Theater big’s life of drama
ON Monday, Broadwayites crowded the Nederlanders’ Minskoff Theatre. The memorial for our special friend Jimmy Nederlander.
Besides one-third of our legit theaters, Jimmy owned them worldwide — London, Detroit, LA, Chicago, wherever. He produced “La Cage,” “Annie,” “Sweet Charity,” more than 100 shows.
2006. I remember the musical “Dirty Dancing” opening at London’s Aldwych, which he’d bought a quarter of a century before. We arrived early. Its twit Brit manager wouldn’t let him in. Jimmy, who started in show busi- ness before Shakespeare, answered: “But I own this theater!”
He loved Yorkshire terriers. Our Yorkies played and pooped together. One night, with Daddy and doggie asleep in bed, the bigger one, turning, crushed his canine. Cupcake was 3 ¹ /2 pounds. Jimmy, not. After anguished yelps, Cupcake never crept near James Nederlander again.
’04, another statuette for another smash hit. This prized award he schlepped in a crappy paper bag. Taking me home, he opened the car door with a jolt. His Tony plopped deep into the street’s mud puddle.
During a “Fiddler on the Roof ” revival at the Minskoff, he said: “When it opened origi- nally, I was the theater manager.” At his 80th birthday gala, produced by Jimmy Jr., Margo McNabb and Nick Scandalios, guests included Pacino, Sarandon, Sting, Steinbrenner, Redgrave, Tommy Tune, Sutton Foster, Bette Midler, Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, Michael Eisner, etc. Said Jimmy: “This was a great show. I wish I could’ve put it on Broadway instead of the flops I had.” His wife Charlene: “I really wanted to gift Jimmy with a young girl for the night, but I worried about the consequences.” Cracked Jimmy: “Listen, if she dies, she dies.”
I remember so much. At dinner, just we two, he’d reminisce. One of his edicts? “Making a financial arrangement, never push your opponent all the way. Always leave something on the table for that person . . . or you can never go back and make another deal with them.”
James Nederlander. Not a prince. A king. We all loved him.
Political circus
LISTEN, this mightn’t crop up in Donald’s conversation but: Per historians, in 1864, Republi- cans almost nominated P.T. Barnum for the vice presidency of the United States.
Do these things
TIPS: See the romp film “Going in Style” with Michael Caine, Alan Arkin, Morgan Freeman, Ann-Margret and chunky Jer
emy Shinder, a rabbi’s-son schoolmate of my New Jersey friends Zoe and Liam. So good that (excuse me, rabbi) it’s better than sex . . . ALSO, any James
Patterson book because his whodunits all beat Doing It . . . PLUS, for a stage fix, catch the Lyceum’s “The Play That Goes Wrong.” So great you’ll forget even bothering about sex. (Pray for me, rabbi.)
THIS lady parks under the 59th Street bridge. Her water bottle falls. Rolls under the car. Hurrying, she fast retrieves it, tosses it into her tote bag. Hour later she fishes out the bottle. What lay under that car, only the Shadow knows. It and now the entire contents of her Vuitton is filled with doggy do.
Oy — only in New York, kids, only in New York.