With James Taylor & his wife Kim

Following my Leno appearance (and though I know it’s hard to believe), Richard and I took the red eye to New York Friday night to go to our friend, Janie Buffett’s, 60th birthday party in Sag Harbor, Long Island. Janie is married to Jimmy and Jimmy was playing at the Jerome Hotel in Aspen 25 years ago when I danced all night with Richard. (My husband, Tom, didn’t want to go to the Xmas party and what’s a girl to do?). Richard, like me, was alone and he’s a good dancer. So besides the fact that Janie is a beloved woman with legions of friends, for Richard and me it was also a bit of an “ol time’s sake” kind of thing.

Party atmosphere

Many interesting friends were there and, if you will indulge me, I will engage in some name dropping: Harrison Ford, Calista F., Richard Gere, Jack Nicholson, Angelica Huston, Tory Burch, Robin Laughlin, James Taylor, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Ben Bradley, Samantha Mathis, Sally Quinn, Caroline Kennedy, Bob and Eva Shaye…who knows who I left out. Taylor, Joel, Buffett and Bon Jovi all played– beautifully– in honor of Janie. We stayed with Richard’s college roommate, Joe Allen and his wife, writer Annette Tapert, and nearly didn’t made it back to L.A. In time cause of the torrential downpour.

With Angelica Huston and Richard

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 9: Actor Colin Farrell (L) and cast member Jane Fonda (R) pose backstage after the opening night performance of "33 Variations" at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre on February 9, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 9: (L-R) Cast member Jane Fonda, cast member Zach Grenier and Playwright/Director Moises Kaufman pose during the party for the opening night performance of "33 Variations" at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre on February 9, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 9: Cast member Jane Fonda (L) and Cher (R) pose during the party for the opening night performance of "33 Variations" at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre on February 9, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 9: (L-R) Cast member Jane Fonda, brother actor Peter Fonda and Parky DeVogelaere pose during the party for the opening night performance of "33 Variations" at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre on February 9, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 9: Actress Anjelica Huston (L) and cast member Jane Fonda (R) pose during the party for the opening night performance of "33 Variations" at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre on February 9, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 9: (L-R) Actors Carla Gugino, Anjelica Huston and Rosanna Arquette pose during the party for the opening night performance of "33 Variations" at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre on February 9, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 9: (L-R) Cast member Jane Fonda, actress Carla Gugino and actor Ben McKenzie pose during the party for the opening night performance of "33 Variations" at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre on February 9, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 9: (L-R) Cast members Grant James Varjas, Samantha Mathis and Zach Grenier pose during the party for the opening night performance of "33 Variations" at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre on February 9, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 9: Cast member Jane Fonda (L) and son Troy Garity (R) pose during the party for the opening night performance of "33 Variations" at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre on February 9, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 9: Cast members Samantha Mathis (L) and Greg Keller (R) pose during the party for the opening night performance of "33 Variations" at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre on February 9, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)

Preview performances began this Sunday, January 30, for the five-time Tony nominated production of “33 Variations” with Jane Fonda at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre. “33 Variations,” written and directed by Moisés Kaufman, opens February 9 and continues through March 6, 2011.

Fonda, who is a two-time Academy Award-winner, was nominated for the Tony Award for her role in the 2009 Broadway run of “33 Variations.” The Tectonic Theater Project production was also nominated for a Tony, as was Zach Grenier who also reprises his role at the Ahmanson for his portrayal of Beethoven, and Derek McLane for scenic design and David Lander for lighting.

Fonda and Grenier are joined by Samantha Mathis, Don Amendolia, Susan Kellermann, Greg Keller, Grant James Varjas, Diane Walsh, Scott Barrow, Caitlin O’Connell and Yvonne Woods Slaten. Additional design credits for “33 Variations” include costumes by Janice Pytel, sound by André J. Pluess and projection design is by Jeff Sugg.

In “33 Variations,” the audience is transported back and forth from present-day New York to 19th century Austria, when a musicologist Fonda is determined to solve the musical mystery of why Beethoven Grenier spent his last years feverishly writing 33 variations of what appeared to be a mediocre waltz.

Tickets, which are priced from $20 — $80, are available by calling Center Theatre Group Audience Services at 213 972-4400, in person at the Center Theatre Group box office or on-line at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org.

