NEWSMAKERS by Richard Burnett

Outside her Manhattan apartment, Tovah Feldshuh jumped into her taxi limo and headed for the airport to fly to Vancouver to film the CBS series Salvation in which she plays yet another fierce woman, President of the United States Pauline Mackenzie.

I first discovered the Broadway legend on the original Law & Order TV series, in which she played recurring character, defense attorney Danielle Melnick, for 13 seasons. But Feldshuh is best-loved for her stage work in London’s West End as well as on Broadway where – from Yentl to Golda’s Balcony, the longest-running one-woman show in the history of the Great White Way – she has earned four Tony nominations for Best Actress and won four Drama Desk, four Outer Critics Circle and the Obie. In short, Feldshuh is a living legend, and few adore her more than her diehard gay fan base. On the eve of her hotly-anticipated run in Golda’s Balcony at The Segal Centre for Performing Arts, Feldshuh – married to prominent New York attorney Andrew H. Levy and the mother of their two children – gave me a candid Q&A about her storied career, sharing anecdotes about everybody from Rudolf Nureyev to Barbra Streisand.

You have played Golda Meir in Golda’s Balcony countless times. How do you work up the enthusiasm to play that role night after night, year after year?

I just take her out once a year now. More importantly, let me tell you this story about an eight-year-old boy who came to see Joe DiMaggio play baseball at the end of his career at Yankee Stadium. DiMaggio hit a grand-slam homerun and the boy went up to him after the game and asked, “How do you keep hitting those homers?” And DiMaggio replied, “I keep hitting those homers because somebody ain’t never seen baseball.” I’m not saying I hit homers, but I give it my very best shot because there’s somebody ain’t never seen theatre. Every time I go out on a stage, I remember this is the first time somebody will see a play, and also the last time somebody will ever see a play. The audience must be honoured..

What was it like to be on Law & Order?

I loved it! I was on that show on-and-off for 13 years. My part was great, actually written for a man. So was my part on The Walking Dead. Now I’m playing the President of the United States in Salvation. I am happy to play these roles in a more egalitarian male-female world..

You’ve played women who’ve had to disguise themselves as men — such as Yentl — but this year you played a man for the first time in Dancing With Giants, a play written by your brother, David Feldshuh. What was that like?

It’s different than playing a woman playing a man – you better study men, how they act. It’s more than how they sit and walk. You have to observe, ingest, meld and marry the soul of the character. You need to find the crossroads of you and the character you want to play.

You are a longtime supporter of LGBTQ civil rights at rallies. Growing up, did you have gay friends?

When we were young – I was born in the 50s – there were like three genders: heterosexual men, heterosexual women and homosexual men. We didn’t even know what a lesbian was. All those wonderful athletes with short hair who were my counsellors, it never dawned on us. We were completely innocent.

When did you lose your innocence?

It was only when I went to Sarah Lawrence College. It was a wonderful college for women. It was there that I met gay students – women who preferred women – and later in theatre, if you don’t have a gay base, forget it, you don’t have a career.

Your diehard LGBTQ fan base adores you.

And I adore them. It really all started with Yentl. You meet a gay fan and they know all of your credits. You know, it’s been a long time since I got stopped in the street. But whatever your profession, to be acknowledged for your work feels good. I remember I shared a dressing room with Rudolf Nureyev at the Municipal Opera House in St. Louis in 1978 where he was dancing at night and I was rehearsing for Peter Pan during the day. He was disappointed that nobody came backstage to see him after his performances. I said to him, “Mr. Nureyev, people think you’re extraordinary and are intimidated because you are such a legend.” He said, “Nobody come visit me.” So I said, “Well, I’m here, and I’m telling you you’re great.” We all need to have our work acknowledged.

Speaking of queer icons, you portrayed Tallulah Bankhead in the musical

Tableau D’Hote Theatre company’s superb 2015 revival of Québec literary icon Michel Tremblay’s landmark 1973 play Hosanna about a drag queen and her biker boyfriend won 2015 Montreal English Theatre Awards for Best Independent Production, lead actor (Eloi ArchamBaudoin), supporting actor (Davide Chiazzese) and best director (Mike Payette), and all are back for the current remount at Centaur Theatre. I hope Tremblay himself will see this superb production which has gotten the most headlines since Hosanna’s 1974 Broadway run at the Bijou Theatre. Some years ago, Tremblay told me, “We were doing a revival of Hosanna at Place des Arts in 1975 and this English CBC reporter surprised me by asking me, ‘By the way, are you gay?’ So, just to brag, I replied, ‘Yes, by the way, I am!’ It was on TV that night. The next morning I got phone calls saying, ‘If you said it in English, then you have to say it on French TV tonight!’ So I went on live TV.” Tremblay then observed, “You know, if I was a singer, I’d ask myself, ‘Should I come out?’ Seducing audiences is not part of my life, my job. But it is for actors and singers. Less now, but in the 1970s I would never have come out. But I did. Strange thing was after I came out, everybody on the streets – it didn’t matter to them. They kept on waving and saying hello to me.” In this production of Hosanna, the two leads (ArchamBaudoin and Chiazzese) are both proudly out actors. ArchamBaudoin also believes their being gay brings a fresh authenticity to their roles. “When Mike Payette said three years ago that he thought one or both leads had to be a gay actor, I was initially taken aback,” says ArchamBaudoin. “I come from the French side of the theatre community where diversity and representation isn’t as important on the stage as it is on the English side – although things are changing. But with the controversy our original run generated, I was very glad that Mike had cast Davide and I.” ArchamBaudoin adds, “I recently saw a production of Hosanna in Gatineau starring two straight men – who are good friends of mine and I love them dearly – but it was just like watching an Anglo put on a Québécois accent. I couldn’t identify, I couldn’t relate to it and it was a bit offensive. Because of that, I am very proud that in the history of Hosanna, our production is – as far as I know – the first to star two actors who identify as gay men. When it comes to representation and diversity on our stages, I think that speaks volumes about how far we all have come.”