Last night I was lucky to be taken by a girlfriend to the opening night of Grey Gardens, the musical, at the Ahmanson Theater in downtown LA. I’m a big fan of the documentary by the Maysles and the HBO movie with Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore, so I was curious to see how the story would be told as a musical. Who would have thought that Big Edie’s song “Jerry Loves My Corn”, sung by the incredible Betty Buckley, would bring tears to my eyes! I think the Edies’ story has always resonated with me – it’s a mother, daughter struggle to the finish – and I identify with that deeply. At the end of the musical; it’s more a chamber piece really, Little Edie decides not to leave Grey Gardens, puts her suitcase down and climbs the stairs up to her mothers’ room. Watching this moment on stage, I realized that this is how my story very well could have played out. I could have stayed with my mother, as her companion and jailer. But I escaped. The Edies didn’t. And that’s why it breaks my heart every time I see it.
I just mailed off ten signed copies to the winners of the Goodreads Giveaway. Heart of Glass is heading to homes all over the country – Boulder Co., Derwood MD., Birmingham AL., and Satellite Beach FL. to name a few. I hope they enjoy my new book.
The photo above, which ended up on the cover of Heart of Glass, was taken by a late friend of mine, the photographer Ann Marsden. All I had was this little scrap of a picture torn from a contact sheet. I sent it to my publisher in New York, and they used some super-duper machine they have to make a copy. Amazing.
This is one of my favorite photos of my dad, taken in his garden when we reunited after ten years of not seeing each other. I think the picture really captures his kindness, sense of fun and just how much he always loved me. Even during those years we were so far apart, I felt his love for me. In Steinbeck’s novel, East of Eden, the teenage girl Abra says “Girls love their fathers terribly”. And I did mine. He would be eighty years old this year, but he’s been gone for sixteen years. I miss him every day.
I’m giving away ten hardcover signed copies of HEART OF GLASS starting today on Goodreads. The link is below for one stop shopping! The giveaway ends June 27th. So bonne chance to all and see you at the beach. The great American summer is here …
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/188827-heart-of-glass-a-memoir
Here I am in the ladies’ dressing room backstage at the Public Theatre in New York City, 1987 – playing an unnamed Lady-in-Waiting in a production of CYMBELINE. The show was set, somewhat controversially, in the Victorian period. There were quite a few surprises during the run of the show; we were eviscerated in the press, I almost went on for Joan Cusack (I was her understudy) leading to Joe Papp seeing me in my scanties, and it turned out that the director, JoAnne Akalaitis, had been my teenage baby-sitter when I lived in a trailer park at age three. The cast had a marvy time drinking at Indochine after the show, and devouring steak frites at Florent in the wee hours downtown. Even though we were in a bomb, we had … a blast.
That’s me as the sweet but not very bright Tammy in Molly Newman’s play Shooting Stars. It was my last year at the National Theater Conservatory in Denver, and I was thrilled to be acting on the main stage at the Denver Center.
I’m off to Denver this weekend to read from and talk about Heart of Glass. A large section of the book covers my years in theater school – classmates, teachers, bad boyfriends, flying scenery and drama onstage and off.
Sadly the school closed after 25 years, and I’ve only been back a few times since graduating, to see my late father, James Lawless, when he was performing at the Denver Center. So it’s been awhile. I’m looking forward to visiting my old haunts, and meeting the folks who turn up at my event at the Tattered Cover LoDo on Monday May 16th at 7pm. Maybe afterwards we can all get drinks at the Wazee.
#Denver #tatteredcoverlodo #theater #actresses #memoir #heartofglass #DCTC #NTC
I moved around a great deal as a kid, and in my teens. It was a life on the move, or the lam you could say, so friends during these times were few and far between. I met Jenny in my anthropology lecture class at BU in the late 70’s (page 77 in Heart of Glass) and I was instantly bedazzled by her guts and charm. I followed her home that day, like a stalker, determined to become her friend. She became my bestie, and after 28 years of friendship, she is my dearest and oldest girlfriend. We’ve been through a lot, together and apart, but always manage to stay close and pick up where we left off. It’s meant the world to me to know she’s there. I hope you have someone like that in your life.
Here we are at my rehearsal dinner at La Luncheonette on 10th Avenue in New York in 1992, the night before my wedding.
I took my daughter to the Los Angeles Museum of Art yesterday to see the Reigning Men exhibit, a collection of menswear spanning over the last four hundred years or so. My favorites were the way out designs of Rudi Gernreich, who made a psychedelic mumu for men – a kind of fabulous house coat, and other Brit designers like Vivienne Westwood and Tommy Nutter, who designed clothes for the Beatles and the Rolling Stones from his shop on Savile Row. This leather jacket was one of the last pieces in the show – it reminded me of all the times (four maybe?) I actually saw the Ramones walking down St. Mark’s Place in New York in the 80’s – that street seemed to belong to them. Four hunched-over, pale guys dressed identically in white T’s, jeans, leather jackets, and black high-top sneakers. Their dark hair long over their eyes, which were hidden behind sunglasses – made it seem as if they were vampires shutting out the light of day. I was lucky enough to see them play a concert in a high school gym in New Jersey. It was fast and loud and I loved it. Sadly, many of the Ramones are gone now. Kind of like a lot of things in New York. Gone, baby, gone.
Last Saturday night, my great friend Sally opened her beautiful house to host a Heart of Glass book party. My lovely daughter, Grace, helped out by selling books from Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena. Another friend, Christine Moore, catered the event from her restaurant, Little Flower Cafe. Wine and hors d’oeuvres were served and my husband made a short, eloquent speech, pointing out that I have now written two books! We all had a marvelous time. It’s important to celebrate – and that’s what we did.
