In one of the comments someone wonders if I do my own blogging/twittering. I want to make it clear (in case the personal tone doesn’t) that I write my own blogs. Otherwise, I really don’t see the point. If I want to take people through the experience of doing a Broadway play after 46 years, I have to do it myself. So there!

This is the last performance in Feb. It’s gone by so fast. So guess who saw the show this afternoon and came back to see me? Arthur Laurents!!! He is 90. You’d never believe it. I was surprised that he came because he is in previews for his revival of “West Side Story.” In case you’re too young, Arthur wrote “West Side Story” (and “Gypsy” and the play of his I was in, “Invitation to a March.”) He’s on his pees and Qs, for sure, pointing out to me that in the play’s program, my bio calls his play “Invitation to a Waltz.” Major Oooops. But he made it funny: “Clearly you really are obsessed with Beethoven.” (In the play I am obsessed with Diabelli’s waltz and why Beethoven wrote 33 variations on it.)

Also backstage came Jay Craven, a filmmaker from Vermont, who became my friend back in the early 70s antiwar movement.

The cast was going to party in Chinatown tomorrow after the 3pm show but, at Moises’s suggestion, we postponed. He doesn’t want us tired for next week (critics come). Plus, it’s supposed to be wicked, cold and sleeting weather tomorrow.

Novelists I know have told me over the years how their characters often “get away from them” and write themselves—tell the writer what they want to do and who they are becoming. I thought of this last night and today. I know what my character, Katherine, is supposed to be like, how she is meant to behave. But there are times when I feel like she has taken over and is coming across as someone slightly different and there’s not a thing I seem to be able to do about it. Last night, for instance, she was soooo cool and stiff. The other day she became way more emotional. Moises was there yesterday and said it seemed fine but it is weird and disconcerting.

There is a scene in the second act that I have never felt great about. Last night Moises told me that I was acting it just as he wanted me to and that now all that needs to happen is for me to own its rightness.  So that’s what I am working on now.

My best, longest-known friend is here tonight: Paula Weinstein. I’ve known her for decades. Her mother was a famous film producer, Hannah Weinstein, who gave me my first funding in 1970 when I was opening the GI Office in DC to get help and congressional attention for soldiers’ complaints and problems. Later Hannah called in the favor, asking me to help her fresh-out-of-Columbia daughter, Paula, get a job in Hollywood. Paula became my agent, got me the role in “Julia” (Lillian Hellman was Paula’s godmother), then became a studio executive (took charge of my film “Nine to Five” at Fox), and then a film producer. She was a producer (at my request) on “Monster-in-Law” and fought to not quit till we got it right. We have a long, loving history together.

I hope I don’t fall down or skip a scene.

Stage Manager just called 15 minutes (till curtain goes up) so…
See you next time.

• Play is now locked up. No more changes. Audiences seem to be loving it. I need sleep!! Too tired to blog. #actors #theatre #
• Cast was going to party together in Chinatown after Sunday’s matinee but decided to postpone–save energy for nxt week’s critics. Yikes!! #

• OMG. Glenn Close came tonight. Didn’t know till she came backstage with her very cool, handsome husband. #
• We’ve been talking and drinking wine. It’s 11:40. I must be getting better, sooo much fun. Maybe I can sleep now. #actors #
• Forgot to tweet and let you know that I posted on my blog today…please go read http://is.gd/kVbf #
• What an amazing room full of talent I was in today. Read today’s blog post for more http://is.gd/l2vz #
• What an amazing room full of talent I was in today. Read today’s blog post for more http://is.gd/l2vz 5 #actors #theatre #
• Many of you asking about the The View and Today Show links. Click here for more information http://pitch.pe/5198 #

Question: My question is two fold (yes, I am greedy for this opportunity)
1. What are the 3 main ways someone can feel/seem young as they age?
2. What did you wish you knew at 47 years old that you now know? (my age, of course)
Thank you for time and talent!
From: Debra Oliver

Answer: Feel young and you will seem young. So much comes from the inside out but staying healthy and fit is critical too. I found that the forties were the toughest for me. It got easier later on, after 60. It just can get better and better if you develop an inner life, good friends who accept you but also challenge you to grow and deepen.

Question: Are you planning on bringing awareness to the disease ALS through your play? I heard on The View this morning you played someone health challenged. That they didn’t want to give anything away. This is an amazing opportunity to educate people by letting them hear the character has ALS. They can google or educate as they wish. As a person with ALS I was so disappointed. 140 years, no cure, no cause, no treatment. Please consider bring awareness to this awful disease. ALS Matters to me. ALSMatters.org
From: Sharon Caruthers

Answer: Once we open there will be more chance to openly talk about ALS. Right now we are not focusing on this terrible disease as part of our play.