 Photo Credit: Craig Schwartz

Moises Kaufman, Timothy Koch

Susan Kellermann, Jane Fonda

Caitin O'Connoll, Douglas C. Baker, Jane Fonda, Samantha Mathis, Zach Grenier

Jane Fonda, Moises Kaufman

Zach Grenier, Samantha Mathis, Jane Fonda, Moises Kaufman, Susan Kellermann

Greg Keller, Grant James Varjas, Zach Grenier

click here for complete article on Broadwayworld.com

I am also tired. Sunday there were the very fun Golden Globes and parties that followed, and yesterday, our day off, I ran lines for 4 hours, did my acupuncture therapy session and such, went out to dinner with friends and then couldn’t go to sleep. As a result, rehearsals today started off rocky. I forgot my lines and was generally out of it.

Still–and interestingly–I learned a lot about better ways to approach certain moments, moments that I was never fully happy with during our New York run. I feel– and Samantha Mathis, who plays my daughter agrees- that our relationship in the play is way stronger. This means that we clash more, which makes the resolution stronger.

All of us in the cast, the understudies and stage managers and, of course, our writer/ director, Moises Kaufman, get along so well. There is lots of laughter during rehearsals. Samantha had everyone over to her house to eat and watch the Golden Globes together. They said it was really fun. All of us agree that Ricky Gervais was waaaay too mean, though.

Today, I remembered a story that Katherine Hepburn told me while we were filming “On Golden Pond”–actually Michael Jackson was with me then and she was mostly telling the story for his benefit. She told of seeing the greatest American stage actor, Laurette Taylor, in “Glass Menagerie.” She said that it was a transcendent performance unlike anything she had ever seen. 15 years or so later, Taylor reprised it. Hepburn was there to see it and she told us, “The magic was gone. The problem was, she’d lost her hunger.” (what an important lesson for young, rising film star Jackson, who had just done “The Wiz”..”don’t lose your hunger, don’t phone it in…ever!”). Well, I am reprising my role in this show and I have to make sure I am still hungry.

And so, to bed, to sleep, perchance to dream…but staying hungry.

I feel very happy to be doing this again, here, in a town where I have spent so much time, lived so many lives, but never one that included theatre. It is a beautiful part of town. Directly across from the Ahmanson is the Disney Symphony Hall which was designed by the great architect, Frank Gehry—like a turbulent wave of titanium—like what’s in my hip but waaay prettier. His Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, also titanium, is the only architecture that ever made me cry it so took my breath away.

I realized today that I will have to concentrate on re-learning my lines. I have no trouble with lines but, still, it’s not like they’re just there, waiting to be released.

We rehearse 6 days a week and have 2 shows on Saturday and Sunday instead of the usual Wednesday matinee. Guess there’ll be no partying on weekends till Spring.

I was amazed to see, when I opened the L.A. Times this morning, that there is an article about my blogging again about doing the play. Who’d a thought THAT would make the papers. Hmmm. Guess I better really do it, then.

Here we are, settling in around the rehearsal table at the rehearsal studio of the Ahmanson Theatre in downtown Los Angeles

Grant James Varjas is new to the show. He plays Beethoven's secretary. Actually he did the play out of town before it came to Broadway 2 years ago.

Our Equity Union rep gives us a talk about our union and related matters.

Greg Keller is also new since Broadway. He plays a nurse who becomes my daughter's boyfriend.

Our production stage manager, Linda Marvel, was also with us on Broadway. She was working on 'Fela' when I last saw her and it is truly great to have her with us again. She misses nothing!

for more info and tickets visit:
http://www.centertheatregroup.org/33

One of Richard’s classmates was Richard Rosenberg with whom he formed a doo wop singing group, first called The Legends and then The Escorts. I just about fainted when, awhile ago, I was bragging that I knew a song in Latin and began singing Gaudeamus Igitur when Richard then began singing along with me and then put on an old LP of The Escorts on which they sang a doo wop version of the Latin song!!! OMG! I may sing it with them at the reunion if we get any chance to rehearse.

The reunion was a big success, needless to say.

Next to Richard is the former Headmaster, Bill Williams, then another alum, Nick Schenck. In front of NIck is the current headmaster, David Harmon

Richard, me, Nick Schenck and Richard Rosenberg

Last night we had a little party with the amazingly special Catherine Keener, documentary filmmaker, Amy Berg, who made the extraordinarily powerful documentary, “Deliver Us From Evil,” about a pedophile Catholic priest, Samantha Mathis, who played my daughter in “33 Variations” on Broadway and who I adore, and producer Sandy Stern who is becoming a dear friend and, hopefully we will work together. Alas, I forgot to take any pictures!!
 
It was a really fun night and ended early cause I had to get up this morning and do a photo shoot with Matthew Rolston for the covers of my new DVDs. I so adore working with Matthew. He is kind, quick, talented and the photos really look good. It may seem strange to you that the DVDs won’t come out till next January and yet we’re doing all this now but it may be the only time I get to do it—so at least it’s out of the way. I’ve put more lighter highlights in my hair and I think It’s better. The all-dark brown got a little helmety.

