Anita Gillette was one of Broadway's go-to ingenues in the 1960s, even if the roles were often in musicals that audiences themselves weren't inclined to go to. But even a notorious flop like Kelly is good for an anecdote as Gillette travels a long stage and screen career in her first-ever cabaret show playing Feinstein's at the Nikko on Jan. 30. "When we were putting this act together," Gillette said of After All, "I insisted I wasn't going to get up on that stage if I couldn't be funny. I insisted on keeping all my jokes in the show."
Gillette has all sorts of tales to tell about working with the likes of Ethel Merman, David Merrick, Irving Berlin, Neil Simon, and Woody Allen during those ingenue years. For example, she was pregnant when playing Dainty June in Gypsy, her Broadway debut, and producer Merrick was ready to give her the heave-ho. But Ethel Merman stepped in on her behalf. "The kid stays," Merman commanded.
The 1960s provided her with numerous Broadway credits, including Irving Berlin's Mr. President, the Ray Bolger vehicle All American, and Woody Allen's Don't Drink the Water. But both Gillette and Broadway were growing past their ingenue years, and Gillette set out on a new track.
"I had to stop singing to be taken seriously as an actress," Gillette said from her home in New York. It was a strategy that worked on Broadway, as she landed the female lead in Neil Simon's Chapter Two and on screen as Vincent Gardenia's mistress in Moonstruck. Steady work in films and television carried her forward, and now she's getting a lot of mom roles, from Tina Fey's mother in 30 Rock to John Goodman's mother in Normal, Ohio to Edward Burns' mother in The Fitzgerald Family Christmas.
And she's hoping for a return to Modern Family, in which she had a choice guest spot in last season's finale as a romantic interest for the recently widowed character played by Fred Willard. "I haven't heard anything, but I've been watching the show and he's been dating hookers. And one of the characters says he should go back to the character I played. So there's hope."
Her cabaret show After All has freed her up to release all that music that she had kept in storage. She's been fine-tuning the act since its 2012 debut at New York's Birdland and a follow-up last year at the Metropolitan Room (which may be released on CD), with a repertoire that includes Broadway songs that help illustrate or poke fun at her life, novelty songs that show off her often-saucy comedic chops, and quieter songs when the subject of loss arises.
Video clips from those performances show the 77-year-old Gillette to still possess a rich and powerful voice, but other than selections on original cast albums, she has surprisingly never recorded a studio album of her own. "People have wanted me to make a CD, but I'm so picky about my sound," she said. "I'm still in good voice for my age, and I talk about my age because that's what the Internet does. The first thing you read is about how old I am. I hate it, but if you can't fight it, join it."
No plastic surgery for Gillette, she announced unbidden, and she even shuns the camouflage of turtleneck tops. "I hate the idea of getting cut," she said. "It's about just making a statement about being who you are. Sometimes I think, who the hell do I think I am? But I'm enjoying myself."
Gillette has been married twice, the first union producing two children but ending in divorce, and the second leaving her a widow. "Now I have a boyfriend in London, and we've been doing an across-the-pond boogie for 10 years," she said. "We were set up by friends, but I didn't like him the first time we met. I definitely had a different opinion the second time."