"Legends!" Lives

Where to begin this saga? Perhaps it starts with my friend Melinda Arrington in Hazlehurst, Mississippi when we were teenagers, around 1972. Melinda lived with her mother and grandmother in the small town of 4500 people. These three females were probably the worst housekeepers in Hazlehurst. The Arrington home was chaos. There were books strewn everywhere, pots and pans were piled up in the kitchen, dogs and cats - many of them picked up as strays - were allowed free reign, and that included relieving themselves in the house as they wished. To me, it was all terribly exotic because it was the opposite of the house I lived in. Among the books lying about the Arrington home was a hardback edition of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire." Melinda's mother Nancy would lie in bed with a dog and a cat or two in attendance, sipping her iced tea and puffing on a cigarette, and point to the Williams play on the floor and say, "That's the story of my life. Now, Johnny, would you go play 'Somewhere My Love' on the piano one more time?"







Melinda's bed was also covered with animals and books. A paperback novelization of the Patty Duke movie "Me, Natalie" lay on the bed for at least a year. The fascination with books - a fascination that I shared - extended to the Arrington family car, where Melinda would toss the tattered tomes after she (very quickly) read them. One day, on a 30-mile movie trip to Jackson in the Arrington car, I found among the pile of books and papers and cigarette packs piled on the front seat, a softcover copy of "Good Times/Bad Times" by one James Kirkwood, published circa 1968 in hardcover. Melinda said the book contained a reference to homosexuality, another fascinating topic. I filed away the name James Kirkwood in my memory bank.







Fast forward to the summer of 1975. I had seen several second-tier Broadway roadshows in Jackson over the past five or six years, but I was determined to fly to New York and see the fabulous city, and the shows right there on Broadway. I had been playing the piano for singing teachers and ballet schools, and also the pipe organ for the Hazlehurst Presbyterian church, and had saved my money to make the trip. I announced to my mother that Iwas going, and she said not without her. She wanted to come to not only look after me, but she needed some adventure, too.







I perused The New York Times to decide what we should see. I picked several Broadway shows (Geraldine Page in "Absurd Person Singular," Ellen Burstyn in "Same Time, Next Year," Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera in "Chicago" and others) but I felt we should also experience something Off Broadway. The Off Broadway ad and title that intrigued me the most was "A Chorus Line" at The Public Theater. I sent my checks to the various theatres and the tickets were returned by mail. With the tickets for "A Chorus Line" was a note that said the show was no longer playing at The Public Theater but at The Shubert Theatre, a Broadway house. That's okay, I thought rather nonchalantly, another Broadway show.







Mother and I flew to New York (a first time for both of us on an airplane) and checked into The Gotham Hotel on Fifth Avenue. Mother picked up The New York Times, where there was an announcement that Gwen Verdon was out of "Chicago" and would be replaced by Liza Minnelli! (Note from Feb. 2009: Liza said onstage at her recent show at The Palace that it was not announced in the press that she would replace Gwen Verdon. But by the time I saw the show, it was in the press.) I was a confirmed Liza fan since seeing the movie "Cabaret" in 1972 and I had seen her in person in Autumn 1973 from the front row at the Civic Center at Louisiana State University. The opportunity to see her on Broadway was thrilling! And I'm here to tell you it was very exciting to see the original Bob Fosse production of "Chicago" with Liza and Chita (and Andy Warhol in the auditorium) in super-glamorous 1975.

But even more thrilling was experiencing "A Chorus Line" in previews at The Shubert Theatre as the excitement that swirled around it, and with absolutely no idea what we were walking in to see. And there on the production page of the Playbill was the name James Kirkwood.







