fountainhall
July 18th, 2014, 08:43
One of the grand old ladies of Broadway and latterly a gay icon has died at the age of 89. Tina Fey summed her up as "confident and brassy and stylish and gorgeous . . ."
I first came across Elaine Stritch back in 1970 in the original London production of Stephen Sondheim's musical "Company". The highlight was Stritch signing in her gravelly, gin-soaked voice what was to become one of her signature songs "The Ladies who Lunch", a bitter, snobbish, drunken commentary on rich New York matrons whose lives revolve around gossip, meaningless lunches and booze.
In his book, "Finishing the Hat", Sondheim tells the story of her entering a bar in New York with a male colleague at two in the morning, both well-oiled. She sidled up to the bar and murmured to the bartender in passing, "Honey, just give me a bottle of vodka - and a floor plan."
I first came across Elaine Stritch back in 1970 in the original London production of Stephen Sondheim's musical "Company". The highlight was Stritch signing in her gravelly, gin-soaked voice what was to become one of her signature songs "The Ladies who Lunch", a bitter, snobbish, drunken commentary on rich New York matrons whose lives revolve around gossip, meaningless lunches and booze.
In his book, "Finishing the Hat", Sondheim tells the story of her entering a bar in New York with a male colleague at two in the morning, both well-oiled. She sidled up to the bar and murmured to the bartender in passing, "Honey, just give me a bottle of vodka - and a floor plan."