Newsday drama critic Linda Winer's wish has come true. When she reviewed Talking Heads, Alan Bennett's "six" solo plays, which are being presented in Programs A and B Off Broadway at the Minetta Lane Theatre], she raved that Lynn Redgrave was "irrestible"; Kathleen Chalfant, "ever-remarkable"; Christine Ebersole, "heartbreaking," Brenda Wehle, "lovely"; Daniel Davis, "wonderful"; and that Valerie Mahaffey, had "a sweet generosity." But, she concluded, "I kept wanting more!"

Now she has it; and, thanks to Frances Sternhagen, this is one time you don't have to worry about wishes coming true.

A seventh play, Waiting for the Telegram in its U.S. premiere, has been added and Miss Sternhagen is, as always, irresistible, ever-remarkable, heartbreaking, lovely, wonderful and even has a sweet generosity.

But, only a couple of weeks ago, the award-winning [Tonys, Drama Desks and Obies] Miss Sternhagen, who's proven equally at home onstage, in film and on TV, was nowhere to be found. Except for having her photo in the elaborate lobby displays.

"I was in on opening night," explains Miss Sternhagen, "but critics don't come to opening nights anymore. They review previews and I wasn't here. It wasn't the producers' fault. I was on a family trip in South America. Tom Hulce [actor turned producer] said, ëThat's alright. We're going to be moving things around, so we'll just put you in when you're back. What we didn't know was that I wouldn't get reviewed" [or seen by the Drama Desk Awards nominating committee and voters before the season cut-off].

As quickly as she was back, Miss Sternhagen was gone. For a couple of weeks. Now she's back in Program B, at least through August, on a schedule that only the box office personnel know for certain. [See Details Below].

This week, she's gone from the Minetta Lane, but available for lunch on Thursday [May 29th]. While she's Waiting for the Telegram, Miss Sternhagen will be a few blocks north in Food for Thought's Lunch Hour Theatre "childhood and abandonment" double-bill with her Equus co-star, two-time Tony-winner and a 2003 Tony nominee Marian Seldes.

In Folded Hands, by FFT artistic director Susan Charlotte, Miss Sternhagen will portray a six year old. Miss Seldes, as a woman looking back on her past, will read When I Was A Little Girl and My Mother Didn't Want Me by Joyce Carol Oates. Austin Pendleton is the director.

Single tickets for the 12:30 P.M. event at the National Arts Club [the historic Tilden mansion], 15 Gramercy Park South (East 20th Street), between Park Avenue and Irving Place, are $40, which includes a light buffet lunch. A Q & A with Miss Oates will follow. For reservations, call 212-362-2560. For more information on FFT, visit their website: www.foodforthoughtproductions.com.

Theatre Hall of Famer Miss Sternhagen was bitten by the acting bug at age 13 when she tired of piano lessons while growing up in Washington, D.C. "I became much more interested in drama," she says, "but I never expected to do anything professional."

In fact, expectations were quite low. "Father had to retire," recalled Miss Sternhagen. "He couldn't work because he had what came to be known as Parkinson's Disease. He went through thirteen years of treatments and hospitals and nothing worked. My mother had to take little jobs. For a while, she taught remedial reading. There was no money for college." Thanks to family friends who had no children of their own, she was able to go to boarding school at [Virginia's prestigious] Madeira, where she not only acted but also directed.

When she qualified for and was accepted at Vassar, the family friends once again came to the rescue. "At Vassar, I had wonderful teachers," says Miss Sternhagen, "and it was there that I first sensed what acting really was."

She knew how to command a stage - even if it was in the dining hall. To interest more students in drama, she was asked to do a scene from Richard II. As she played Richard, there was a chorus of giggles. "I took control by grabbing my mirror and hurling it to the floor. It broke into a million pieces and you could hear a pin drop. That alone, got me elected head of the Drama Club!"

Vassar helped Miss Sternhagen hone the unique voice that has made her an attention-getter. She told an interviewer: "Some of the [Madeira] students were people I really wouldn't have much to do with in my life because they were very wealthy. Some were very sophisticated, at least to my way of thinking. A few of them had what I call that Groton/Harvard accent. I saw at Vassar, too." She developed a theater voice that was nicknamed "the lockjaw."

Early on she used it in a television show with Ann Jackson and Eli Wallach. "I was playing a babysitter and I said with that accent, ëI gave the bady a pacifier,' and Annie and Eli just found that hilarious. I did the same sort of thing in The Importance of Being Earnest in Princeton at the McCarter with Ellis Rabb and Rosemary Harris. I developed a Mayfair accent because of one word. Jack says, ëDo you love me, Gwendolyn?' And I said, ëPassionately.' The word ëpassionately' just gave me the clue to the character. Just perfectly."

In her late teens, Miss Sternhagen made her professional stage debut as the 30ish Laura in a 1948 stock production of The Glass Menagerie. After graduation, she attended the Perry-Mansfield Theater School and studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Back in Washington, she taught acting, singing and dancing. With theater still as her goal, she attempted to get work in Boston but was rejected. She returned home, only to find more rejection. However, she found acceptance at Catholic University in their theater programs and was eventually asked to join Arena Stage. In 1954, making her Off-Broadway debut as Juliette in Girardoux' Thieves' Carnival, which was later televised.

"That was one of the last times I'd play an ingÈnue!" smiles Miss Sternhagen. "I don't know why, but I was often cast in older roles. It was probably partly due to my voice, but I also had an understanding of older people, which stemmed from being around mostly older people in my childhood. They were funny and eccentric and I must have absorbed some of that."

She says that live TV, "when it was really live, was a great training ground. I miss those times. They were exciting. It was intense and crazy. It was live and you couldn't correct a mistake."

Miss Sternhagen said that she had wonderful parts in her 20s and 30s, but that it wasn't until she was in her 40s that she realized she'd made it to that plateau where she could make a living as an actress and do what she wanted to do. She says she never felt the urge to hone her skills as a director. "I've worked with wonderful directors and I don't have that kind of mind that has a concept of how a performance should be developed."

She received the 1973 Tony Award for her multiple characterizations in Neil Simon's Good Doctor. She followed with two of her favorite stage roles: Dora Strang in Equus (1974) and Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond (1979). In 1995, opposite Cherry Jones in The Heiress, Miss Sternhagen received her second Tony.

After acting almost non-stop through the years onstage and in film, it was TV that made Miss Sternhagen "a household face, if not exactly a household name" in recurring roles on three hit series that are indelibly printed in the minds of TV fans: steely, domineering Ester Clavin of Cheers; Millicent "Gamma" Carter on E.R.; and steely, domineering Bunny McDougal of Sex and the City.

Miss Sternhagen has been blessed to be in that one percentile of actors who've been able to effortlessly go from stage to film to TV. "All that work came about as a result of someone seeing me onstage in something or the other." So it wasn't just having a great agent? "Agents can be very helpful after you're established in negotiating better deals for you and also at the beginning of your career by helping to put you in places where you can be seen. I've had good agents, but, too often, I've seen where an agent can push you too high and then, if you don't get a certain role, your career flattens out."

