The New York Times: Type On, Golden Blogger

Type On, Golden Blogger: Reading Jane Fonda’s Web Journal

By PATRICK HEALY

Jane Fonda, seen here in 2005, has been blogging about her preparations for the Broadway play “33 Variations.” (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

As personal blogs go, this one is a pretty interesting read: Jane Fonda has begun her first-ever web journal to chronicle her return to Broadway, after a four-and-a-half-decade absence, as the star of Moises Kaufman’s new play, “33 Variations.”

The postings, which can be read here, are relatively unguarded for a celebrity blog: Ms. Fonda, 71, writes about her nerves returning to the stage, the ups-and-downs of rehearsals (the play begins preview performances on Monday), her singing lessons, and her experiences living in New York City for several months.

“I’m so glad I didn’t chicken out and not agree to do this out of fear—after 45 years,” Ms. Fonda writes in a Feb. 2 posting. “I could say it’s like sex and riding a bike—it comes right back… but not really. Mostly this because I am so different as a woman.”

Ms. Fonda, in her autobiography and in interviews (including one she did with me in 2001), has often commented about how, early on, the men in her life treated her more like a lost little girl than a mature woman, and how she sometimes took movie roles (such as “Barbarella”) because they suited the feminine image that men believed fit her best.

On the blog, she is similarly candid and self-critical at times, but she is also plainspoken about the excitement and rigors of the challenge of live theater.

“I am fairly confident of my lines now with the exception of the final scene in Act One where all the characters come onstage and have individual lines interspersed, and sometimes spoken simultaneously,” she wrote in a posting on Jan. 24. “It is stylized and I sense it can be effective and theatrical but right now it’s challenging to learn how it all goes together.

“Wouldn’t you think that after fifty years I would have more confidence? But in some ways, it’s just the opposite. More is expected of me and I expect more of myself,” she wrote a few sentences later. Using a theatrical expression for that day’s rehearsal, she went on: “The stumble through did not go well, in my opinion…not for me. I feel very low right now. Very much wondering why I am in this profession. Very much wishing I could disappear to my ranch and never come out. I feel at a loss as to what to do about it. Maybe a good night’s sleep will help. For the first time in my life, I am having trouble sleeping through the night.”

Ms. Fonda also blogs about how much she misses her father, Henry Fonda, with whom she had a rocky relationship through the years. Mr. Fonda began his acting career on Broadway in the 1920s and ‘30s, starring in “The Farmer Takes a Wife” among other productions; he won a Tony as lead actor in “Mister Roberts” in 1948, and was nominated in 1975 for his performance in “Clarence Darrow.”

“Now that I am doing theater again after a huge absence, I can’t help but wish he was still here with me – to see,” Ms. Fonda wrote about her father in a Jan. 29 post. “Not that he would give me advice. That wasn’t his style. But I wish he knew that I’ve come back to his place of love.

“There have been days during these weeks of rehearsals when I seem incapable of doing the same thing over and over…even twice, never mind for 4 years! I wonder how he was able to do it. I want to please him…still. Do we ever get over this need to please the parent we were closest to?”

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