Today's Theatrical Legends Are Dropping Like Flies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                 " I tried so hard.  I studied and I read--I
                                                     thought I wasn't much.  I was terrific,
                                                    and I walked my goddamn feet off.
                                                      What happened to you, Phyl?"
                                                   Phyllis Rogers Stone, in "Follies."

                             I guess I was destined to incorporate this into a post.  Though,
ironically, the idea for it came as the result of another one's passing, one whose
name, if you have been on here long enough, you have read about over time,
and now will for the last time,

                              Diane Dykeman.  That is right, she who symbolized all the acceptance and recognition I wanted from my peers  and teachers, during my upper school years, but never
received.  She passed away several weeks ago, and it had me musing about Phyllis in
"Follies."  Her speech here was applicable to me.  I thought I wasn't much, back, then, but
I was.  Hell, I was terrific!  Do you hear that, ye in Highland Park?  I was TERRIFIC!!!!!!!!!

                                As for what happened to me, I moved to New York, where I worked in the arts, and reinvented myself as this gadabout (or, maybe, gayabout?) town!   After all, someone had to replace Truman  Capote!!!!!!!!!!!!  And here we are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                               Maybe, while musing over Phyllis, my subconscious was thinking about the greatest one I ever saw live--Jan Maxwell!  Alexis Smith will always own the role, but Jan, surpassing even Blythe Danner, who was so mis-directed it was not her fault--was the definitive Phyllis, as far as I was concerned.

                               And now, just days, it seems, after John Mahoney, she has left us, having been ill with cancer.  She was 61.  Younger than I, dolls!  With her regal maturity she brought to all her roles,  I thought she was always older.  Or maybe it' s just my youthful immaturity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                               I also saw Jan Maxwell in two other shows, the 1998 (Oh, my God! That's twenty years!!!!!!!!!!) revival of "The Sound Of Music," where she humanized the Baroness to a degree, removing it from the campy, yet enjoyable, terrain of Eleanor Parker in the movie!  And she was just as great in the non-musical play, "The Royal Family," with Rosemary Harris, which I also saw.

                                 Whenever one saw Jan's name on a cast roster, one was assured a polished performance.  She never gave anything less.  She was a real working New York actress.

                                   And now two of the brightest firmaments--she and Mahoney--are giving nightly performances in the skies.

                                     Rest In Peace, Jan.  You will be missed.  We loved you!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     Here is Jan and company in "Who's That Woman?" from her 2011 appearance in "Follies."  I never thought, in seven years, I would be writing a memorial post about her!