She's appeared in 25 plays on Broadway alone, and numerous Off Broadway productions. It wasn't always easy. Married to Broadway actor Thomas Carlin, the couple had six children [among them Tony Carlin, now in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg]. "Juggling career and family was very difficult." Adding to that, her late husband had problems that led to alcoholism. "Thomas was quite handsome and started as a very promising juvenile," says Miss Sternhagen, "but as he got older, directors didn't know how to cast him. That added to his unhappiness and he drank more. They preyed on each other. It was sad and affected the family. Not becoming a star shouldn't bother people in our business so much. Just so you're working!

"Though I loved my husband very much and we were very close, there were times when I was so grateful to go off to work even though I had to leave the kids with a sitter and wonder what was going to happen when I left. I felt so guilty going off when I knew things were not exactly fun at home. But going off to a world of creativity and imagination, helped insulate me from a lot of turmoil."

Among her regrets as an actress is the fact she never got to do more Chekhov. "But I can't complain," Miss Sternhagen says. "I'm doing what I love. I simply love acting! It's you who's out there, but you are creating another world and other people. As long as even one person in your audience is reached by your gift, you've accomplished your purpose."

Asked to name her favorite role, Miss Sternhagen says, "There are so many. It's a long list. I always say, ëMy next role is my favorite!'"

[Frances Sternhagen is scheduled to perform Waiting for the Telegram in Talking Heads on June 2, 3, 4 (matinee), 7 (matinee), 25 (matinee), 26 and 27; and into July and August. For tickets and information, call 212-307-4100.]

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There's one huge problem with Thoroughly Modern Millie, the 2002 Tony and Drama Desk Award-winner for Best Musical: You have to wait an hour for Leslie Uggams' spectacular entrance. But what an entrance! The set parts and there she is in a jaw-dropping white fox coat. When Uggams, in the unlikely role of 20s flapper socialite/chanteuse Muzzy Van Hossmere, opens that coat, it's almost as if time stopped. In that sequin-studded, tight-fitting black, white and silver dress, she looks like she did 25 years ago. And that's from Row F.

Of African American/Native American background, in the musical Uggams has a familial association with two of the show's white characters. In the film, Muzzy was played by Uggams' friend, Carol Channing. "In the back of [co-writer] Dick [Scanlan]'s mind," she says, "he wanted Muzzy to be a full-of-life woman of color, like Josephine Baker or Bricktop. That's the way I portray her. I channel all the greats I admire."

Uggams has seemingly done it all: best-selling recording artist, ground-breaking TV star, Vegas headliner, concert tours, a star on daytime TV's One Life To Life, stage drama and musical theater. She's even been a cover girl - TV Guide and Newsweek. She can still deliver the goods with her phenomenal belt, capable of reaching a high D. And, boy, can this lady foxtrot and kick those still-gorgeous legs.

In Millie, Uggams has two showstoppers" - "Only in New York" and "Long As I'm Here with You." Unfortunately, these are her only songs. "I'm used to being in every scene, so this is quite different for me. I feel like I'm doing my club act right in the middle of a show!" Uggams explained she's always curious what's in the composers' minds when they write a song. "When I asked Dick Scanlan and Jeanine Tesori about ëOnly In New York,' they told me they were moved to write it following 9/11. It's certainly a love song to New York City. That's what I think about every time I do it. I can tell it really affects our audiences."

Having seen Millie on opening night, Uggams said she knew the musical was an audience-pleaser. She is surprised to discover how much of one it is. "I was signing autographs and two gentlemen told me, ëThis is our 21st time!' I know people who've seen it four, eight and ten times, but 21! And they said they were coming back again!' We really try to give audiences their money's worth. Millie is the perfect show for right now. There's so much reality in our lives -- terrorism, war, the economy -- that it's great to have a family show where people leave happier than when they arrived, where they have such a good time."

Uggams had been sought to play the take-charge Muzzy - originally played by Sheryl Lee Ralph [Dreamgirls] - but she had already committed to August Wilson's King Hedley II, starring Brian Stokes Mitchell. "That was raw and a different look for me," she claims. "Down and out, plain, no glamour at all! But my fans took the journey. However, no matter what drama I do, I'm proud to say they come along. But more than a few complained, ëI wish you could have sung at least one song.' I did have that one little moment of song and people got excited and thought I was going to belt one out." She received critical acclaim and Tony and Drama Desk nominations for Best Actress.

When was asked another time to join Millie, she was Off Broadway in the blues musical Thunder Knocking On the Door. "It didn't have a long life and here I am. It seems the third time's the charm!"

Uggams boasts she's New Yorker, born and raised in a four-room apartment in Washington Heights. Her father was an elevator operator and maintenance man; her mother, a waitress and later a chorus girl at the Cotton Club. She says they had "a modest but stable life where somehow my parents always made ends meet." Early on, Uggams was exposed to music. Her father was a member of the Hall Johnson Choir - "but," she points out, "in their pre-movie days."

As a tot, Uggams sang along to records, impressing family and their friends with a remarkably mature voice. At age six, Uggams made her "professional" debut, singing at St. James Presbyterian Church on West 141st Street. Appearances on local TV followed.

Her first Broadway show was Porgy and Bess. "I was enthralled by Leontyne Price, William Warfield, Cab Calloway and my aunt Eloise Uggams in the ensemble and that incredible Gershwin music. That's when the bug bit!" After third grade, Uggams attended Professional Children's School, where she became friends with Mary Martin's daughter Helen "and got to see tons of Broadway shows: Peter Pan, The Sound of Music, The King and I."

[In 1956, she couldn't get enough of Sammy Davis Jr. in Mr. Wonderful. "I saw it six times," she gushes. "He was sensational! That was the first time I saw Chita Rivera and I said, ëWow! That gal's something!"]

Tap lessons resulted in appearances on NBC's Milton Berle shows. At 10, Uggams had a best-selling record, "Missus Santa Claus" and was soon opening for such greats as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington. In 1951, she made her acting debut on TV's landmark Beulah. "I played Ethel Waters' neice and the producers wanted my hair in ëpickaninny' braids," Uggams remembered. "Miss Waters said absolutely not!"

She was 14 when, as a contestant on Name That Tune, she won $25,000. She laughs, "The excitement in the neighborhood was like in the movies when everyone opens their windows and shout the news!"

In 1960, Uggams was showcased off screen in the film adaptation of Inherit the Wind singing "That Old Time Religion." The next year, while studying at Julliard, she got the break that made her a household name. Bandleader Mitch Miller cast her as the only female and black on his weekly Sing Along with Mitch. When stations in the South complained and refused to air the show, Miller held his ground. "Mitch was told either I go or the show goes," reports Uggams. "He said, 'She stays or there's no show.' He loved that show, and had been trying to sell it for years, so to do that was heroic."

Uggams' infectious smile and vocal talent made her America's sweetheart. Sammy Davis, Jr. said in an interview: "Everybody identifies with Leslie. She's bridged a very important space. The first great step has happened with her."

TV stardom came at a price. "Being an African American performer on TV," she says, "was a great honor but also a heavy load. I wanted people to have respect for black people, but I became the role model. A lot was expected of me." Evidently, she carried herself well because in 1963, "when I was finally able to vote!, I was invited by President Kennedy to sing at the White House!" [She later did a command performance for President George Bush]. In the late 60s, Uggams starred in her own variety series. Unfortunately, it was slotted opposite Bonanza and lasted only a season.

Thanks to her friendship with Liza Minnelli, Uggams, at 20, made her film debut under the direction of Vincent Minnelli in 1962's Two Weeks In Another Town. It was a cameo as a nightclub singer but she got to meet Kirk Douglas, Cyd Charisse and George Hamilton.