What else? That’s about it. The pollen-filled L.A. Air that has got me feeling tired and ill has finally blown over and I’m back to normal. Tomorrow we go to New York where I will rehearse the narration of the “Grapes of Wrath” opera that is being performed one night only with symphony orchestra and chorale (and Christine Ebersole!!!!) at Carnegie Hall. I’m excited. So many people I love will be there: Eve Ensler, Pat Mitchell, Annette Tauper and her husband, Joe Allen (Richard’s college roommate), my daughter-in-law’s parents, Dee and Boswell Bent, Roger Freidman, Kenny Vance, Jean Doumanian, Stan Dragotti, Patricia Bosworth, Hilton Als, Nat Bickford, Leslie Stahl, Eva and Yoel Haller…and Catherine Keener!!! What fun it will be.

I will take photos of it all, including the 3 days of rehearsals between Saturday and Monday night.

See You Next Time.

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.

The owner of Sardi’s, Max Klimavicius, threw a fabulous party for us. I was intending to go home early–after all I was up at 6am yesterday to leave Montreal. But I couldn’t tear myself away. It’s not often that all of us get a chance to chill and share stories.

My dear friend, Robert Osborne, who hosts the Turner Classic Movie channel was there looking dashing. He has lost a good bit of weight and it really becomes him.

My portrait (photo: Bruce Glikas)

Standing in Sardi’s next to Dad’s caricature (photo: Bruce Glikas)

Dick Pollak, Diane Walsh, Me, Cletus Karamon and Melissa Spengler. Cletus is the “Production Electrician” on “33 Variations”. (photo: Bruce Glikas)

That’s my agent, Joe Machota in the middle. Pretty good looking guy, yes? (photo: Bruce Glikas)

Our Producer, David Binder, Don Amendolia with Tulea, Samantha Mathis, Me, Susan Kellerman, Diane Walsh our pianist, and Linda Marvel, our stage manager on either side of my newly inaugurated portrait. (click photo to enlarge. Photo: Bruce Glikas)

My portrait and my dad’s. Hmm. Guess I am happier (Photo: Bruce Glikas)

Don and Tulea (Photo: Bruce Glikas)

Susan Kellerman and Jeff LaHoste, 20 year partner of Moises Kaufman. (Photo: Bruce Glikas)

With Dr. Barry Kohn. He’s is the doctor who treats actors pro bono whom I have blogged about in the past. (Photo: Bruce Glikas)

Michael Winther, Linda and Samantha (Photo: Bruce Glikas)

Sardi’s owner, Max Klimavicius and me with newly unveiled portrait (Photo: Bruce Glikas)

With Michael Winther. He, by the way, is responsible for “33 Variations” winning the Broadway Cares skit and is about the nicest person one could ever meet. Played one of the husbands in “Mama Mia,” fantastic singer. His new CD is “Song’s From An Unmade Bed.” Right now he is understudying Beethoven and Diabelli. (Photo: Bruce Glikas)

We had a good matinee today. Tonight my beloved friend and Zen teacher, Roshi Joan Halifax is coming. I’ve been waiting for this since the beginning. For me, this play is very Zen. Besides, one of the things Joan focuses her attention on (and her writing and teaching) is death and dying. She spends much time with the dying and I have learned a lot about this from her. One of my bloggers asked if in my next book on aging I intend to also focus on death and she sent me some suggested reading. I have read what she recommended and much more and, you bet, I intend to focus on death. I do not like the way we in the United States tend to avoid any discussion of death. We seem to want to deny our mortality or at least not be reminded of it. All cultures are not like this. I think, especially, of Mexico where they seem to include the presence of death even in their festivals. I think our denial robs us of living a meaningful life. Just as noise gives meaning to silence and sadness gives meaning to happiness, so death gives meaning to life. I try to stare death in the face, make it my friend and ally. I envision my dying–sort of like rehearsing for it. I want to be intentional about my dying just as I try to be intentional about my living. The dead and the living are woven together in this play and, for me, the final minuet says to me that no one really dies. We live on in other’s hearts and prayers and imaginations. Just as the cells that make up our bodies are composed of cells that have existed for eons, part of the stars, so, for me, we maintain a presence after our death–an energetic, cellular presence. Moises has called this up in this play and it speaks deeply to me just as, I think, it will to Joan.

Joan Halifax (photo: Michael Rudd)

After the play, Joan and I and another friend of hers will go to dinner. We have a lot of catching up to do. I will dedicate my performance tonight to her.

Now for my between-shows nap.

See you next time