater legends as Angela Lansbury, Jessica Tandy and Julie Harris.

She has shined in such shows as "Carousel," "Master Class," "Ragtime," "Marie Christine" and "110 in the Shade" on Broadway. But she isn't one to rest on her laurels, to spend her day polishing her Tonys and other awards.

"You don't think about it at all. I have a seven year old! Tonys don't pay the rent. They're wonderful, they're exciting, but they don't pay the rent. You have to get back to work."

When she has taken breaks from the stage, Audra has found plenty of that work on television. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance as a nurse caring for a woman with terminal cancer (Emma Thompson) in "Wit," was featured in the 1999 television version of the musical "Annie," and starred opposite Josh Brolin in the NBC drama "Mister Sterling."

When she does return to the theater, there is already a project waiting for her: "A new show has been written for me, an adaptation of 'Carmen' and it takes place in Cuba in 1958. I just did a workshop of that and that's going to go to Broadway whenever I can get a hiatus from 'Private Practice.'"

Loretta Devine is indeed, divine.

As I chatted up this great star of stage and screen at last week's NAACP Image Awards, there was a lot of laughter coming from the woman who was one of Broadway's original "Dreamgirls" and who now appears on the new ABC show "Eli Stone."

"The scripts are wonderful," she said. "It reminds me a little bit of David E. Kelley when I did "Boston Public" and how his scripts were so unpredictable. I was dating a midget at one point! (laughs) So you just never know what's going to happen and that's what makes it really exciting to go to work every day."

So far, she hasn't dated any midgets on "Stone" but she has been utterly charmed by Jonny Lee Miller who plays the title role.

"He's so charming, he's got this thing about him that you just fall in love with," she gushed. "On set, he's kinda quiet, just real laid back. But you just fall in love with him."

Loretta works so often, I figured she just has this big pile of scripts waiting for her at home.

"Oh no! I still have to audition, I audition for almost everything," she said. "I auditioned for 'Eli Stone' and lucked out and got it. When the new people come in, they've seen your work but they have to see if they can work with you. Sometimes I'm lucky, sometimes I'm not. I go see all the stuff I didn't get and pretend and say, 'Oooh! I'm so glad I didn't get that!' (laughs) But in your heart you're thinking, 'I could have made that movie great! I could have nailed that part!'"

One part she did land was a role in the acclaimed indie flick "Dirty Laundry" as a mother who has raised her estranged son's child. The film screened at Outfest a few summer back and recently had a brief run in theaters late last year. It has just been released on DVD.

"I always do supporting roles and that's as close to a lead as I've ever gotten," she said. "I'm really proud of it. It's like the little movie that could. It's such a good movie and people are really enjoying it."

Although Loretta won three NAACP Image Awards for "Boston Public" and two more for her roles in "Waiting to Exhale" and "The Preacher's Wife," she wasn't nominated for "Laundry" despite it being one of her
best roles.

She explained why: "I think it's because I played such a raunchy drunk and I passed out at the end. You can't get an Image Award for that behavior.(laughs)"

"Laundry" was not a big box office hit but Loretta did appear in "This Christmas" in December which had an $18 million opening weekend, opening in second place. She played a mother in both "Laundry" and "Christmas."

"They were very different kinds of mothers," she said. "In 'Dirty Laundry' I play a drink - a functional drunk - keeping her family together who has a son who she is very angry with. It was a dramedy - part comedy and part drama. And 'This Christmas" had a family that was very polished, very upper-class. I had six kids and they were the most beautiful kids you've ever seen!"

The biggest hit Loretta has appeared in recently was "Dreamgirls." Even though too much time had passed since the Broadway show for the 58-year-old to be considered for one of the leads, she had a small role that included a beautiful solo at a memorial service.

"I got a chance to meet Beyonce and later I went to one of her concerts," Loretta said. "I met Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose and we've been in touch since that. It was a great experience because of that because these are the girls coming up. They're all so brilliant and they're going to have these fabulous careers and I'll get to play all their mothers!"