Leslie Uggams has had her share of milestones. Nothing can top her Tony-winning Broadway debut in the short-lived 1967 musical Hallelujah, Baby! , a cavalcade of African-Americana from the turn of the 20th Century to the late 60s with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden and book by Arthur Laurents. "I was 23 and on Broadway in a show written by legends [which was originally to star Lena Horne]. I couldn't believe it." Then there was playing Kizzy in one of TV's biggest hits, 1976's TV mini-series Roots. "That was extraordinary. Getting to know Alex Haley was thrilling." The role won her an Emmy nomination for Best Leading Actress. Three years later, she co-starred in Backstairs at the White House, which scored huge ratings.

Other career highlights: Ervin Drake's short-lived, much under appreciated Her First Roman (1968) as Cleopatra opposite Richard Kiley's Caesar; Jerry's Girls (1985) with Dorothy Loudon and Chita Rivera; Reno Sweeney, opposite Rex Smith, in the national tour and later at Lincoln Center in Anything Goes (1987-1989). In addition to regional stage work Stringbean (1991), a play with music based on the life of Ethel Waters; The Old Settler and Blue, she appears along with 99 other Broadway names in the 2003 documentary, Broadway: The Golden Age by the Legends Who Were There.

It's been a good, exciting life, says Uggams. "I wasn't denied anything by being in show business. I feel just the opposite. I look at what it's given me. One thing it did was save me from being a thug. I lived in a tough neighborhood!" Looking at the gigantic ring set with diamonds galore (a combination of her wedding band and engagement ring designed by her husband), the writer quips, "I bet you didn't wear that ring!" She replies, "Absolutely not, but back then, I had no idea I'd ever be in such a wonderful place to have a ring such as this."

In 1965, in a lavish, almost royal wedding, Uggams married Australian-born actor Grahame Pratt, whom she met while in Australia while performing in a club with headliner Sammy Davis Jr. It was love at first sight; however, she was only there a week. Pratt shortly followed and a whirlwind courtship began. Now he's her manager. They have two adopted children, both following in Mom's footsteps. Outside show business, Uggams stays busy as a founding member of the BRAVO Chapter/City of Hope, dedicated to the study, treatment and eradication of blood-related diseases and as a board member of the Alvin Alley Dance Theatre and TADA, a children's musical theatre.

On her list of career achievements, there's definitely a shortage of film roles. "I would love to have done more movies." She breaks up laughing, "The ones I did weren't memorable. Not at all!" She may be referring specifically to 1978's Heartbreak Motel, starring Shelley Winters, in which she portrayed a blues singer kidnapped by a bizarre crew of backwoods characters.

"Film is good," Uggams states, "but it's an editor's and director's medium. You think you're in the film; but when you see it, you go ëWhat happened? I was in that scene!' I'm thrilled to be back doing what I love: live theater. I love going out to a different audience every show that you have to win over. It's deliver or else. You're up there with no place to go. You're challenged every time that curtain goes up. When the light hits me, the adrenaline is pumping like the biggest Texas oil well. But, when you have to do it eight times a week for months, it's not a job for sissies!"

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Monday, May 19, Musicals Tonight! salutes the career of veteran actor George S. Irivng on the Main Stage at the YMHA, 344 East 14th Street, between First and Second Avenues. Scheduled to appear are Dody Goodman, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Dina Merrill, Jana Robbins, Steve Ross, K.T. Sullivan and many more. "I'm flattered beyond words that these wonderful stars are doing this," states Irving. "But, outside of the entertainment, don't expect any surprises or scandals. My life's an open book. I'm still waiting!" Tickets are $100. To RSVP, call 212-362-5620.

George S. Irving, the Tony Award-winning scene-stealer, sits in his dressing room at the Papermill Playhouse where he's been appearing as King Pellinore and Merlyn in Camelot, and reflects on his 50 plus years as an actor. "When I came to New York an energetic 19 from Springfield, Massachusetts," says Irving, "Broadway had legendary glamour. The biggest change in the business is that the great composers are gone - Berlin, Rodgers and Hart and Hammerstein, the Gerhswins, Porter, Loesser. Every year one or the other had a new show. They were giants!"

Things have changed for actors as well. "If you showed directors anything at all in the way of professionalism, you could count on working season after season. It's harder today, even getting started. There's not an abundance of work. Nothing is easy anymore, even for the giants currently writing and acting. There were more theaters and shows had moderate, but profitable runs. It wasn't the hit or miss situation we have now."

Irving, 80, has been in his share of milestone productions: Lady in the Dark (1941), starring Gertrude Lawrence; Oklahoma! (1943); and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1951), headlined by Carol Channing.

Lady in the Dark by Moss Hart with music and lyrics by Kurt Weill and Ira Gerswhin, "was the most wonderful think ever invented," says Irving. "I still think that. Hart, who filled more than his share of analysts' couches, wrote an unusual story about a glamour magazine ditor, who fears and anxieties drive her into psychoanalysis. With its three dream sequences, it was like watching three condensed shows. It was a triumph.

"Irene Sharaff, who found much more fame in films, did the costumes," he continues. "Fashion designer Hattie Carnegie was brought in to do Gertrude's gowns. No expense was spared and it was all quite stunning. The choreography was by the brilliant Albertina Rasch. Moss was a wonderful director. "And what a cast," he still beams with excitement. "Gertrude was the rage. There was wonderful Danny Kaye as this foppish photographer, Victor Mature, Macdonald Carey and Natalie Schaefer, later of Gilligan's Island fame."

Being onstage with Lawrence was an education. "She was in her prime. Watching her was a revelation. She played with great subtlety and skill. Gertie was only a singer of sorts. Her voice was fine for what she had to do, but it didn't have a lot of range. She'd hit a note and it would sort of fade. She was first and foremost an actress. There was no fluff, nothing added. Every gesture meant something. She had this amazing ability to winnow out the crap. She wasn't a company gal, but was very private. We tiptoed around her. And, oh, did she have concentration. She was intense, and you didn't want to cross her."

Lady had a new bit of technology: a turntable. While one scene played, a drop came down right in the middle. While Lawrence performed in front, the next scene was being set up. "It wobbled like a ship in a storm," remembers Irving, "and that drove Gertrude crazy! Once, she was so thrown, she yelled, ëYou're destroying my concentration!' From then on, we had the quietest stagehands and actors! We walked on tiptoes!"

Irving said that although Lawrence was the epitome of a star: chic and well-turned out. "She displayed a hard-as-nails exterior, but was quite vulnerable inside. "The only time I saw her really sad was when we did a show on Mother's Day and she was quite upset that her daughter hadn't called."

When Away We Go, Oklahoma!'s original title, opened in New Haven, Irving was in the chorus. "We weren't a success," he recalls, "but no one panicked, nor was there a lot of rewriting. Dick and Oscar had a wait and see attitude. When the new title was suggested, they were reluctant to use it. In Boston, we got the new title and the title song. I still vividly see us sitting on the lobby staircase of the Colonial Theatre learning Robert Russell Bennett's arrangements. The book was strong and there was Agnes DeMille's breathtaking ballet."

No matter, audiences weren't won over. "The show was too radical," says Irving, "but Dick and Oscar knew they were on to something and didn't let anything faze them. They had chemistry. I never saw composers get along so beautifully. It was like they were an extension of each other. I was amazed at how fast they wrote."

