The book's name may sound frivolous. But Nothing Like a Dame isn't, not by a long shot. Oh, its 21 interviews with the greatest female stars of Broadway deliver gossip, both dish and diss, and choice nuggets of what really went on behind the scenes. Musical comedy queens will be in heaven.
The rest of us, who want to know the stuff a musical-comedy star is made of, the backstage nuts-and-bolts of how a show is put together, or how a career is built and sustained, well, these theatre mavens will be even more greatly rewarded. Because Nothing Like a Dame is no piece of fan-magazine fluff. It's not a toss-away. I found it so fantastically informative, with responses so candid and revealing, and I gulped it down so eagerly, that the women began to blur together. When I finished that heady sprint, I went back and started over.
The interviews in Nothing Like a Dame , subtitled Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theatre (Oxford University Press, $39.95) were conducted by Eddie Shapiro, who shows on every page an insider's knowledge, an understanding of an actor's life, and a great but reasoned passion for Broadway. Shapiro's theatre-related criticism and extensive arts coverage have appeared in multiple gay publications, and �" isn't this gay �" he's the author of Queens in the Kingdom: The Ultimate Gay and Lesbian Guide to the Disney Theme Parks . He's the producer of Gay Days at Disneyland, and more seriously and admirably, he's the former Director of AIDS Walk New York and Los Angeles. I'm jonesing for this guy; the response he elicits from the great ladies of Broadway attests to his simpatico personality and assured craft.
The subjects were chosen for their devotion to a Broadway career; no one who started in theatre but moved on (Babs), no stars from other media who visit Broadway (Liza), and no one-hit wonders (Ms. J. Holliday). So how's this for an opening line-up? The book starts with Stritch, Channing and Rivera, and goes on through Angela, Audra McDonald, Sutton Foster, Patti Lupone (or as I like to call her, Patti-lu Pone), and a host of others. All your favorites are here. Okay �" almost all your favorites. Missing are Barbara Cook, Kelli O'Hara, Marin Mazzie, and my god, Bernadette Peters. Shapiro says Cook, whose tales of Broadway told in her cabaret act first launched Shapiro into the project, withdrew her interview because she's got her own memoir coming soon. And one unspecified lady withdrew her interview because she felt it did not make her sound intelligent enough. Who is she? There's a catty parlor game of endless speculation.
I wondered how the order of the ladies' billing was arranged; it wasn't alphabetical, or chronological by age. In an e-mail, Shapiro revealed to me an organizational trick you'd never have guessed. "It's the date they showed up on stage," Shapiro wrote. "The chapters are chronological based on when each woman made her professional debut."
As Shapiro guides each lady through a consideration of her career, themes emerge like the duties and difficulties of performers, and their commitment. Surprisingly, despite their ongoing success, the majority reveal insecurity. A comment from Laura Benanti typifies this response: "I wake up a lot of times, and I'm like, 'Today's the day that everybody finds out that I don't know what I'm doing.'"
Naturally, there's a lot of talk about Sondheim. Not just his genius, but also his generosity. And I particularly relished Angela's comparison of Sondheim and Jerry Herman.
But connecting so many of the interviews, providing a continuity to a gypsy's life, and nearly anointing her Broadway's Earth Mother, is the performers' reverence for Chita Rivera. I always thought Chita the pre-eminent star of her generation, and found it kind of thrilling what a touchstone she is to the Broadway community.
Having worked twice with that caviar among performers Judy Kaye, I enjoyed and found myself moved by her remarks. She's a smart and giving woman. And her payback to Andrew Lloyd Webber is typical of the book's many dishy asides. Kaye asked Webber about doing the role of the girl in his Aspects of Love, only to be told, "She's got to go from 15 to 55." Kaye pointed out that she had gone from 17 to 80 in I Do! I Do!, and Webber replied, "Oh, yes, yes, of course �" but she does have to be a great beauty." He's cold, that Mr. Webber. But like the rest of the book, it's hot reading.