Paging Dr. Footlights: Catherine Zeta-Jones needs a pick-me-up to get her through awards season.
The Tony-nominated star of “A Little Night Music” is showing signs of wear and tear, having missed five performances in the past two weeks.
CZJ, as they call her around Broadway, is said to be suffering from a viral infection that’s making it nearly impossible for her to talk, let alone sing “Send In the Clowns.”
She was determined to go on Sunday — a doubleheader of a matinee followed by a special Actors’ Fund benefit performance — but as she was walking out the door of her apartment, coughing and struggling to speak, hubby Michael Douglas put his foot down.
Her understudy was thrown into costume at the last minute, causing a stir at the box office. (If an above-the-title star is out of the show, theatergoers are entitled to refunds or exchanges.)
CZJ, who hadn’t missed a single performance until recently, is “deeply frustrated,” says a source, especially since a lot of Tony voters are seeing the production for the first time — or, in some cases, second time — before marking
their ballots.
Two weeks ago, when she missed three performances, several out-of-town Tony voters were in New York for a convention. Her producers frantically tried to rearrange tickets so they wouldn’t miss her.
“She’s not campaigning for the Tony
the way some people do, but she does want it — and we think she has a good shot,” says a production source.
I think that’s true. I caught up with the show last week, and while her voice seemed a little pinched at times, she radiated old-fashioned star power.
The only time she didn’t command the stage was when she shared it with the great Angela Lansbury, who not only commands the stage but also the theater, the block — all of Times Square, in fact.
While CZJ may not be an aggressive campaigner like, say, that old master Harvey Fierstein, she has been making the rounds of the Tony circuit. She’s appeared at benefits and second-tier awards, schmoozing even some of the scarier members of the theater press corps, most of whom have become bloggers.
“These are people with no money, no jobs and no limbs,” says a press agent.
Although she’s a movie star, a box-office draw and very good in the show, CZJ can’t take the Tony for granted. She has a very tough competitor in the adorable Montego Glover, who shakes the rafters at the Shubert in “Memphis” — and never misses a performance.
As one person who works on the show says, “She sings her soul out. You’d think it would be all she could do to get home. But she goes right over to Angus McIndoe for a steak after the show. It’s all in a day’s work for her.”
Glover’s tied CZJ for the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics’ Circle Awards.
I’ll give the Tony edge to CZJ for now. But around town, I’m starting to hear, “Go, Montego, go!”
SPEAKING of Tony campaigning, Jay- Z, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have finally started to do some for their show, “Fela!”
They recently attended a party for the road presenters at the Palm steakhouse after a performance of the show, of which they’re co-producers. Will Smith mixed easily with the crowd. Having gone through the Oscar gantlet a few times, he knows how to play the game.
“He was accessible and really talked up the show,” says a production source. “I think the road people were impressed.”
Jay-Z wasn’t nearly as chatty, I’m told, but he shook some hands and posed for a few photos.
“Fela!” is in a tough race against “Memphis.” If the press hadn’t been kicked off the Tony voter list, I’d give the edge to “Fela!” — since it’s a favorite with critics. But the sense is that “Memphis” has more appeal around the country, so it probably goes into the Tonys with the support of the road presenters, who number about 100 (out of 700) voters.
Jay-Z should buy everybody another round of drinks.