Irving says Hammerstein was the most even-tempered man he ever met. "I arrived early for rehearsals at the Boston Shubert. Oscar was at the piano in the grand lounge, then got up and began pacing. He looked up, saw me and said, ëGeorge, excuse me, but I'm trying to get a line. Do you mind?' As I went to leave, everyone else arrived and Oscar realized this was where we were rehearsing. He was very apologetic. ëWill you forgive me,' he asked?"

Does anyone remember Alfred Drake? [Oklahoma!'s original Curley, later Kiss Me, Kate, Kismet] wonders Irving. "He was one of our great stars. He had style and brains. We learned from him. In fact, during the run, he and Howard DaSilva [Judd] held acting classes. When the style of the Broadway musical changed, and more than a song-and-dance leading man was required, Alfred was ready."

Irving met his late wife of 52 years, the prima ballerina Maria Karnilova, when they were in Call Me Mister. "She sort of ignored me for a year," he recalls. "One day I bumped into her as we were exiting the stage door. I got my nerve up and asked her to have dinner with me. I was stunned when she said yes. A great friendship developed. Then love. It took me two years to propose! We had a good life! Maria introduced me to the world of dance and I'm a sucker for ballet."

[Miss Karnilova worked with Jerome Robbins, who choreographed numerous ballets for her. She transitioned from dance roles to a show-stopping turn as Tessie Tura in 1959 in Gypsy, which led to Fiddler On the Roof and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress [though she had the female lead]; and a Tony nomination for Best Actress for her Madame Hortense in 1968's Zorba.]

He said he kept good company during Mister's three-year run on Broadway and tour. "Betty Garrett starred and in our cast was Carl Reiner, William Warfield and Bob Fosse. From the moment I laid eyes on Bob, I knew he was destined for great things. The way that man moved!"

Irving's experience, as well as his stature - he's 6'2" and weighs 200 pounds - helped him build a steady career - 32 shows on Broadway alone including: Two's Company ('51), starring Bette Davis; Rodgers and Hammerstein's Me and Juliet ('53), featuring Shirley MacLaine in the ensemble; Shinbone Alley ('57) starring Eartha Kitt; Irma La Duce ('60), with Elliott Gould in the ensemble; Bravo Giovanni ('62), starring Cesare Siepi and featuring Miss Karnilova and a very young Michele Lee; Tovarich ('63); George Abbott's short-lived Anya ('65), starring Lillian Gish and Constance Towers; with Robert Goulet and David Wayne in The Happy Time ('68); Irene ('73), headlining Debbie Reynolds, for which Irving won the Tony for Best Featured Actor; I Remember Mama ('79), playing opposite Liv Ullmann in her short-lived musical debut; On Your Toes ('83 revival); and as Sir John Tremayne in Me and My Girl ('86) opposite Robert Lindsay and later Jim Dale, for which he was Tony-nominated as Best Featured Actor.

In a 50-year career there must be some regrets. "Yes," he sadly smiles. "Many. My biggest is that I didnët order my life properly. I wasn't smart enough about choosing agents. That made a big difference in my career. I was always determined to learn and the best way to do that is to do everything. I played all kinds of roles in summer stock. As I look back, I can honestly say I've truly been blessed."

Things didn't always go smoothly. "I can think of two well-known men in musical theater, who are still with us, who were a pain in the ass!" Gentleman that he is, Irving wouldn't name names, but he had other recollections of actors he worked with:

GEORGE ABBOTT - "He wasn't a man of great originality, but he was an amazing craftsman when it came to knowing how to stage a scene. He knew when to make it funny. He was a terrific play doctor and a fiend for clarity! He demanded perfect diction from all the actors. He'd sit out front and yell, ëI don't hear ya!' That was because he didn't hear well! He had a wonderful trait as a director. If things didn't go right, he rarely blamed the actor. He'd say, ëI haven't got that quite right, have I? Let's try that again.'"

CAROL CHANNING - "An original! She was a youngster in1950, but savvy and intelligent. I can still see her standing in the wings, her mouth wide open, applying her lipstick." Irving opens wide, grabs a grease pencil and makes wild, wide circles around his lips. "Carol was a kook, but adorable. You could tell, she lived to be out onstage and she was an extraordinary performer. And she exuded magic. She had a nice pedigree, being related to the Channings of Boston. Thankfully, she was a strong cookie. It had to be tough on her, being so young. Suddenly, she was the toast of Broadway. She managed, and never once let an audience down.

BETTE DAVIS - "Two's Company was a troubled production to begin with. To make matters worse, she and Jerry Robbins didn't get along. They clashed if they merely looked at each other. They were guarded with each other. You had two taskmasters, each afraid of the other. He'd give her some movement and if she didn't get it right away, he'd say, ëYou're not a dancer. How can I stage a number when you can't do it?' She'd flare, ëWhat do you mean, I can't do it?' She was high strung and would storm off to her dressing room and scream the place down. Often, we didn't know if we were coming or going; but standing in the corridors and listening to the commotion wasn't conducive to morale but it was fascinating. Bette didn't find it easy doing a sustained stage performance, after all her years in film - especially one with singing and dancing. Maria [Irving's wife] was in the show. We had a long try-out on the road, so we brought along the kids, who played with her daughter. When I got to know her on a personal basis, I adored her. It was a poor man, indeed, who ever thought he could get something over on her."

JIM DALE - "When he came into Me and My Girl, he elected not to imitate Robert Lindsay. Jim was so stylish and smart that he created a new character that was perfect. He's a remarkably talented man and a marvelous actor I greatly admire. We know him mostly for his musical work, but he's a fine dramatic actor, as his recent work in the revival of Comedians proved."

KITTY CARLISLE HART [who later joined the cast of On Your Toes] - "Oh, my. A great beauty, a great talent, a great heart, great intelligence and absolutely charming. Working with Dina Merrill [who preceeded her], Natalia Makarova and all those wonderful dancers was heaven. It was one of George [Abbott]'s last shows. He was 96, almost deaf, but he still had it."

EARTHA KITT - "An intense young woman and very self-assured. A quick learner. She performed with wonderful precision."

VIVIEN LEIGH - "A marvelous actress and beauty. A hard worker, and quite the prankster. In our Tovarich curtain call, we'd come out and then Vivien and Jean-Pierre Aumont would regally come out and we'd all bow. Once, I looked down and there was this note attached to my shoes: Can you come to dinner tonight, darling? If you can read this, you're bowing too low. Unfortunately, the show came at a very difficult time for Vivien. She had been plagued for years with illness. She had tuberculosis and was not physically strong. Certainly not strong enough to carry an entire show. Well into the run, she informed the producers she needed time off. They pleaded with her, saying business was just building. She stayed, and ultimately had a breakdown and had to leave."

DEBBIE REYNOLDS - "She was kind and easy to work with. What I admired most about Debbie was that she'd try anything. The boys throwing her around, whatever, nothing fazed her. She was a good dancer and had a strong body. She loved doing the physical comedy. I was amazed at her knowledge of the business. She confided one day that when she was under contract to M-G-M and wasn't working on a picture, she'd come to the studio and take dance classes, hang around the hair room to learn how to do hair and how to dress the wigs. That's how she learned the craft."

