New York Times
Jan 26 2005
Today He Would Have His Own Show on Fox
By JOYCE WADLER
Generally speaking, we do not question the site of a theatrical party
to which we have been invited. As has been noted by many a Broadway
press agent, our manners here at Boldface are superb.
Still, we must say that the FireBird restaurant, with its Czarist
Russian theme and opulent red velvet walls, did seem a little
peculiar for the “Fiddler on the Roof” party last Thursday, which
celebrated HARVEY FIERSTEIN and ANDREA MARTIN, the new leads.
Sure, the show is set in Russia, but it wasn’t like there was an
Anatevka/Romanov softball league.
Oops, do excuse us, please; here’s an instant message from CZAR
NICHOLAS II@Otherside.com: How little you know! We played every week
in the warm weather behind the palace in Tsarskoye Selo. We beat them
every time.
Gee, and here’s a message from RASPUTIN@Otherside.com: It was always
fair and square.
Our reply: Well, Rasputin, your word is good enough for us!
MR. SEGUE MAN, get off that roof!
Among the party guests: PHOEBE SNOW; DALLAS ROBERTS, who will be
opening soon in “The Glass Menagerie”; ELI WALLACH and ANNE JACKSON;
JILL EIKENBERRY and MICHAEL TUCKER.
Andrea Martin, who plays GOLDE, to Mr. Fierstein’s TEVYE, looked as
if she had prepared for life in the shtetl with Pilates. She wore a
DKNY pink sweater over a black accordion-pleated skirt and pink suede
shoes with pink rhinestones.
A graduate of Toronto Second City, Ms. Martin said that she had not
been familiar with the show.
“But I am Armenian,” she said, “and I understand what it is to lose a
country and lose a family and have massacres and genocides and
everything against my people.”
Mr. Fierstein arrived close to midnight; his mother, JACKIE
FIERSTEIN, had been at the show and she came to the party, too.
Is it true that ‘Fiddler’ helped inspire his career in the theater?
“Yeah, I mean, it was definitely our identity,” Mr. Fierstein said.
“It was our Jewish identity on stage. Everything else was – there are
a lot of Jews in show business, but you know they all change their
names and put up Christmas trees. So to actually see this as a child,
and to see this Jewish identity was very, very strong. You know,
those songs – ‘Sunrise, Sunset,’ ‘Matchmaker,’ ‘If I Were a Rich Man’
– they were at every wedding, every bar mitzvah, every public affair.
My father would sing ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ at our graduations. ”
What’s it like for him to have his mother in the audience?
“I try to ignore that; otherwise I would be crying a lot,” he said.
“Really. My brother’s hard enough. My brother sort of has empty nest
syndrome at the moment; both his sons have gone to college. And so
he’s sort of in that depression that the boys are gone. And so as
each one of my daughters left, if I flashed on my brother at all, I
started crying again. I mean, Tevye’s miserable enough without
bringing other people into it.”
In Other Words, We’re Running Short
With CLINT EASTWOOD up for Academy Awards for best director and best
actor for “Million Dollar Baby,” and the film nominated in five other
categories, you’re no doubt thinking that his wife, DINA RUIZ, is all
atwitter about what to wear to the ceremony.
(No, of course we know you’re not. This is just a convoluted attempt
to render old material fresh by linking it to a news event, a
time-honored newspaper technique. YOUR NAME IN THIS SPACE to the
reader who finds the most examples of this in today’s paper. No, not
our paper. Look in The Los Angeles Times.)
Where were we?
Oh, yes, Ms. Ruiz, and her indifference to fancy togs, which we
picked up on when chatting with her at the National Board of Review
Awards earlier this month.
“I borrowed a dress from GIORGIO ARMANI,” Ms. Ruiz said. “Our
producer’s wife is the head of public relations for Armani.”
She pointed to her choker and pearl earrings. “This is my
great-aunt’s who died. Dime store earrings.”
Doesn’t she deserve a trip to Tiffany’s?
“No, I don’t like all that stuff. I like costume jewelry.”
How about the shoes?
“These? I’ll tell you what. My first ever and last pair of CHANEL
shoes. I got ’em about 90 percent off.”
With Melena Z. Ryzik and Paula Schwartz