70 Years of Song and Dance
Elaine Stritch has a straight line connection to the hearts of her audience, and
when that’s going on, nothing else matters. Shoot Me is a documentary of
her 86thth year as it unfolds in current club dates with flashbacks to her glory
days on Broadway where she first performed in 1944. As she nears 87, she faces
up to her greatest fear: leaving the stage. :
Living in the
Carlyle Hotel with long engagements in the Café Carlyle, Stritch’s off stage
life is comfortable and secure. She walks through the neighborhood where friends
and hotel employees watch over her. On the street, fans approach to express
their devotion. But early in this film she tells us about her fear.
We see it
first when she is rehearsing with Rob Bowman, her accompanist who plays the
piano with gusto when Stritch is okay, and covers her problems when she isn’t.
When the lyrics vanish from her memory on stage, she howls, “sing it, Rob, sing
it!” And he does while he, she, and the audience dissolve in affectionate
laughter. But she also tells us, with characteristic bluntness, that she is well
aware that her performing days are nearly over. She has managed diabetes and
alcoholism but fades at the thought of leaving the stage.
Stritch takes
a short trip to Birmingham, Michigan, where she has both friends and family.
She’s trying it on for fit. Can she go back after an entire adult life of
success on the Broadway stage? Back in New York after that trip, she is singing
again, measuring herself against the person she once was. If all this seems sad,
remember that this is a woman with a gargantuan personality that alternates a
sometimes harsh, loud exterior with real kindness. She’s a survivor.
And does she
ever have the clothes problem licked. At 5’7”, most of it given over to long,
lean dancing legs, at home, outside, and onstage, she wears black tights and an
oversized untucked white shirt topped nearly always by a various hats that sit
gently on top of her carefully curled hair. The only deviation is an enormous
fur coat as outrageous as the woman who wears it.
When Stritch
is at rest in the Carlyle surrounded by her reviews, clippings, and piles of
pictures from her Broadway days, she moves from pure pleasure at the memory of
it back to asking how she can possibly handle retirement. But what memories.
Seventy years of stage success in New York and London, a Tony, an Obie, and a
drama desk award that came her way in her 70s for her cabaret show “Elaine
Stritch at Liberty.”
But awards
sit on shelves. What is still thoroughly alive and warm is the spontaneous
response that engulfs her wherever she goes. On the street, wrapped in fur,
trading quips with people who love her. It’s hard to think of Elaine Stritch
living anywhere but within walking distance of Broadway.
Film Critic : Joan Ellis
Film title : Shoot Me
Distributor : Isotope Films
Word Count : 497
Running Time : 1:30
Rating : NR
Copyright (c) Illusion