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spicedogs Bernadette Peters brought down the house during a recent performance in Orange County, Calif. The entertainer has written a children's book, "Broadway Barks," about a dog in need of a home. |
This is the first article that I read in which Bernadette talks about her late-husband and her life as she moved on: her concerts, her books, and possibly returning to Broadway.
By Charles McNulty • Los Angeles Times • July 27, 2008
LOS ANGELES -- Someone's purse seems to be ringing, and Bernadette Peters assumes it must be hers. Her schedule is jam-packed with publicity appearances for her children's book, "Broadway Barks," a touching story about a dog in need of a home, which comes with a CD of a lullaby she wrote. The book, named after the annual event she started with Mary Tyler Moore to help shelter animals, is Peters' first, and her royalties will be donated to the charity organization.
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But that's not all that's going on. Peters has been waiting to be fitted for a couple of dresses Bob Mackie is designing for a concert in August. And directly after being interviewed, she has to fight rush-hour traffic to make a rehearsal for her appearance with Men Alive, the Orange County Gay Men's Chorus.
Fraught as this West Coast tour of duty sounds, Peters, a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker, couldn't have been happier to be back in L.A., her home away from home.
"I have some really good friends out here," she says. "One girlfriend just moved to San Francisco, but I have another who's like family to me, so I look forward to seeing her when I'm out here. Otherwise, the thing I enjoy is that I wake up early because of the time change, and I feel like I get three extra hours in the morning. I get up, go to the gym, and I'm still not late."
She could use the leeway. Life has been hectic even in a period that could gingerly be called "transitional." After starring as Rose in the 2003 Broadway revival of "Gypsy" -- a role that brought her as much acclaim as angst -- disaster hit. Her husband, Michael Wittenberg, was killed in a helicopter crash in 2005, and Peters, 60, says that the past few years have been "the hardest" of her life.
"You realize that there's no such thing as time because that first year you don't even realize a year has gone by," she says. "But what helped me was basically ... he would kill me if I didn't move forward. He gave me so much strength."
Peters reached across to grab a bottle of wine: "And a little bit of this helped too."
Heartbreak and laughter -- this two-time Tony winner is as well-acquainted with both as any Chekhovian heroine. Not just in her life but also in her art. For although she's long been the darling of the American theater, she acknowledges a history of what she calls "bombs" as well as unexpected gaps.
Concert dates have kept Peters' song-and-patter skills sharp during this rough chapter, yet many of her fans are in need of a Broadway fix. She's "talking" about a return, but doing eight shows a week is a commitment she doesn't take lightly. "You can't do anything else," she says. "You have to take your day off and just recharge," she adds.
And although she might be known first and foremost as a Broadway baby, Peters had no choice but to branch out to TV and movies, which have afforded her steady if unspectacular success since she made the decision to test the Hollywood waters in the early '70s.
"I was doing Broadway and it was great, but it was a time when New York was in a slump. I remember I did 'Dames at Sea,' and then when it was done for television, the part went to Ann-Margret, who I love. And I went, 'Of course, it went to her. No one knows who I am. I need to go out to L.A. and get more exposure.' "
Two of Peters' biggest cinematic splashes were with her old flame Steve Martin: "The Jerk" (1979) and "Pennies From Heaven" (1981). Big back-to-back Hollywood breaks, however, haven't been the norm, and as she shruggingly admits, she has "never been able to get on that roll."
She says she feels like "a working actress trying to do some good in the world," which is her way of steering the conversation back to her book. But surely she can give us a hint of what it's like to be a walking, talking Al Hirschfeld icon? "I don't like to think about my ego as much; it makes me uncomfortable," she says. "Right now I'm focusing on making people aware of how beautiful animals are in our lives. How healing they can be. …"
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LOS ANGELES -- Someone's purse seems to be ringing, and Bernadette Peters assumes it must be hers. Her schedule is jam-packed with publicity appearances for her children's book, "Broadway Barks," a touching story about a dog in need of a home, which comes with a CD of a lullaby she wrote. The book, named after the annual event she started with Mary Tyler Moore to help shelter animals, is Peters' first, and her royalties will be donated to the charity organization.
Advertisement
But that's not all that's going on. Peters has been waiting to be fitted for a couple of dresses Bob Mackie is designing for a concert in August. And directly after being interviewed, she has to fight rush-hour traffic to make a rehearsal for her appearance with Men Alive, the Orange County Gay Men's Chorus.
Fraught as this West Coast tour of duty sounds, Peters, a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker, couldn't have been happier to be back in L.A., her home away from home.
"I have some really good friends out here," she says. "One girlfriend just moved to San Francisco, but I have another who's like family to me, so I look forward to seeing her when I'm out here. Otherwise, the thing I enjoy is that I wake up early because of the time change, and I feel like I get three extra hours in the morning. I get up, go to the gym, and I'm still not late."
She could use the leeway. Life has been hectic even in a period that could gingerly be called "transitional." After starring as Rose in the 2003 Broadway revival of "Gypsy" -- a role that brought her as much acclaim as angst -- disaster hit. Her husband, Michael Wittenberg, was killed in a helicopter crash in 2005, and Peters, 60, says that the past few years have been "the hardest" of her life.
"You realize that there's no such thing as time because that first year you don't even realize a year has gone by," she says. "But what helped me was basically ... he would kill me if I didn't move forward. He gave me so much strength."
Peters reached across to grab a bottle of wine: "And a little bit of this helped too."
Heartbreak and laughter -- this two-time Tony winner is as well-acquainted with both as any Chekhovian heroine. Not just in her life but also in her art. For although she's long been the darling of the American theater, she acknowledges a history of what she calls "bombs" as well as unexpected gaps.
Concert dates have kept Peters' song-and-patter skills sharp during this rough chapter, yet many of her fans are in need of a Broadway fix. She's "talking" about a return, but doing eight shows a week is a commitment she doesn't take lightly. "You can't do anything else," she says. "You have to take your day off and just recharge," she adds.
And although she might be known first and foremost as a Broadway baby, Peters had no choice but to branch out to TV and movies, which have afforded her steady if unspectacular success since she made the decision to test the Hollywood waters in the early '70s.
"I was doing Broadway and it was great, but it was a time when New York was in a slump. I remember I did 'Dames at Sea,' and then when it was done for television, the part went to Ann-Margret, who I love. And I went, 'Of course, it went to her. No one knows who I am. I need to go out to L.A. and get more exposure.' "
Two of Peters' biggest cinematic splashes were with her old flame Steve Martin: "The Jerk" (1979) and "Pennies From Heaven" (1981). Big back-to-back Hollywood breaks, however, haven't been the norm, and as she shruggingly admits, she has "never been able to get on that roll."
She says she feels like "a working actress trying to do some good in the world," which is her way of steering the conversation back to her book. But surely she can give us a hint of what it's like to be a walking, talking Al Hirschfeld icon? "I don't like to think about my ego as much; it makes me uncomfortable," she says. "Right now I'm focusing on making people aware of how beautiful animals are in our lives. How healing they can be. …"
SOURCE: Courier-Journal.com
PS.: Bernadette Peters will guest star on Grey's Anatomy on the 2-hour season premiere. The episode airs Sept. 25 on ABC! (I no longer watch this show, but I will that day.)
