“It’s not like a cabaret,” gushed Elaine Stritch. “It’s like all my friends in New York got together!” And those were some friends, indeed. For the opening night Tuesday of her Café Carlyle farewell, who should turn out to cheer her but Tony Bennett, Liza Minnelli, Bernadette Peters, Martin Short and — in a night off from his Broadway debut — Tom Hanks.
As you’ve probably heard, Stritch, 88, is “Movin’ Over and Out,” as the evening’s titled, leaving the Carlyle, her longtime home base, for her Birmingham, Mich., hometown, to join her nieces and nephews.
It’s the entertainment equivalent of the Statue of Liberty packing up and leaving.
Not surprisingly, the evening was bittersweet. Clearly shaky after a series of health crises (“Every time I leave the building, I fall on my ass”), this longtime Stephen Sondheim interpreter delivered what could charitably be described as a free-form evening of anecdotes punctuated by the occasional song.
But the sheer love of the audience propped her up, like the cane she wielded as a weapon. They were as much a part of the show as the headliner, constantly offering encouragement and shouting out words when they failed her.
For a while, it was a virtual duet between Stritch and Hanks, who at one point shouted “Love you!” When she asked him when his show “Lucky Guy” would open, he diplomatically replied, “It was last night, actually, but it pales in comparison to tonight!”
A bowl of index cards was passed around the sold-out room, with phrases audience members could call out to cue an anecdote. “My date with the president” led to a humorous story about Stritch asking John Kennedy if she could accompany him to dinner (it ended chastely). A call-out of “Judy Garland” prompted a hilarious account of Stritch’s proposal to take “Mame” on the road, switching roles depending on who went out partying the night before.
“What about matinees?” Garland asked.
With her longtime accompanist Rob Bowman on piano, Stritch sang a few songs, including “How Ya Gonna Keep ’Em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree)”; a ribald version of Cole Porter’s “You’re the Top,” and, most affectingly, Rodgers and Hart’s “He Was Too Good to Me,” which she said was the first song she ever performed for Sondheim.
Throughout, she was clearly emotional but fought back sentiment.
“I’m going to be able to go to sleep at 9 o’clock at night!” she declared. She also paid tribute to the Carlyle, where she’s long enjoyed a corner apartment overlooking Madison Avenue.
“Boy, are they looking after me,” she said. “For a price.”
The show was over in 75 minutes, and when it was, she lingered to schmooze with the rich and famous. In typical Stritch fashion, she had the trenchant last word:
“Everybody pay their bill? It’s a shocker!”