Richard and I took friends to see God of Carnage at the Ahmanson last night. I had seen it in New York. The play, starring Jeff Daniels, James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden and Hope Davis, was playing when I was there with my play and I loved it so much that I wanted Richard to see it too. Two years ago, the play won the Tony ( beating my “33 Variations”) and Marcia Gay beat me for the Tony for Best Actress.

This same cast was at the Ahmanson last night and just as good. It felt funny, bittersweet, to be coming back to that theatre, this time in the audience, not on the stage. I realized I miss that experience.

We all went to dinner afterward ( except James) and had a fun time talking about L.A. Audiences (generous, grateful) doing a play the second time (like me, they feel they are still growing in their roles and life in the 2-year interim has taught them things that have deepened their understanding of their roles.

Richard went to U of Michigan and, as you may know, Jeff lives near Detroit and is deeply committed to helping that challenged city and state. So he and Richard had a Lot to talk about. We made plans to get together to see his theatre when we go there next October for a UofM home football game.

Right now I am in the airport waiting for my plane to Seattle to be repaired so I can get to the Seattle hotel in time to get some sleep before my appearance tomorrow, a speech, on behalf of the YMCA. I have not made a public speech in a long time. I enjoy doing it when it’s for a good cause and about something I know about. This YMCA has programs for teens and I can give many speeches about teens. In fact, my next books are about teens (and parents of teens). Then I will hook up with Richard in NY for a few days.

Sunday I am part of a conference called “Legacy of Wisdom” in which I participate with truly wise people such as Roshi (Zen priest) Joan Halifax and Mary Catherine Bateson (author, social anthropologist, daughter of Margaret Mead).

Then I go to Atlanta with Gabby Sidibe (star of “Precious”) for an unusual fundraiser to benefit the non-profit I founded 16 years ago, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention. We will show a documentary made In 1962 by acclaimed filmmaker D.A. Pennybaker called “Jane”. It shows me rehearsing a new play for Broadway, taking in to various cities in out-of-town tryouts and then opening on Broadway to terrible reviews and closing 2 nights later. It is very painful for me to watch how disempowered and disembodied I was. As I said to someone awhile back, “I feel lucky to have concrete proof of how far I’ve come. Not everyone has that.” it is hard to believe, watching the documentary, that the sad, anxious young woman in the doc became me. After the screening, Gabby and I will dialogue about how the arts can empower and how young people can claim their voices. Some young actors from Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre will also participate.

I will have a screening of the same documentary with Gabby in New York next Wednesday to benefit the Women’s Media Center. That night at the Paley Center, Gloria Steinem will be the moderator.

I’ll come back to Atlanta after that through Easter. It will be wonderful to see my grandkids again and I am bringing my bunny suit…a full suit. I paint my face clown white and glue broom straws on my checks as whiskers. That I will take pictures of for sure!! We’ll have an awesome Easter Egg hunt at one of Ted’s properties outside of Atlanta which he has graciously let us use.

It was fun having Oprah sitting right next to us-Samantha Mathis, Susan Kellerman and me. Gayle King and her daughter were with Oprah. Both of us were sobbing at the end and I had to pass her tissues. It’s a truly powerful and important play about the war in the Congo and what it has done/is doing to women. This is what Eve Ensler’s organization, V-Day: Until the Violence Stops, is focusing on. In fact, Eve is in east Congo now, at the hospital where Dr. Mugwege receives the raped and brutalized women and sews them up. V-Day has recently broken ground on the ‘village’ we are erecting to house 100 women. There are so many women flooding into the hospital they aren’t able to stay and completely heal, so the village will provide a safe place next to the hospital for further physical and emotional healing. They will receive therapy and learn microentreprenurial skills. Some of the actors in “Ruined” saw Eve when she testified about the Congo in Washington D.C. recently.

Phylicia Rashad’s daughter is in the play, her Broadway debut. She is brilliant-beautiful and talented (as is her mother). She can sing like a dream, too. This is a must see play! Derek McLane, who did sets for “33 Variations” and is nominated for a Tony for them also did “Ruined”-again, brilliantly

I asked Oprah to follow my tweets and she said she would. I follow her. I was the second person she interviewed for her “O” magazine. It was during that interview that I realized I had to write my memoirs. I told Oprah that last night.

Oprah and fabulous actor in “Ruined” Simon Shabantu Kashama

Back stage after “Ruined” with the cast, Samantha, Susan, Oprah, and I am there, behind somewhere.

Samatha, Susan and I had dinner after at Trattoria del Arte and closed the place down.

Don’t we look happy?

I am discombobulated today. Partly because I took a pain pill last night cause my knee hurts so bad. The pill has thrown me for a loop. Went to see “Reasons to Be Pretty” by myself this afternoon. Unfortunately Thomas Sadoski, who was nominated for a Tony, was replaced by his (very good) understudy. I was hoping to see him but I was told his wife fell and cut her head and he was with her in the emergency room. Good priorities. Still, I found the play riveting. Strange. Not easy. But riveting.

I took pictures of people taking pictures of me in front of my Times Square hotel as I waited for my friend, Lisa Birnbach to arrive and pick me up. It’s funny cause normally I go around anonymously. Then I went with Lisa to the Tony cocktail party at which Phyllis Newman was honored. The Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Care Center is one of the beneficiaries of Broadway Cares. I’ve known Phyllis from decades ago. She and Adolph Greene were close friends of my fathers. Zach Grenier (my beloved Beethoven, also a Tony nominee) was there, and Moises Kaufman, our writer/director, and Roger Friedman and Michelle Lee and Lucy Arnez and Oscar Eustis, Director of the Joe Papp Public Theatre and many other friends. It was fun and, once again, I felt embraced by this wonderful Broadway community.