Last year, Loretta reunited with her "Dreamgirls" co-stars from the Broadway show to sing at a fundraiser (she is pictured with Sheryl Lee Ralph and Jennifer Holliday).

Here are a few more choice bits from out conversation:

On all her mother roles: "That's just the age I am. When I was young I did 'Dreamgirls' and "Down in the Delta." I've been so fortunate, I've had a chance to work for 25 years straight. As you get older and if you keep going, you will play everybody's mother nif you're lucky. Me and Jenifer Lewis!"

On being recognized in public: "Everyone thinks I'm Gloria from "Waiting to Exhale" and every once in awhile, I'll get someone who saw "Woman Thou Art Loosed" who'll say, 'Oh, you were so mean! You was a mean mother! But we love you anyway!' And they want to know if you're really like your characters and I'm nothing like my characters. I think my characters are a lot of times a lot bolder. Like in "Eli Stone," I play Eli's secretary and she has much more chutzpah than I do as a person. I would never talk back to my boss!"

On who she is supporting for president: "Of course I voted for [Barack] Obama because he looks like change and I hope he is what he looks like. Everything that I've read about him makes it seem like he can make a big difference."

I knew that Carol Channing had endured a very long, and very unhappy marriage to her third husband. When she filed for divorce from him in 1998, she confessed that they had rarely had sex in more than four decades together! Can you imagine?

So when I saw Miss Channing a few weeks ago at an event for the Smithsonian, she was with her current husband - and junior high school sweetheart - and they seemed like a coupla lovebirds. So I congratulated her on that when we spoke:

Greg: "I'm so glad you found each other."
Carol: "Oh thank you. You must have a wonderful girl or wife."
Greg: "Actually, if I had anybody it would be a boy."
Carol: "Oh, well that's alright. It's love!"

Anyway, here is a column I have written on Miss Channing that will run in tomorrow's LA Daily News:

Carol Channing may be 87 years old and a certified Broadway legend, but the star of "Hello, Dolly!" and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" still feels like there is so much ahead. She's blissfully married to her fourth husband, Harry Kullijian, who was junior high school sweetheart and looked her up after she wrote about him in her 2001 memoir "Just Lucky I Guess." Together, they have been sweeping throughout the state of California working to restore the creative arts to the public school system.

"At my age now, I can lift (kid's) lives," Miss Channing said when we spoke recently. "They cry, the teachers do, to see these wonderful little brains desintegrating right before our eyes and they're looking for something to excite them and so they get into the craziest things. They're not in love with life and that's what the arts brings....I can see these little children growing up, exposed to the arts. Oh boy, it's the greatest high in the world."

If there was ever anyone who is living proof of how the arts can enhance a life, it is this three-time Tony winner and Oscar nominee:"I wanted to lift people's lives from the fourth grade on, my first time on stage in the school auditorium," she said. "I realized, that's what I want to do for the rest of my life, it's like a calling.

Her Broadway career began in 1941 and by the end of that decade, she was a huge star with such credits as "Lend An Ear," "Wonderful Town" and "Blondes." But it was "Dolly" in 1964 that cemented her status as one of the theater's grand leading ladies. She stayed with the show for three years, starred in a 1978 revival then in 1995, came to Broadway one last time for another run as "Dolly" followed by a national tour." The last "Dolly" production was the end of her heading up major theatrical productions. But she is still performing.

"I go from one great theater to another and do my one-woman show, talk about the arts, and introduce my husband," she said.

Husbands haven't always such a great topic for Miss Channing. She was quite young when she married writer Theodore Naidish. After their divorce, she married Canadian pro football player Alexander Carson with whom she had a son. That marriage too ended in divorce and in 1956, she married her manager and publicist, Charles Lowe. Although they were married for 42 years, she filed for divorce in 1998 and confessed that the union had never really been a happy one.

That has made her current marriage to Kullijian all the more sweet: "For the first time, everything is in front of me. Everything. It's the happiest time in my life."