Is there an actor he regrets not having the opportunity to work with? "I've always felt that James Earl Jones is, if not the best, the first among equals. And Olivier. James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope and Olivier's The Entertainer were the highlights of my theatergoing life."

Irving was quick to sum up what's made him employable all these years, "I'm good at clarity onstage. I've always considered acting barely an art. It's a craft. It's like storytelling. You have the kids sitting there with their mouths open and you know the story and they don't. It's your job to tell it to them so they don't fidget."

If he taught acting classes, the first lesson he would be: How To Keep the Audience Awake. "Like every actor, I've seen people, even in the front row, asleep. But who can blame them? They get up at six, go to work, have a big lunch and, when they get off, have dinner, maybe with a couple of drinks. By the time they get seated, they're tired. I make sure the audience hears and understands every word I say. If they're not sure what's happening or what's being said, they'll drop off. And once you lose them, it's impossible to get them back."

When Jim Dale was asked what makes Irving the ultimate pro, he said, "There's nothing worse than being onstage with someone who hasn't had the experience to cope with things that inevitably happen in a big show [such as Me and My Girl]. We need to have our you-know-whats covered. You want to be surrounded by people who know what they're doing. George is one of those. He's knows very well, indeed, what he's doing and what you're doing! I was always in great admiration of him. Nothing could throw him. If I blew a line, he prompted me. He knew the entire show! Bundled inside George is the theater professional's professional. He knows all you need to know and you learn so much just being around him."

It's obvious that as much as the stage loves Irving, Irving loves the stage. "There's something about getting out there that's therapeutic. You come in feeling poorly and you walk onstage and suddenly you're transported, you're lifted off the ground. Aside from the artistic endeavor, it's like shock treatment. You transform yourself. It's all about process: you train, you learn, you do it. When it comes time for your cue, no matter how you're feeling, you grab yourself by the scruff of your neck and throw yourself on!"

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Who says actors don't say nice things about producers? A case in point would be Sally Mayes, a 2003 Drama Desk Award nominee as Featured Actress in a Musical, singing the praises of lead producer Chase Mishkin and associate producers Barbara and Peter Fodor [they are not the travel writers] for their efforts to keep the much-lambasted musical Urban Cowboy open against any odds of ever turning a profit.

"Chase has the biggest heart on Broadway," said Mayes on Monday morning, when she had an intuition that the final closing notice for the show would be up when the cast appeared for work on Tuesday. She didn't have to wait that long. It was announced on Monday, not long after the show received only two Tony nominations [Melinda Roy for choreography and Tony winner Jason Robert Brown, Clint Black, Jeff Blumenkrantz and others for Original Score].

"What Chase did in rescinding our first closing notice [following the show's March 27th opening night] and keeping us employed," states Mayes, "was so heroic and wonderful. I just can't say enough good things about her and our producing team."

The experience has been "like riding that mechanical bull at top speed. We knew it had to end. How much money can you throw into a bottomless pit? But we did have hope. The size of our audiences were getting better, and they have been incredibly supportive. What kept our spirits high was the faith of the producers and our fabulous cast. They are amazing and full of life, spirit and heart."

Mayes was among the impressive things in Cowboy and many thought that, in addition to her Drama Desk nomination, she might receive a Tony nomination in the Featured Actress category for her hilarious turn as hip 40-something Aunt Corene, with her show-stopping number "All Because of You." However, the trio of Nine nominees (Jane Krakowski, Mary Stuart Masterson, Chita Rivera) and the nods given Gypsy's Tammy Blanchard and Movin' Out's Ashley Tuttle made that a mute point.

She had great fun developing Corene. "There's nothing better than hearing an audience laugh, but if you go too far, it's parody. I really tried to strike a balance and since they respond to her the way they have, I guess Corene is just right: a little bit frustrated, a little bit hip, a little bit sassy."

Phillip Oesterman, who began developing the project with Aaron Latham [writer of the Esquire magazine article and subsequent Paramount movie], died last year at the end of July. Oesterman was responsible for bringing Tommy Tune to New York from Texas and often collaborated with him [associate director, The Will Rogers Follies; co-librettist, Easter Parade; My One and Only, Grand Hotel].

Oesterman saw Mayes in staged readings of a developing musical about the legendary country and pop singer Patsy Cline*. "Phil came up afterward and said, ëYou're the real deal, aren't you?' I knew what he meant and replied, ëYeah, I guess I am.'"

No guessing required. She is. Mayes grew up "in a Texas hell hole," but instead of being weaned on country and western, her father, a jazz guitarist, "weaned me on Tony, Frank, Ella and Eydie. Grandma made me fluffy dresses and Daddy put me on a box in front of a mike. I started performing early and have been doing it my whole life" - some four decades - "playing joints, fronting a rock band, appearing in high school and college musicals and clubs."

Oesterman's death had a devastating affect on Cowboy but Mishkin was determined to continue. Mayes didn't participate in the December 2001 workshop, with Sandy Duncan as Corene. She joined the show following her tour in Dirty Blonde. When the musical opened in Miami last November, "We were really well-received. There was cheering and screaming." From audiences. The critics sang a different song. A new director [Lonny Price] was brought in and everything completely changed."

Things sailed along, not always smoothly. The show got to New York and, says Mayes, "after the first preview, they realized it would have to be gutted. We worked from 11:30 to 6 P.M. everyday, and then did the show. We'd have notes until 11:30, so we were putting in 12 hour plus days. I thought I was going to die! It was rough."

She feels one reason Cowboy didn't get a good reception on Broadway was because it was never frozen. "There were massive changes everyday and then we had to go out and try to do a show. If you came back to see it now, it's infinitely better than it was when we opened because everyone has settled in. The problems with the show are still problems, but the actors are solid. The show is a crowd-pleaser, like Saturday Night Fever and Grease. It's not going to please anyone with an intellectual bent, but it's fun. It's a sweet, simple love story. The producers really tried to give us a run. They're heroes in my book. It's been an interesting ride."

Mayes' goal was always theater, "but, back home, no one would cast me, so I headed to New York." She made a splashy Broadway debut in Cy Coleman's short-lived 1989 musical Welcome to the Club, playing gutsy Georgia country singer Winona Shook in the brassy style of Patsy Cline. She was around longer in Roundabout's She Loves Me revival, in which her aggressive portrayal of Ilona Ritter garnered her a 1994 Tony Featured Actress nomination. More recently she co-starred Off Broadway in Pete ën' Keely, a send-up of 60s TV variety shows, for which she received a 2001 Drama Desk Award nomination.

Off Broadway she's been seen to good advantage in the revue Closer than Ever; Das Barbecu, a country musical somewhat based on Wagner's Ring cycle; co-starred in a tribute revue to the Boswell Sisters. For her club and recording work [Boys and Girls Like You and Me (mostly songs cut from shows, such as the title track, which was dropped from Oklahoma!), The Story Hour, Dorothy Fields Songbook and Comden and Green Songbook], Mayes has 12 MAC Award nominations and two Bistro Awards.

There's been one very pleasant aspect to the last few hectic weeks, which come to an end on Sunday when Urban Cowboy unplugs the mechanical bull. Mayes' husband Bob Renino plays bass on the same block in The Producers pit, so the couple have had the opportunity to have dinner and come home together. "But, because of all that was going on," laughs Mayes, "I don't know if I was the best dinner companion or the best person to sit next to on the train!"

