Guest Diary• BY:
Jill Krementz
I’ve loved photographing our cultural world over the years — theater, ballet, opera, the symphony, readings and other performances. What I’ve especially loved is going behind the scenes and seeing the process that includes the rehearsals, the preparations of sets and costumes, the performers in their dressing rooms and their backstage warm ups.
Opening nights were always special with curtain calls and celebrations often held at Sardi’s where everyone awaited the arrival of the show’s press agent bearing the first reviews.
It’s sad so many live performances are now dark at the time we need them the most. What’s the Thanksgiving Day parade without young children sitting atop their parents’ shoulders? Or a holiday season without the annual “Nutcracker.” The tree has gone up at Rockefeller Center but the surrounding area is cordoned off to avoid crowds.
I miss the theater and the smell of roasted chestnuts in the air while navigating the too-crowded sidewalks. Another few months and I might feel nostalgic about the Naked Cowboy prancing around Times Square in his underpants.
It was a thrilling moment to see Nureyev dancing with Fonteyn and to witness it from the third row in an almost empty opera house. I was hooked from that moment on and remain so.
On view right now through August 23 at The New-York Historical Society on Central Park West: ’The Rock & Roll World of Bill Graham” where visitors can learn more about one of the most influential concert promoters of all time.
Liza, 19, was preparing for her Broadway debut in the Kander & Ebb musical comedy. The 82-year-old Mr. Abbott was directing. Hal Prince producing.
Hal’s wife had given birth to their daughter Daisy the previous night in New York so Hal jumped on a shuttle in time for a Sunday morning photo shoot.
The Thornton Wilder play, produced by Alfred de Liagre, was headed for a Boston tryout prior to opening at the ANTA Theater.
It opened and closed in a week and for some reason, unbeknownst to me, John McGiver was no longer in the cast.
In 1967 my friend Grace Schulman was appointed the Director of the Poetry Center at the 92nd Street Y. I was her official photographer and I loved being in the so-called green room backstage while the poets relaxed by smoking and drinking whiskey.
Auden said he always had the same dream the night before performing. He had lost his notes and he was in his underwear.
I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin’ for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.
Harold, the bass singer, died this past April at the age of 80.
I’m such a huge fan of the Statlers that my husband once took me to their concert at Niagara Falls on my birthday.
They were joined by Sara and Bob Dylan.
Right: Mary Travers, Paul Stokey, and Peter Travers were able to perform a sound check on stage before the doors opened.
I was invited by Leonard, a longtime colleague and friend, to join them.
The signature is by Edward who was one of my most treasured friends until his death on September 16, 2016.
Brooks wore a padded costume to play the role of Golde, the boisterous wife of Tevye in Joseph Stein’s adaptation of the Sholem Aleichem stories.
I had been working for several days on a story about Gerry and her husband Budd Schulberg.
The 34-year-old playwright disavowed expensive bad habits — “only chain smoking and nail biting.”
They were backstage with their musicians practicing a new song they had never sung before.
Jones finally quit both smoking and drinking after a near fatal car accident in 1999 describing himself as “A Honkey-tonk Orpheus returned from the dead.”
“Bubbles” as she was affectionately known by her friends, was joined by the Italian Tenor Tullio Pane.
In this photograph Mr. B. is teaching Stephanie Selby how to faint.
The opera was “La Traviata,” starring Beverly Sills, who had cajoled the company into engaging Ms. Caldwell.
My husband Kurt Vonnegut and I had attended the performance as guests of Schuyler Chapin, the Met’s General Manager. When the curtain was about to fall Schuyler whisked us downstairs to witness the historic curtain calls.
The other guests that evening were Betty Chapin, Betsy & Walter Cronkite and Ruth & Skitch Henderson.
Peter Gelb, The Met’s present General Manager, recently announced the cancellation of the 2020-21 season but has vowed to have more women conductors when the Met reopens.
Joseph Papp presented the musical at The Public Theater.
At the time Ntozake was having trouble making ends meet.
“When ‘Colored Girls’ was in a showcase rehearsal they wanted me to come and sign a contract. I couldn’t even afford the subway fare so I took a taxi and asked Oz to meet me and pay the cab fare.”
I had planned to do another Very Young book but in the end the fees demanded by the actors and stage hands union made the cost prohibitive. I was making less money than the dog. I did finally write and publish A Very Young Actress when “Annie” opened at The Goodyear Theater in Massachusetts. The new production starred 10-year-old Lauren Gaffney.
Still, I had a lot of fun hanging out with the original cast and crew.