13 1/2 years later in the winter of 1988/1989, I was doing my first Off Broadway show "I Could Go On Lip-Synching" at Theatre Off Park on Waverly Place in Greenwich Village. Many interesting people came to see the show including Elton John, Rod Steiger and Joan Rivers. Some stars even came backstage and paid their respects to me, of all people, the guy from Hazlehurst, wearing a dress and moving his mouth to recorded voices. Among this assortment of backstage well-wishers were names such as Rosemary Clooney, Pedro Almodovar, Mimi Hines, Rae Dawn Chong, Lesley Gore, Francesco Scavullo, Monique Van Vooren, Thierry Mugler, Kaye Ballard, Louise Lasser, Virginia Graham, Fran Lebowitz (the last 4 all on the same night), Paul Reubens, Michael Feinstein, Betty Comden, Larry Kert and...James Kirkwood.







Later, I was told that my show was the last show Mr. Kirkwood saw.







He died on April 22, 1989, 2 days before my birthday. Of course by that time Mr. Kirkwood had written his play "Legends!" and seen it produced, starring Carol Channing and Mary Martin. And that year his book "Diary Of A Mad Playwright" was published by Dutton Books, detailing the travails of the notorious production of "Legends!" closing on the road and not opening in New York as he and the stars had once hoped.







In 1990 I was asked to perform "I Could Go On Lip-Synching!" in Key West, FL. I stayed in a small house that I was told had once belonged to James Kirkwood.







Zip forward to 2000. I was invited to participate in a July 4 staged reading of Mr. Kirkwood's "Legends!" at The Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY, considered a Hamptons summer resort. I played the Mary Martin role, the iron butterfly Leatrice Monsee, film actress who made good appearing as nuns and saintly nurses a la Loretta Young. Another male actor played Leatrice's rival, Sylvia Glenn, perhaps best described as a cross between the saltiness of Bea Arthur and the glamour of Joan Crawford.







The reason we decided that the play could be done with 2 men playing the female lead roles lies in Mr. Kirkwood's book "Diary of a Mad Playwright." He tells that the first person to whom he showed the play was Mike Nichols. Nichols was interested in directing the play, he said, with Harvey Fierstein and Bette Bourne (of the British revue troupe Bloolips). Kirkwood thought Nichols was wrong and he pursued a more traditional route, ending up with Channing and Martin. However, by the end of the book, he says that he should have listened to Mike Nichols.








Bryan Batt co-starred as Martin Klemmer, the conniving producer who wants to get the two rivals onstage in a play within the play. John de Luca did a very good job directing the reading. And the audience loved it! (Patricia Neal, a showbiz legend herself below, was in the audience that night.) I then realized that two male clowns playing the two women, really was a good idea (not that I ever doubted Mike Nichols) and a commercial production should be pursued.

A friend who was interested in becoming a producer attended the reading and told me a few months later that he had the rights. But nothing ever happened with this information and I told him I wasn't interested any longer in the project because nothing was moving on it.

Nevertheless, I never gave up on my own idea to get access to the play. As it turned out, my lawyer Mark Sendroff knew all along who controlled the play: a New York theatre legend himself, Samuel "Biff" Liff, now an agent at William Morris, and whose career as a Broadway stage manager extends back to a 1949 Nancy Walker/Jackie Gleason musical called "Along Fifth Avenue," also starring George S. Irving and Dante Di Paolo (Rosemary Clooney's last husband). Mr. Liff met with me and I told him my idea to do the play with 2 men in the lead roles. He thought it was a good idea. However, a producer named Ben Sprecher came along with Joan Collins who was looking to do a show, and they wanted "Legends!" I then met with Mr. Sprecher and told him my idea, and I also told him I thought the role of the black housekeeper, Aretha, should be beefed up, and that it should be cast with a name African-American actress such as Whoopi Goldberg. He said, "Do you have Whoopi Goldberg in your back pocket?" I had to admit I did not. I encouraged him to get Debbie Reynolds to play Leatrice opposite Joan Collins' Sylvia. He got Linda Evans who had never been onstage before and the two ladies turned out to be an unhappy alliance, with Collins going public in the UK tabloid The Daily Mail about her frustrations with Evans.

Mr. Sprecher had told me that if he didn't bring his two ladies into New York, he would still have the sets and he would let me and another actor do the play in a New York theatre. When his ill-fated tour was over, I contacted him and reminded him of this. He said he should have listened to me all along and that I should go back to Mr. Liff and tell him to let me do the play.