[ * PatsyÖHonky Tonk Angel by Ellis Nassour ]

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RCA will release Ultimate Broadway 2, a compilation CD of 20 tracks mined from their original cast albums on May 20. But the big news is that two weeks later RCA debuts Broadway Deluxe Collectors Editions. The first to roll out of the vaults are three top 60s shows: Fiddler On the Roof, Hello, Dolly and Oliver!, among theater's most honored and enduring musicals and among the label's Grammy-winning and best-selling cast albums.

Ultimate Broadway 2 features 20 tracks, featuring Barbara Cook singing "Losing My Mind" from Follies as featured in her Lincoln Center concert Mostly Sondheim, Sutton Foster from Thoroughly Modern Millie and brother Hunter Foster from Urinetown, Audra McDonald from Ragtime, Brian Stokes Mitchell from the current Man of La Mancha revival, Bebe Neuwirth and Ann Reining from Chicago, Natasha Richardson from Cabaret, Colm Wilkinson from Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera (which he premiered in Canada), Patrick Wilson on tracks from Oklahoma! and The Full Monty -- even Dick Cavett doing "Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Show.

Other highlights are the "Springtime for Hitler" production number featured in the film The Producers, and the overture from the London production of Gypsy, later on Broadway starring Angela Lansbury. The disc finale is Jerry Orbach and company, from 1980s 42nd Street, singing "Lullaby of Broadway."

Ultimate Broadway was released in May, 1998 on RCA's sister label Arista and is still available.

RCA's Broadway Deluxe packages hit stores June 3rd with digitally remastered CDs of two of Broadway's long-run champs: the Tony Award-winning musicals Fiddler, which opened in 1964 [and will be revived this September starring Alfred Molina], and Dolly, which opened earlier in 1964. And 1963's Tony-nominated Best Musical Oliver! [which tours later this year under the auspices of Cameron Mackintosh in a new staging by Sam Mendes, presented last year in London starring Jonathan Pryce, then Jim Dale and Robert Lindsay. Geoffrey Rush is being sought to play Fagin.]. These "collectors editions" contain numerous bonus tracks and lavish souvenir books with recently discovered recording session photos and anecdotes and insights from artists involved in the creation of the musicals.

Fiddler (3,242 performances) won nine Tonys, has music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, was produced by Harold Prince and directed/choreographed by Jerome Robbins. Zero Mostel became the toast of Broadway as Tevye. Co-starring were Maria Karnilova as Golde and Bea Arthur as Yente, the matchmaker. Among the bonus tracks is Harnick from a 1971 concert album, performing two songs cut from the show. Trivia: future opera diva Julia Migenes debuted as Tevye's daughter Hodel, and Bette Midler later briefly played Rivka.

Dolly (2,844 performances) won 10 Tonys [a record until The Producers] is by Jerry Herman, was produced by David Merrick and directed/choregraphed by Gower Champion. It starred Carol Channing in her career-defining role, David Burns, Charles Nelson Reilly, Jerry Dodge and Eileen Brennan. It set a sales record for original cast albums, selling more than 80,000 copies in its release week. Bonus tracks include six songs performed by three other notable Dollys, Ethel Merman, Pearl Bailey and Mary Martin [London production] with Merman [for whom Dolly was written] singing "Love, Look in My Window" and "World Take Me Back," added to the show during her run. Channing also recalls how the title song evolved and some of her experiences playing Dolly more than 5,000 times over 30 years.

Oliver, considering its popularity amazingly had only 774 performances, is by Lionel Bart. It was co-produced by Merrick and directed by Peter Coe. Clive Revill and Georgia Brown starred with Davy Jones (of Monkees fame) as the Artful Dodger) and Barry Humphries, in his pre-Dame Edna days, as Mr. Sowerberry. It won Tonys for score, scenic design and musical direction. Bonus tracks include a live performance track from Patti LuPone, who starred in the 1986 revival and songs from the London cast recording, including Humphries performing "That's Your Funeral."

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Chita's hot! When many stars her age are sitting by the phone waiting for that call from their agent, Chita Rivera is in top form on Broadway dancing an erotic tango with Antonio Banderas in the hit Roundabout Theatre Company revival of Nine. And, now hear this, she's about to embark on a daring new musical by Kander and Ebb, The Visit, set to open in January at New York's Public Theatre.

The Tony and Drama Desk Award winning Rivera has been nominated for a 2003 Drama Desk Award as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Nine. And a Tony Award nomination will surely be in her future.

In addition, on Sunday, May 18, Rivera will host the 48th Annual Drama Desk Awards, from 9 - 11 P.M., at Lincoln Center's LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts. "This will be a first for me," says Rivera, "and it's going to be fun and a great evening."

[To order tickets, at $125 each, visit TheaterMania.com]

Rivera revealed that being in the revival of Nine by Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit -- based on Fellini's classic film 8 Ω -- was not at the top of her To Do list. "I was in L.A. at the Mark Taper Forum doing Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba last summer when I got the call from my agent. I said I wasn't interested in doing a revival. I don't find them challenging. Then I started hearing these tidbits about what it was going to be, who was going to be in it and who'd direct and, when they called back, I wasn't so negative. I had heard a lot about [Tony Award-winning] director David Leveaux [who's directed revivals of Betrayal, The Real Thing, Electra, Anna Christie and 1984's The Moon For the Misbegotten]. When I heard Antonio was doing it, I thought, 'What an interesting project.'"

Rivera is a long-time Banderas fan "and I knew he had studied and done theater in his native Spain. I had the time and felt it wouldn't hurt to meet with David. It was a wonderful meeting and I was totally sold."

In her amazing 48 years on Broadway, which she officially celebrates on May 26th, Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero, now Chita Rivera, has never been a dreamer.

"I've been so fortunate throughout," she says, "to have great leading men - Dick Van Dyke, Brent Carver and Anthony Crivello, Donald O'Connor, John McMartin, and to work with such giants as Larry Kert [West Side Story], Jerry Orbach [Chicago], Jerry Herman [Jerry's Girls], Michael Bennett [ensemble, Bajour] and Rob Marshall. So I didn't go into Nine all stary-eyed, looking at Antonio as this Hollywood star or a great sex symbol. What I always liked most about him onscreen was his intensity. I also thought back to the original and how much I loved Raul [Julia] as Guido. It's very Mediterranean, so it seemed like a perfect marriage. The more I talked with David, the more fascinated I became, especially when I began to see it through David's eyes. Over and over, he said he wanted it to be Fellini-like and that really worked for me."

Rivera plays Italian film producer Lillian La Fleur and has two show-stopping moments: the production number "Follies Bergeres" and an intimate tango danced with Banderas.

That tango is very hot, very sexy, very Chita, she is told. "It's very Antonio, too, believe me! The only thing that could make this experience any better," says Rivera, "is if we were doing it in Rome in the Trevi fountain! Well, come to think of it, we do it in our own Trevi fountain!"

Rivera didn't meet Banderas and her female co-stars [who include Laura Benanti, Jane Krakowski, Mary Stuart Masterson and Mary Beth Peil] until the first day of rehearsal photo call. "Antonio is really quite something," states Rivera. "He's sweet, approachable and very charming. He doesn't carry that Hollywood star attitude - not even in his sleep. He's genuine through and through. He sincerely wants to be accepted as a stage actor on Broadway. To prove that, he worked on this a very long time. And no one among us worked harder than Antonio."

