The View From "Golda's Balcony"

Gina Wilhelm Actress - The View From "Golda's Balcony"

Tovah Feldshuh has a show on Broadway and works on TV. But her most reliable work is "Golda's Balcony."

"Golda's Balcony" is a one-woman show, a condensation from a multicharacter piece called "Golda."

That play was an attempt to re-create the magic of "The Miracle Worker" by reuniting its star, director, and playwright, all of whom won Tonys for the earlier play.

"Golda" was a commercial flop. "Golda's Balcony," by comparison, has proven reliable for Ms. Feldshuh.

In that play, Feldshuh portrays Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, when Meir turned to the United States for assistance.

In the course of her extensive research for the role, Feldshuh has become convinced that Israel had nuclear weapons and would have used them if the aid from the US hadn't come through.

Israel has never admitted to having nuclear weapons.

Ms. Feldshuh has to do a lot of work for the role. She wears a false nose and frizzy wig. She also has prosthetic legs to give the impression of Meir's phlebitis.

The hardest part, though, is the chain smoking. She says the trick is to grind the cigarette out almost as soon as it's lit.

Lighting the cigarette is what creates the illusion of chain smoking.

Feldshuh uses mild menthol cigarettes. She tried herbal cigarettes, which most nonsmoking actors use, but she said it smelled like "dope" to her.

She will perform the show in Kansas City this weekend, and then she goes back to her Broadway show Tuesday.

She says she performs the show maybe 10 times a year in places as far away as Africa and Hong Kong.

Interestingly enough, the one place she hasn't performed it is Israel.

Gina Wilhelm Actress

Cherry Jones is Not a Happy Housewife

Gina Wilhelm Actress - Cherry Jones is Not a Happy Housewife

When the new season of "24" starts tonight, there will be a new president--a woman. As played by Cherry Jones, Allison Taylor is the new Commander-in-Chief.

Ms. Jones points out that President Taylor's character isn't based on Hillary Clinton, though she can understand why one might think she was.

She actually based her own portrayal of the character on Eleanor Roosevelt, Golda Meir, and John Wayne, though The Duke has more to do with her walk than her psychology.

She does wonder, however, if President Taylor might lead the way for a nonfiction female president someday.

After all, Dennis Haysbert was an African-American president when Barack Obama was just starting his senate career.

The new job comes at a time when Meryl Streep is receiving accolades for playing a part Jones herself originated.

Ms. Jones won a Tony for her work as Sister Aloysius in the stage version of "Doubt." Streep is now up for a Golden Globe for the same role and is considered likely to get an Oscar nomination for the same part.

Cherry Jones is pragmatic about the situation. She says that she had a terrific run playing the role, but the director needed someone who hadn't played the role over 700 times.

She also calls Streep a "genius actor."

She also says that although President Taylor is married, she isn't a wife. She's the one running the show.

Jones refuses to play characters like Nora, the unhappy wife in Ibsen's "A Doll's House." She feels that those characters are always trying to be free.

That just isn't in her make-up. It may limit her somewhat (it's a highly prevalent type of role), but she prefers to play women who start free and have greater challenges.

Valerie Harper is Looped

Gina Wilhelm Actress

Valerie Harper is currently playing the great Tallulah Bankhead in "Looped" in West Palm Beach.

The new play, by Matthew Lombardo, is taken from a recording of a looping session Ms. Bankhead did for the movie "Die! Die! My Darling!" It was her last film.

The looping session should have been less than 15 minutes. Instead, it wound up being eight hours.

The process is called "looping" because film was spliced together in "loops" so that section of the movie could play over and over again.

Ms. Harper warns that the show uses extremely coarse language.

In the session that inspired the show, Ms. Bankhead struggled just to put together a coherent thought. The writer says she was clearly high on some sort of substance.

Harper found the recordings to be a "treasure trove" of material.

She also says that she works not to do an impersonation of the real-life characters (such as Bankhead or Golda Meir, whom she has also played), but to find their tone of voice and inflection.

She strives to create a real person.

That said, the hardest part of the play for Ms. Harper was re-creating Bankhead's voice, which is considerably lower than her own.

Now I can't wait until I'm in my 60s and able to play this part!

Gina Wilhelm Actress