‘Still Here’ honors life, times of Elaine Stritch
As the curtain rises in a new biography of Elaine Stritch, the scene is the actress’s New York memorial service, attended by some of the biggest names in the theater world, with eulogies by Tony-winning actor Nathan Lane and famed producer Hal Prince, both throwing out zingers for laughs and to honor the woman who made so many lines shine.
As “Still Here: The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch” suggests, the grande dame of Broadway brought life to scores of characters for decades, but she was a complicated, often dramatic character herself.
The book — written by New York Times feature editor Alexandra Jacobs — is a mini-history of the Great White Way from the 1970s through Stritch’s death in 2014, told through the icon’s professional and personal journey.
The story follows Stritch’s life from the early days with her conservative well-to-do family in the Detroit suburbs to her move to New York with dreams of stardom.
Manhattan was her playground, but Jacobs follows Stritch on the road, meeting many famous people along the way.
Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg were teachers at her drama school, where Marlon Brando was a fellow student who once read her passages of “Wuthering Heights” on a date. Some of the best anecdotes are Stritch’s encounters with desirable men like the young Congressman John F. Kennedy, Frank Sinatra and Rock Hudson. Because of her ”luminous personality, she tended to collect people who wanted to adore her,” Jacobs explains.
Jacobs says Stritch was “incapable of not telling the truth,” which was refreshing to some and too much for others. Her acerbic wit and lack of boundaries got her in trouble with both love interests and bosses. The author suggests alcoholism also kept Stritch from reaching her full star potential. She drank often and in large quantities for decades before she got sober in the late 1980s, but her relationship with booze continued — if sporadically and quietly — for many more years.
The tone is respectful with spots of humor and compassion. With more than 25 pages of bibliographical notes, it’s clear Jacobs has done meticulous research. But some of the details and tangents about minor players feel unnecessary and disrupt the narrative.
One poignant revelation is when theater critic John Lahr — who helped Stritch develop and produce her famous one-woman show “At Liberty” — suggests the reason for much of Stritch’s bad behavior was fear and panic. “The truth of Elaine was her real great acting was convincing the world she was loosey goosey — that was a complete act,” Lahr told Jacobs.
“Still Here” is an insider’s story, with behind the scenes show tales and name-dropping as titillating as a good table for eavesdropping at Sardi’s. As the lyric goes, “good times or bum times,” Stritch saw it all and always found a way to get the next gig and bring a crowd to its feet. This book is sure to send nostalgic Broadway fans to YouTube to replay all her oldies, wishing she was still here.