Having been around so long, says Rivera, "It is really fabulous to see someone respect that space - to really love theater. And onstage, not only is he generous but he's also constantly creating. He has respect for the director, the choreographer, the scenic designer. What surprised me is his understanding of everything. Frankly, if you want my opinion, he's born for the stage."

In show business, Rivera says, "it's so seldom that the good guy wins."

Rivera also reports total harmony on stage and off. "All of us get along famously!" What? No petty rivalries, no little spats or fit-for-the-tabloids catfights? "No, no, no! We can't have that. We're professionals. We have no time for that nonsense."

Rivera can't hide her delight and anticipation about the New York production of The Visit, but when it was in the midst of intense rehearsals for its premiere at Chicago's Goodman almost two years ago, tragedy struck and really affected Rivera.

On September 11th, 2001, as the terrorist events unfolded in New York, word of the disaster drifted into the hall. "We couldn't believe what we heard. The horrible thing was that I was so far from my family. Lisa (Mordente), my daughter [from her marriage to Tony Mordente, Action in the film adaptation of West Side Story], is living in California, but my brothers, sister and friends were in New York. The enormity of the catastrophe was mind boggling, but being with our wonderful director Frank Galati [Ragtime] and [choreographer] Ann Reining, working on a piece we were so proud of and committed to was a gift. In such a helpless situation, it didn't take my mind off the tragedy, but it helped occupy it."

But, that night, with rehearsals over and without the warm support of Galati, Reinking and the company, a deep depression hit Rivera in her hotel suite. "I thought, 'What the heck am I doing!' Compared to what happened, everything else seems trite. Show business! Anything! What did it mean?"

Rivera notes she's always felt like a woman of the world, fascinated and curious about different cultures. "On TV," she relates laughing, "I watch shows in languages I can't understand - Japanese, Indian, Chinese. Then, as I was watching heavens-know-what, a note was slipped under my door. It was as if someone knew what was going through my mind. It read, 'What you're doing - being in the theater, entertaining us - is so vital, particularly at times when the heart is so sad and people need to get away from the horrors of reality."

She reports that she sobbed for another hour, then told herself, "Okay, I've got to keep going!" She did, to critical acclaim. And she's been a powerful force in helping to move it forward to New York - along with producer Barry Brown.

The musical adaptation by Kander, Ebb with a book by Terrence McNally - based on the 1958 play by Friedrich Durrenmatt, was created for Angela Lansbury's return to legit after her long-run, top-rated CBS series Murder, She Wrote. She withdrew after a 2000 reading because of her husband's illness.

Rivera bravely stepped to the plate. "I had no fear or trepidation going in. I adore Angela. She would have been wonderful, but a friend of mine kept telling me, `Chita, this is going to be your part.'" She was struck by the intimacy of the show and the rapt attention audiences paid. "I'm happiest being in something that has the audience leaving the theatre saying, 'I need a drink. I need to talk about this.' And this is definitely one of those shows!

"And, she continues, "it isn't typical musical comedy fare. Not by a long shot. It's about justice and love. The score is haunting and reinforces the drama. It has a European style. There are parallels to Spider Woman. There's dancing, but not huge production numbers. I was delighted to work with Ann for the first time. We've known each other for years, so it was about time! She's did a brilliant job."

Rivera says there are waltzes and tangos - "and the deliciously charming" "Peg Leg Tango." In the musical, "through stage magic and that thing called acting," she only has one leg. She howls, "And at one point, I even take it off. The leg!"

As far as any fear about the darkness of the piece, Rivera says, "Been there, done that with John and Fred and came out quite well - Chicago, The Rink, The Kiss of the Spider Woman. They're not fools, and wouldn't have asked me if they didn't feel I could do it. They're like family, my brothers. If they asked me to be on the corner of the darkest street at four in the morning, I wouldn't blink. I'd be there. Then, to work with Terrence and Frank, well that was just the topping on the dessert."

Rivera has been handsomely rewarded for her work in Kander and Ebb musicals, taking home Best Actress Tony Awards for The Rink and Spider Woman.

Since graduating from gypsy roles into a spectacular featured spot in West Side Story (1957), then starring roles in Bye Bye, Birdie (1960) to the original Chicago (1975) and, her 1993 Tony-winning Broadway outing in Spider Woman, Rivera has been synonymous with Broadway. And now is considered a theatrical icon.

She calls herself "a lucky gal" for having had the opportunity to work with Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse (the film of Sweet Charity), Hal Prince and Arthur Laurents. She also has high praise for Galati. "But everyday, I'm still learning!" she says. "I'm, first and foremost, a dancer who's grown into many other things with the help of the geniuses I've worked with."

She laughs, adding, "Dancers are obedient. We do what we're told -- generally without opening our mouths. But, working with these guys, I've always been able, been encouraged, to say what I feel. That's the kind of professionals they are."

As a dancer, Rivera says she's always believed that "in every movement you make there is a dance. When you walk onstage, when you move about the scenery, you can make it all appear as dancing. It can all flow. And, when it's not so obvious, that's when you have the real magic."

In many ways, the fact that Rivera is working and dancing after her horrendous injuries in an automobile accident, is a miracle.

"Every single day," she says, "I pinch myself and say thank you. There's a lot of hard work involved, but I don't understand it if it isn't hard work. Every once in a while, I think, 'You could be doing something much easier!' But would I be happy? No! My philosophy is: If it works, let's do it. People say, 'Aren't you sorry you didn't do the movie of this, or the movie of that?' No! Because this is the path that's been chosen for me; and I'm going to stay on it as long as I can and as long I should."

Rivera says her life in theater has been "a wonderful and rewarding adventure. God truly blessed me! With each job, I feel as if I'm being pushed into a new area with these great playwrights and creative teams who trust me and want to direct me and take me further and further down this path of theatrical adventure."

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Tovah Feldshuh has made a career playing heroic women. She's portrayed Tallulah Bankhead, Sarah Bernhardt, Stella Adler, Sophie Tucker, Katherine Hepburn, Diana Vreeland, Miss Jean Brodie, three queens of Henry VIII, (in a TV mini-series) a Czech freedom fighter, (in an Off Broadway play) nine Jews who age from birth to death, a woman masquerading as a man, and (in a Broadway musical) a Brazilian bombshell fielding two husbands. Last year, Feldshuh won acclaim onscreen playing the very hip Jewish mother in Kissing Jessica Stein. Now, among those and 80-something other roles, she's tackling the many facets of Russian-born, American-bred Israeli prime minister Golda Meir.

The play is Golda's Balcony by William Gibson of Miracle Worker and Two for the Seesaw fame, at Soho's Manhattan Ensemble Theater (M.E.T.), where's it's become the group's second consecutive hit of the season - following Hank Williams: Lost Highway. Ticket demand has resulted in a second extension, through June 1, and talk of a move to Broadway.

David Fishelson, M.E.T.'s artistic director, approached Feldshuh late last year to play Meir in a new adaptation of Gibson's 1977 Broadway play Golda, directed by Arthur Penn, which had a three-month run starring Anne Bancroft and featuring a cast of 24.

The playwright had reworked his play as a monologue last summer for actress Annette Miller, who performed it at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox and Boston. Feldshuh, who was doing her "other thing," Tovah: Out of Her Mind, her concert concept at Tanglewood, got a call from a friend, who said, "ëI just saw this play and it's got your name on it."