I didn't go to Mr. Liff; I went to Liz McCann and pitched the idea to her in September, 2007. With two notorious U.S. tours of the play having taken place, I argued, now was the time to do this play, at last, in NYC. The notoriety of the play, two men in drag playing women, and a name black actress playing Aretha would now work to our advantage. She thought it was a good idea, and emailed Mr. Liff about it. But, then Liz decided she was too busy with "Passing Strange." Subsequently, Mr. Liff emailed Mark Sendroff asking what new interest I had in "Legends!" I asked Mark to tell Mr. Liff to please wait awhile for our response. And at the end of November 2007 I sat down and began to adapt the play, updating it to 2008 and making the role of Aretha larger, as planned.

The play was submitted to Mr. Liff mid-December of 2007. I continued to tinker with the script while waiting for a response. Mark Sendroff and my agents at Fifi Oscard were pestering Mr. Liff also. Anxious to get some action, I submitted it to Arthur Beckenstein, the Kirkwood beneficiary, and to Whoopi Goldberg. I was beginning to feel like the Martin Klemmer role myself, conniving to get all this people together!

Ms. Goldberg's associate Tom Leonardis notified me on my birthday, April 24, 2008 that she loved the script and wants to do a reading. The next day the literary executor for the Kirkwood Group and Mr. Liff gave their okay to do a reading! Friends In Deed has expressed interest in being the beneficiary for the reading. That brings us up to today. There will be more details soon.

It is now July 18, 2008.

After I got the okay for the reading, I wanted to ask Mike Nichols if he would like to direct the reading since it's to be a benefit for Friends In Deed. He declined, but suggested a friend of his as director. I sent his friend the script and then we chatted on the phone after he had read it. I told him he should now probably read the original published version of the play, then re-read mine. He agreed to do so , even though he would be leaving town soon. We made an appointment to have a meeting and he came by to pick up my copy of the published script. The day of the appointment he had to cancel our meeting because he was over-extended. I asked him to send back my copy of the published play in case I needed it. He did, and sent a note saying he would contact me when he returned.

I wasn't sure when I would hear from him, and I was eager to show the script to a director and get some feedback so I could tidy up my version before I showed it to the next actor I wanted to go to. Reason being: the next actor I wanted to go to is also a writer, who I knew was familiar with the original play...Charles Busch.

I turned to help from the director Mark Waldrop who directed my play "My Deah," Bette Midler's 1999 tour, the recent production of "Little Shop of Horrors" at Papermill Playhouse, "When Pigs Fly" Off Broadway, etc. Mark read my version of "Legends!" twice and re-read the original version. He and I spent 2 evenings going over the script and I heard his suggestions.

And just in time. I had a social engagement lined up with Charles to see the rotten Carol Lynley movie "Harlow" (we often get together to watch cinematic trash), not to be confused with the rotten Carroll Bakker movie also called "Harlow." As I left Charles' apartment about 11:10 p.m, Tuesday, July 15, I handed him the script in a plain manila envelope and said, "This is for you." 12 hours later I got an email from him saying yes. Later that day I called Bryan Batt, who is filming "Mad Men" in Los Angeles, with the news that we are aiming for a date in the fall, and he also said yes! Charles agreed that Mark Waldrop is a good choice. So I now have my 4 main cast members and a director. Mark and I will meet with Cy O'Neal at the Friends In Deed offices on Tuesday, July 22, to have our first production meeting.

Oh, wow! It is now February 5, 2009 and so much has happened. First of all, the play has been updated to 2009! I suppose I should have been keeping a diary for this blog, but I've just been too busy pulling all the elements of this event together, to sit and computer and write more stuff. But I'm going to try and keep this page updated. A lot of the grunt work has been done. And my literary agent Peter Sawyer said I shouldn't post this blog until we know who, when and where. Well, the event is going to be in The New York Times tomorrow! So...here we go! Please stay tuned.