Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Tovah Does Hepburn
by Amy Matheny
2007-12-05

This article shared 2157 times since Wed Dec 5, 2007
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


Tea at Five is the one-woman show about the life of Katharine Hepburn. Starring as the tomboy icon and beauty who led an unapologetic and independent life is four-time Tony award nominee Tovah Feldshuh. Feldshuh recently spoke with Windy City Queercast's Amy Matheny about playing the legendary actress.

__________

Pictured: Tovah Feldshuh.

__________

Amy Matheny: On what particular time in Hepburn's life does the play focus?

Tovah Feldshuh: Tea at Five spans her life. It begins with her at 76 years old, but goes back to her at 31 years old right on the stage without an act break. I've got two quick changes. It goes from 76 to 31 to 76.

AM: What has been the biggest surprise that you've discovered about her?

TF: One of the biggest surprises is that she makes me cry because she is the prototype of American nobility. It's how we want to talk, it's the thin waist we want to have, it's the breeding and the grace that she has in her from her beginnings. And it's her tremendous relationship, [even] with all this breeding, with the earth … with gardening, with having dirty fingernails, with the manliness inside her woman's heart. She's a very at-home girl/boy or boy/girl. She's very at home being a tomboy. She was inseparable from her older brother Tom, who would commit suicide at a very tender age of 15 when she was 13. She left her birthday at that time, which was in May, and she took on Tom's birthday of Nov. 8. She wore his clothes. She cut her hair, and she tried to be both son and daughter to her bereft, stoic, elegant, brilliant parents. She makes me cry.

She's a very brave woman, and she really—in many respects—never disappoints. When you get down to her real human values and her actions for other people, they really are, without question, noble. Her behavior around Spencer Tracy was unbelievable. It was 27 years of devotion, and as Louise Tracy, Spencer's wife whom he never divorced because he was a Catholic, said to her, 'I was his wife. You were just a rumor.' Hepburn never attended the funeral so as not to embarrass Louise Tracy, and when she spoke on television after Louise's death, she said, 'Mrs. Tracy really needed to be Mrs. Tracy in order to do all of her good work. I didn't need the moniker of Mrs. Spencer Tracy. I would never take it from her.'

AM: You played Yentl on Broadway before Streisand played Yentl.

TF: It was a lot of fun. I've made some wonderful career choices in playing trouser parts, and that was one of the biggest breaks of my career. It was the first one that put me on a marquee. It was about a little girl who sacrificed her feminine identity to become a scholar, [which was] utterly forbidden to womankind. So she had to parade around as a boy. And there's a saying in the Talmut that, 'if you don the clothes of the other sex, does the soul become perplexed?' And those were all the big questions that would be asked of me. It was my first break with the gay community. I don't think there's a decent career built in the United States without the support of the gay community, [which is] a very, very important element in the artistry of the United States. Or of any great democracy, really.

AM: There's been much talk about whether or not Hepburn slept with women. Was she bisexual?

TF: My gut says she did not sleep with women, per se. On the other hand, she had a very close alliance and a love for Laura Harding. Whether they made love or not, I don't know. Whether they slept in the same bed, I don't think Hepburn would have made a second thought. I don't know what her sexual practices were, but I do know she had wonderful, close and abiding feelings for Laura Harding that lasted the rest of their lives. They were, in many respects, inseparable. She said, 'Oh, they thought we were lesbians. It didn't make our beaus very happy.' I don't know. Did she ever kiss a girl? I don't know. I know I did for 10 months in public on Broadway, in front of a thousand people a night, in Yentl.

AM: Well, I hope she did at least once.

TF: If she had the impulse, I don't think that she would have stopped herself. I'm going to play Tallulah Bankhead as well in 2008, and she was definitely a practicing bisexual. She had women lovers. Now that woman was wild and, in many respects, debauched. [But] that doesn't have anything to do with her sexuality. It has to do with her use of drugs and alcohol. But Hepburn was highly disciplined, a cold shower-in-the-morning girl. You know, she took freezing baths and she swam almost every day of her life, rain or shine, freezing water or not. It didn't bother her a bit.

AM: You also starred in Golda's Balcony (about the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir), which set a record as the longest-running one-woman play in Broadway history.

TF: And you know what the surprise is about her is? She was a practicing heterosexual but she had five lovers. So how about them apples? She wasn't a beautiful woman, but she attracted men all the time. Far out, huh?

AM: What is the challenge in playing real, [as opposed to] fictional, women?

TF: Whomever you play, fictional or not, youhave to advocate for them. [Even] if you were writing a one-person play about Hitler, we wouldn't make him bad. We'd make him the best cleaning woman on the planet Earth. He's just a great scourer and cleaner, except he got rid of homosexuals, Jews, communists, anybody who wasn't like him. But you have to advocate for the character. You're in their bones, in their skin. They're talking about themselves.

AM: You have this enormous gift for being transparent on film—very difficult to do and, yet, you make it look easy. In Kissing Jessica Stein, you radiated such truth in that scene when telling your daughter to just let go and fall for the girl. What kind of a response did you get from that movie?

TF: That was a big response. I think my favorite call ever was from Barbra Streisand herself, saying she had just seen the film and ... loved my work, and she needed to call and tell me. How did she even get my phone number? Even though she's Barbra Streisand, I said I thought that was an incredible thing to take time out of your day, and call a practical stranger. I mean we were connected through Yentl, but we were nothing more than acquaintances, and to call and tell somebody you believe in them? How kind-hearted that was!