When informed what the play was about, Feldshuh exclaimed, "Oy vey! Another old, Jewish woman! Just what I need!" Later she said that playing older women was becoming a career trend. "I basically audition for jobs at 45 [well, she is a bit older] and convince directors that I'm nearly 60. It's hysterical. Now, I'm playing a character 25 years my senior!"

If you've experienced Feldshuh as Meir, you would think that there were months and months of preparations. But the play opened in mid-March, with only three weeks rehearsal. "It was hair-raising!" said Feldshuh, who had to honor concert commitments a week after rehearsals began. "That included the special fittings for body and leg padding and a prosthetic nose."

The actress had the foresight to sneak away in mid-January for a couple of days to Milwaukee, where she absorbed the world of Golda Mabovitch, as she was known when she immigrated there from Kiev.

Feldshuh's performance has garnered critical acclaim and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Outstanding Solo Performance. The play has also received an OCC nomination for Best Play.

By show business standards, Golda's Balcony came about very quickly.

In February, Feldshuh, director Scott Schwartz and Fishelson visited Gibson in Stockbridge, MA, in an attempt to secure permission to restructure his play. He said yea to some things; nae, to others. When he was reluctant to agree to a change, Feldshuh told him: "This is going to be such an under-the-radar production in a small theatre in Soho, that the stakes are not that great. The worst-case scenario is that the critics will say I was lousy in a great play."

Feldshuh was persuasive. The team got almost everything they wanted. Feldshuh admits she used a tried-and-true tactic. "I finally asked Mr. Gibson for the big one," she says. "He didn't think so, but I kept after it. As the day wore on, he told me, ëDo whatever you want.' I think he just got tired!" [The clincher was that Mr. Gibson would see a late rehearsal and give his approval. He did.]

The actress made her Broadway debut in her 20s, going on to star in Yentl, Sarav·! and Lend Me a Tenor, each earning her a Tony nomination for Best Actress - and three Drama Desk Awards. She won an Emmy nomination for her role in the mini-series Holocaust. In addition to numerous film roles and TV guest appearances, she has a recurring role on TV's top-rated Law & Order series. A consistent Feldshuh career trend has been one-woman shows: Vreeland, Bankhead et al and now Meir.

"When someone such as myself is looking for subjects for interesting one-person vehicles," she says "who's going to sustain that type of scrutiny but a heroic woman?" Vreeland, Bankhead, Meir, "like many of the women I've portrayed, were groundbreakers. They had her own heroism. They were feminist without being a feminist. All broke taboos."

Feldshuh breaks up laughing. "Oh, my, I've never given an interview where I've drawn parallels between Diana Vreeland, Tallulah Bankhead and Golda Meir! It's hysterical! But there are parallels. They were women with access to power who demanded respect - or, in Tallulah's case, disrespect. None of ëmy' women made apologies for rubbing people the wrong way. Vreeland set new trends in fashion, Bankhead saw herself as a groundbreaking member of the full life movement and Meir envisioned a state and became a stateswoman. All were women to be reckoned with."

The actress went all-out to portray the chain-smoking, black coffee-loving Meir. Since she had never smoked, she even took smoking lessons. There is a haze about the M.E.T. stage because Felshuh is constantly puffing away - sometimes to the irritation of those in the front rows. [There are signs warning of smoking onstage and the M.E.T. staff attempts to move audience members who might have a problem.]

"I didn't have a choice," says Feldshuh, grinning to show her "tobacco stained" teeth. "Golda was a woman who took chances that were extreme. I don't drink much or shoot up. I have a fairly normal life - marriage, kids, no maid. My acting career is an opportunity to explore parameters without living them, but here I'm supposed to be the truthometer - truthful, truthful, truthful to Golda. So far, I don't inhale and I'm not hooked. We tried using vegetable cigarettes, but they smelled up the place. It was as if someone was cooking vanilla and marijuana."

Feldshuh's research really educated her on Meir. "In particular, Golda was a woman of remarkable intelligence, voracious appetite and untrampled emotional freedom. She was not your typical sweet motherly or grandmotherly type. She could be a fierce warrior. A lioness. She had no fears because she was dedicated to a cause greater than herself. The seminal incidents in Golda's life were the pogroms she experienced as a child of a poor family in Russia. These pogroms happened in the Passover/Easter week, during what was called ëthe blood libel,' when peasants would accuse the Jews of using the blood of Christian children to make their matzo."

Meir was a beloved stateswoman to many, but not loved and adored by everyone. "Friendly with everyone in politics actually doesn't work," laughed Feldshuh. "To me, it appeared that Golda always tried to take the higher ground." Her demanding political career came at the expense of literally destroying her marriage and family. One very surprising aspect of Meir was the number of lovers the P.M. had.

The play is based on brutally honest conversations Gibson had with the P.M.in 1977, a year before her death, and is set during the 1973 Arab-Israeli conflict known as the "Yom Kippur War" - when Meir, perhaps, even bluffed the U.S. into thinking it had the nuclear capability to drop a bomb.

Commenting on the buzz that Golda's Balcony will move from the 150-seat M.E.T. to a larger space, Feldshuh said, "Off Broadway, I'm making what the nanny makes. So it would have to be a small Broadway house to interest me in helping the move, but let's stay humble, let's stay vigilant, let's sell groups. And if it's to be a bigger space, it should be announced as a limited run. I'd like to keep it as intimate as 'Broadway' can keep it."

She explained why she would not be interested in moving from the M.E.T. to another Off Broadway theatre. "What sense would it make? We wouldn't be eligible for more awards. We're selling out two weeks in advance and working toward selling out a month in advance. Any larger Off Broadway houses we'd want are taken. Broadway is my home. I'm not interested in Off Broadway money. It's not TV money, not concert money. The move would have to mean the difference between making cab money and earning the sort of money that will help pay for piano lessons, college tuition and your personal assistant."

With the globalization of the planet, Feldshuh said the barriers between power structures are disintegrating. "I feel I need to know more than just how to be a good actress. I took the Commercial Theatre Institute seminar to learn about producing for the commercial theater. Over twenty hours, I was exposed to the top professionals in the business. It was a life-changing experience. I want to be of aid and knowledge to assist David and M.E.T. in making sure this play takes flight not only in its current run but also beyond. Theater is, after all, show business. Some of it is art, but I'm convinced some of it is science. I wanted to learn the science."

How does Feldshuh balance her acting and concert career with family? "That's easy," she immediately replies. "My husband Andy (an attorney and East Coast coordinator for an international real estate firm) and children come first." The couple have been married 27 years and have a 19-year-old son at Harvard and a 15-year-old daughter.

Feldshuh laughed that her philosophy is: Marry like a Jew, Divorce like a Catholic. "I don't believe in divorce once children come into a marriage. I've seen so much damage. It's a first marriage. It's our last marriage. Andy's the most tolerant husband in the world. I love him. He loves me. We get along, but we fight. We have bad days. We have worst days! We have better days. There's a love affair and, after marriage, building a life with someone. I am blessed. I not only married a great man, but a person who took our intelligence gene pool and put it through the stratosphere."

For more on Tovah Feldshuh, visit www.tovahfeldshuh.com.

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IT'S BEEN A "THRILLING" SEASON FOR SOHO'S M.E.T.