INTERVIEW: Elizabeth Taylor inspires new show from Ann Talman
Photo: Ann Talman’s new show is called The Shadow of Her Smile, about her relationship with Elizabeth Taylor. Photo courtesy of the artist / Provided by Richard Hillman PR with permission.
In the 1980s, Ann Talman had the honor of performing on Broadway in Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes with Elizabeth Taylor. The run lasted 18 months, but the friendship between Talman and Taylor endured long after the final curtain. That friendship, which was really a mentorship of Taylor taking care of the young Talman, is now the inspiration for a new cabaret show at Feinstein’s / 54 Below. Talman performs in the piece, called The Shadow of Her Smile, Thursday, March 31, and the performance will also be available to livestream.
“I played her daughter on Broadway for 18 months, and then we were friends for the rest of her life,” Talman said in a recent phone interview. “I had just lost my mother before I got The Little Foxes. I was 22. I had lost my mother when I was 20, and Elizabeth sensed almost immediately … and she mothered me. She just sort of took me under her wing as an extra daughter, and [the show is] about that, which is a lot deeper. It’s not just funny stories about Elizabeth Taylor; it’s also about what a wonderful, loving and kind human being she was to have done that for me and for many people.”
Talman said that anyone looking for a tell-all evening of inside stories about Taylor and Hollywood will be disappointed. This is a gossip-free zone.
“Every song that I sing furthers the storyline,” she said, adding that many selections are from the Great American Songbook. “It’s not just funny songs that might have something to do with Elizabeth Taylor. They really, in my hopes, take each moment of the show to a new place. I had written a solo play about my brother who had cerebral palsy, so this is almost really like a solo play but with songs.”
Talman’s brother is also an indirect inspiration for this piece. That previous solo play was adapted into an acclaimed documentary, called Woody’s Order!, which was eligible for an Academy Award a few years ago. The project was based on Talman’s brother who had cerebral palsy and was “bright, handsome and expressive.” She took care of him, and that role in her life was actually planned out.
“When he was 8 years old, he realized that he didn’t want to be all alone without a sibling who could step in if anything ever happened to Mom and Dad,” Talman said. “He went on a campaign to convince my parents to have another baby, and he would touch my mother’s tummy and my father’s groin and giggle and wave his hands like wands. It worked, and when I was born they nicknamed me Woody’s Order. And the story goes that you are your brother’s keeper, and you’ll always be there for him if anything happens. I adored my brother, and I loved that whole fairytale. It made me feel important, but what happened is that it came true.”
She added: “Our mother was killed in a car crash when I was 20, and so I took over her role in his caregiving. And then our father got Alzheimer’s Disease, so then I was taking care of both of them. And my brother passed away in 2018, and it’s the first time in my life that I’ve been able to focus on myself and my creativity. Until then, I was always juggling all that caregiving with trying to have a career, and I did pretty well. But something had to give, and so after he passed away, I took a few months off to rest. And I just dove in, in September 2018, on this show because I had always wanted to do it next, but it was the time in my life [when] I was finally free to focus on it and to have the maturity to look back on it all with the perspective that I think is necessary.”
Talman said she believes there are universal themes behind Woody’s Order! and her new cabaret piece about Taylor. Ultimately, she hopes that people leave The Shadow of Her Smile with an appreciation for family and friends.
“The things that Elizabeth really valued in her life, particularly toward the end of her life, was her friendships and her family and not so much beauty and fame and all that,” Talman said. “As famous as she was, she had the right priorities. She put her family and her loved ones first, and that’s what I had to do. I had to put my family first at the expense of my career, and Elizabeth also was a big believer in never giving up. I’m now having a second career. I’m a late bloomer because I’ve never given up wanting to do what I do, even though I didn’t get to be where I thought I would be at certain times in my life because I was taking care of my family instead. And I think Elizabeth and I both were unregrettable about choices that we made, and I think that audiences will take away that. It could almost be a story about anyone.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Shadow of Her Smile, starring Ann Talman, will play Thursday, March 31 at Feinstein’s / 54 Below in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