AM: It's such an extraordinary performance I'm amazed that everybody who knew you didn't call.

TF: Well, I loved doing that movie. I loved the writers, both girls. I gained a lot of friends in the gay community [with that film], particularly the gay women's community. Which brings me to Rosie O'Donnell … with whom I had the pleasure of sharing Chita Rivera's act last night. We were both watching brilliant, extraordinary, very well-preserved and utterly capable Chita Rivera. And I have a real soft spot in my heart for Rosie. Rosie was there completely unadorned with Kelly and talking about getting chubby. It was so so funny, so cute. I'm opening June 7 in London and Rosie is coming to opening night. What a doll she is! She was talking to me about the women's movement, and it made me think of all the wonderful lucky roles that I've been able to play.

Tea at Five is playing at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts Dec. 19-23 only. For tickets, call 847-673-6300 or see www.northshorecenter.org . To listen to this entire interview, visit www.Windycityqueercast.com .


This article shared 2157 times since Wed Dec 5, 2007
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

City Lit Executive Artistic Director Brian Pastor talks theater, comics, queerness
2024-03-26
City Lit Theater has announced its programming for the 2024-25 season—which will be the company's 44th. It will also be the first season to be programmed under the leadership of Brian Pastor (they/them), who will assume ...


Gay News

The Jeff Awards announces the 50th anniversary awards for non-equity theater
2024-03-26
--From a press release - A complete list of recipients can also be found online in the Non-Equity and News and Events sections at www.jeffawards.org. (March 25, 2024 - Chicago) — Celebrating its 50th anniversary awarding recognition for Non-Equity theater, the ...


Gay News

JP Karliak morphs into non-binary character for Disney+'s X-Men '97
2024-03-22
series X-Men '97, a revival of the popular X-men: The Animated Series that's both continuing the ongoing mutant storyline and breaking new ground along the way. The character of Morph now looks more like the comic ...


Gay News

WORLD Uganda items, HIV report, Mandela, Liechtenstein, foreign minister weds
2024-03-21
It turned out that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam traveled to Uganda on Feb. 19-27, per The Washington Blade. He visited the capital of Kampala and the nearby city of ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Queer musicians, Marvel situation, Elliot Page, Nicole Kidman
2024-03-21
Queer musician Joy Oladokun released the single "I Wished on the Moon," from Jack Antonoff's official soundtrack for the new Apple TV+ series The New Look, per a press release. The soundtrack, ...


Gay News

THEATER Chicago's City Lit has anxiety on tap with 'Two Hours in a Bar'
2024-03-21
Two Hours in a Bar Waiting for Tina Meyer by Kristine Thatcher with material by Larry Shue Text Me by Kingsley Day (Book, Music and Lyrics). At: City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.. Tickets: ...


Gay News

Jamie Barton brings nuances of identity to her Lyric Opera 'Aida' performance
2024-03-18
Chicago's Lyric Opera is currently featuring a production of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida starring Michelle Bradley as Aida, Jamie Barton as Amneris and Russell Thomas as Radamès. The opera runs through April 7, 2024, with Francesca Zambello ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Lady Gaga, 'P-Valley,' Wendy Williams, Luke Evans, 'Queer Eye,' 'Transition'
2024-03-15
Lady Gaga came to the defense of Dylan Mulvaney after a post with the trans influencer/activist for International Women's Day received hateful responses, People Magazine noted. On Instagram, Gaga stated, "It's appalling to me that a ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Jinkx Monsoon, Xavier Dolan, 'Frida,' Lena Waithe, out singer
2024-03-08
Two-time RuPaul's Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon is headed back to the New York stage, joining off-Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey beginning April 2, according to Playbill. The casting makes Monsoon the first drag ...


Gay News

Queer Eye's Jai Rodriguez is set to slay at The Big Gay Cabaret
2024-03-05
Out and proud performer Jai Rodriguez is set to play at The Big Gay Cabaret this March for three days. Presented by RuPaul Drag Racer Ginger Minj, this monthly series highlights the wide world of cabaret ...


Gay News

THEATER 'R & J' puts a female, queer spin on Shakespeare
2024-03-05
Romeo and Juliet is the theatrical gift that keeps on giving. It's been reworked for the masses numerous times, whether in direct adaptations or musicals such as West Side Story. Shakespeare's plotline points have even inspired ...


Gay News

Center on Halsted hosts 6th Annual Intergenerational Talent Show
2024-03-03
On the evening of Feb. 29, Center on Halsted held its 6th Annual Intergenerational Talent Show in front of a packed audience at the Hoover-Leppen Theater. The event brought together participants of the Center's youth and senior ...


Gay News

THEATER When growth is paramount: Jim Corti helps fuel Aurora theater expansion
2024-03-01
Out actor/director/choreographer Jim Corti made his Broadway debut in 1974, in the ensemble of Leonard Bernstein's musical Candide. Director Harold Prince's acclaimed Tony Award-winning revival is often cited as a ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Queer actors, icons duet, Hunter Schafer, Oscars, Elizabeth Taylor
2024-03-01
Queer actor Kal Penn is set to star in Trust Me, I'm a Doctor—a film that chronicles the final days of actress/model Anna Nicole Smith, whose overdose death in 2007 at age 39 sparked a tabloid ...


Gay News

Dorian Film Awards: 'All of Us Strangers' takes top prizes
2024-02-27
February 26, 2024 - Los Angeles, Ca. - For its 15th Dorian Film Awards, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics fully embraced All of Us Strangers, writer-director Andrew Haigh's fantastical and tear-inducing tale of two ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.