After that, Lisa and I saw “The Norman Conquests: Round and Round the Garden,” the third in the trilogy. I loved it and wished I had seen all three. Scott Peacock and Alice Waters sat right behind us. Scott’s going to be at the Tonys tomorrow. A cheering section.

To end the day we had dinner with Jeff Daniels, his wife Kathleen whom I had not met before and who is smart and lovely as I would have expected and Jeff’s manager and friend, Paul Martino. We’re all looking forward to the swag tomorrow at the Tony rehearsal. It was Jeff who first told me about swag. Jeff and the others in “God of Carnage” have all re-upped for continuing the play in the fall after a 6 week break. I wasn’t sure they would but, clearly, having a good, reliable and fun job to count on till the year’s end is not to be sneezed at-not in these times.

Rehearsal is fairly early so I’m off to bed. I still dream about the play and still feel the Galapagos ship rolling under me. I’ve probably forgotten a lot of stuff from today but too bad. I’m pooped.

See you next time.

Last night Kerry Washington saw the play and came back. She loved it. We will be making a film together later in the year and are good friends. She was so happy for me, seeing me in such an exciting, strong play. She just finished a film co-starring Annette Bening and Naomi Watts. This may be the film that allows her to show what a powerful, deep actor she is. We hung out in my dressing for about an hour.

Today, Siegfried (of the famed Siegfried and Roy illusionist team) came back after the play full of praise for everyone involved. I forgot to get a photo with him. Dang!

Last Sunday, after our 3p show, Samantha and I went to the opening of “God of Carnage” starring Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, Jeff Daniels and James Gandolfini. It was terrific. They were all extraordinary.

This afternoon, for the first time, someone’s cell phone rang during an important scene toward the end of the play. It really threw me and Zach and I was so furious I felt like leaping off the stage and strangling the person. You have no idea how that sound can throw an actor out of a scene. When I mentioned this to Siegfried, he said he could see that it upset us and commented that he’d have threatened to sic his tiger onto the guilty party. Some actors are known to stop a show when that happens and yell at the person-Patty Lupone, Brian Dennehy and Jeremy Piven, for example. Don’t know if I’d ever have the guts but today I was surely angry enough.

Sil Reynolds and her daughter also came back after the show. Sil is a therapist. She and her daughter do Mother/Daughter workshops at the Omega Institute. She was stunned when she got backstage. “Jane, I had no idea the play dealt with a mother/daughter relationship like this.” She was rocked. “This is so like what my relationship was like with my mother…and hers with her mother-my grandmother.” If these challenges are a generational thing, Sil has surely broken the pattern with her own daughter. They seem so joyful about working together. And they are about to do a book on the subject called “From Both Sides Now.”  

This is a photo taken last week with
the gang of gal friends from Atlanta

See you next time.

I want to comment on a couple of comment/questions about the blog.

One comment asked about the meaning of the “song the cast all sings together” toward the play’s end.” We are singing the “Kyrie Elyeison” vocal chorus in Beethoven’s “Missa”–his famous Mass. It is a plea to god for mercy.” If you saw the play, you will understand why, at that moment, both me and my family/ colleagues as well as Beethoven’s need to ask for God’s mercy.

There was another question I wanted to address but I can’t remember and I’m too tired to look up the comments.

I will soon be in bed watching the 2-hour special of “Brothers and Sisters.” I adore Sally Field–and Gloria, and Christine and Scott. I am so lucky to have such good friends. But you know what age has taught me? One must be intentional about friendship. We are all so busy. We must really make an effort to lovingly stay in touch with those we want to be friends with.

Ahhhhhh. I just remembered the other comment I wanted to comment on: someone asked if I intended to keep blogging once the play is over. That’s a tough one. I am enjoying blogging and receiving the instant feedback. But there is something about blogging that slightly disturbs me. It has to do with its effect on ego.

I can’t get into this now, but over the coming months I have to give this ego issue some thought. Maybe I can ellicit your thoughts on this as well.

See you next time.

Especially nice for me was to be able to reconnect with Jeff Daniels. I got to know him when I visited the location of Ted Turner’s TV epic “Gettysburg” many years ago in which he was brilliant. He is an extraordinarily talented, intelligent and multi-faceted actor. He’s in rehearsal for “God of Carnage” with James Gandolfini (also there), Marcia Gay, and Hope Davis (also there). I told him “bravo” for his work promoting Michigan as a place to invest in. Maybe you’ve seen his commercials on TV.

I hadn’t seen John Glover since I turned over a table on him in a scene in “Julia.” He played Meryl Streep’s brother. He’s rehearsing for “Waiting for Godot.”

Being in that room with all those talented actors made me very proud of our profession. And what was most interesting both to me and to Samantha was how scared they all are about the process. That’s how I felt 6 weeks ago. It’s kind of great being the ‘old-timer’ on the block. We’ve been in rehearsal longest and will open soonest so I’m over the hump of feeling like I want to crawl into a dark hole.

I didn’t get a chance to talk to Geoffrey Rush but Colin did. Like me, Colin doubted that Geoffrey is nervous but he did tell Colin how much he loves what he feels is the unique Broadway community—even if we don’t all know each other, we feel bonded through the work. There was a real sense of community in the room today. I am proud to be part of it. And grateful.

As you may sense, I am starting to feel better. Whew! When I got to the theatre after the photo shoot, we got notes from Moises as well as what may well be our last script changes. I am very, very pleased with all the changes he has made in the last few days. They’ve simplified and clarified. Now to marinate in them long enough to make them part of my DNA before the critics start to come next week.

See you next time.