Right: Every actor has to sign in for every performance just inside the stage door before going up to the dressing rooms.
Daddy Warbucks was played by Reid Shelton.
Left to right: Martin Charnin (director of “Annie” as well as lyricist), producer Mike Nichols, actress Dorothy Loudon (Miss Hannigan), Thomas Meehan, who wrote the book, and composer Charles Strouse. Bottom right is Buddy Graham, engineer from Columbia Records, who is “working the board.”
The theatrical production was originally presented at the WPA Theater and moved on to the Entermedia.
Howard Ashman directed and wrote the musical’s book and the lyrics. Alan Menken (not pictured here) wrote the music. It was the beginning of Howard and Alan’s long collaboration which lasted until Howard died of AIDS.
There is an excellent documentary about Howard Ashman airing on Netflix.
Middle row: Edwin Coffin (Elliott Rosewater) holding a tennis racquet with Kurt.
Front row second from left: Howard Ashman. Alan Menken on far right.
The play was recently revived as part of the Encores! program at City Center — but keep scrolling — more on that later.
The play, starring Blythe Danner, Raul Julia, and Roy Scheider was set to open in early January on Broadway at The Trafalgar Theater.
Kurt Vonnegut and I got married on November 24th, the day after I took this photograph.
Jim and Navarre appeared previously in “Scapino,” a musical version of a Moliére farce.
Onstage, Dale was catapulted into the spotlights by a trampoline early in the first act and later walked the length of the St. James stage on a tightwire. In between all of this he juggled having practiced his art with oranges.
For all his hard work and showmanship, Jim lost 16 pounds and won a Tony.
This was the first time I photographed Darci. I was working on a story for People magazine which was about the young Chris D’Amboise.
My caption sheet which is in my archive says: “You should definitely use a picture of Darci Kistler … that is if you don’t do a separate story on her. She is the hottest dancer now with NYCB and Balanchine is choreographing separate ballets for her. She opened the Washington season dancing lead in Swan Lake. She’s only 16.”
Their roles — she as a top costume designer and he as a leading man — have garnered them Obies, Tonys, an Emmy, and an Oscar.
Her clients have included Annie, A Chorus Line, Barnum, 42nd Street, and Woman of the Year.
The telegram reads: You were awarded the Pulitzer Drama Prize today for A Soldier’s Play. Congratulations, Michael I. Sovern, President, Columbia University.
Of course I should acknowledge the dearth of black playwrights in this Photo Journal but the sad truth is that there was a real lack of black talent represented on what was aptly called The Great White Way.
While teaching kids how to dance, Jacques often redefined the law of gravity.
50 young children had performed before other members of the Philharmonic and violinist Anne Meyers was one of five chosen to perform with the orchestra at a future concert.
People always ask me if there’s anyone I’d still like to photograph. The answer is conductor Gustavo Dudamel because I love it that he, like Mehta, is devoted to encouraging children to play a musical instrument.
I’m nostalgic for the days when opening nights were black-tie affairs.
Kingsley had recently won the Oscar for his performance in Gandhi.
After being knighted on his 59th birthday by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, Kingsley stated; “I told the Queen that winning an Oscar pales into insignificance — this is insurmountable.”
The ghost light is left on all night in case someone is in the theater working late. It allows them to see where they’re going. Stages have so many hidden places, bumps, and holes.
But according to theater lore, it is said that every theater has a ghost. The ghost light provides light at night for any spirits to be able to see and even “perform” or dance on the stage.
Sendak, in addition to writing the narrative, was scenic and set designer. One could safely say Maurice did everything but dance.
Prior to Ms. Whelan taking her final bow as a Principal Dancer with NYCB on the night of November 9, 2000, I photographed her during a rehearsal for a Christopher Wheeldon ballet, “After the Rain,” in which Wendy was partnered by Jock Soto.
She told me that as a three-year-old girl living in Kentucky she had been given A Very Young Dancer for Christmas and because of that she began taking ballet lessons.
Since 2004, Rosanne and her husband, Chelsea residents whose townhouse is only a few blocks away from the Rubin, have performed more than a dozen concerts there. Guest performers have included Elvis Costello, Mark O’Connor, and Loudon Wainwright 111.
Rosanne, like many performers, has continued to perform virtually, most recently at the Met Museum.
This past year she was awarded the annual MacDowell arts medal. The ceremony has been postponed to August 2021, due to the Covid epidemic.
I wish my husband could have been there but our daughter Lily was, as were many of our friends.
I miss the live performing arts; we all do. But I’m grateful to have seen many curtains rise and to have been witness to much of the process involved.
