I did not expect to win. From the very start, when people told me I would win, I appreciated their sentiments but never felt it was a Tony sort of role. Then, once I saw “Mary Stuart” and “God of Carnage” with the four other Tony nominees I felt I truly didn’t deserve to win. Those performances were towering. Truth be known, the entire 5 month experience was the prize for me and I feel so grateful to have had the opportunity to return to Broadway and discover how much I like being on stage and performing night after night.

Friends often asked how I managed to do it over and over eight times a week. While it’s true that staying healthy and getting enough sleep is challenging, the chance to grow and deepen in your role makes it all worthwhile. I was finding new ways to play moments right up to the end. This deepening is something that you don’t get in movie acting. Also, it is a wondrous thing to have your whole life so intensely focused on that one thing-that one 2 hour performance. While I’m glad I don’t have to worry so much about sleep, I miss this focus a lot.

My agent, Joe Machota (who was also my date at the Tonys), gave me all the reviews of the play the last day I was in New York and I had time to quickly read through them all before leaving for Paris. I deliberately avoided reading reviews until it was over and I am glad I did. They reflected such contradictory opinions of the play and of my performance that I would have gotten confused. Some really liked what I did. Some really didn’t like what I did and some were ambivalent.

I find it very useful to read reviews. I always have. I learn from the reviews both the good ones and the bad ones. I learn about the reviewers themselves, about perceptions they have about me as a woman beyond me in the role and I learn how what I do can be perceived by others. This last is especially useful, I think.

In a few weeks, while I am recovering from my up-coming surgery I intend to reread the reviews so that I can better interpret them and decide what’s important to know about my work. I will probably write more about all of this later.

Right now I am in Paris memorizing my French dialogue for the L’Oreal commercial I will be shooting.

See you next time.

This is the play the Obamas saw when they came to NY on a recent date. The first act was somewhat opaque but I got swept away by the 2nd. Sobbing, less from sorrow, more from revelation. I must read the script. There were passages of such inspiration and I want to quote them in my new book about aging..

Getting excited about the Tonys. Just got an invitation to a pre-Tony cocktail party on Saturday and want to go. Emailed my new friend, fellow nominee Janet McTeer to ask if she was going and she reminded me it’s a 2-show day so I doubt many actors will show….Geoffrey Rush probably will. He’s clearly a party guy.

See you next time.

Oh me oh my, there have been a lot of last days of late: last day on Broadway, last day in the Galapagos. Now it’s my last day in Atlanta, perhaps till the end of September when I am coming back for a fundraiser and the next board meeting. That may well be happening in the midst of a film.

 Tomorrow I go back to New York where I will catch up on plays I did not get a chance to see while I was on Broadway myself.

Tomorrow night it’ll be “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” then I am taking Samantha Mathis and Susan Kellerman (who were in “33 Variations” with me) to see “Ruined” and Saturday I’m having lunch with a woman who, like me, is very involved with the empowerment of adolescent girls, then I see the matinee of “reasons to be pretty,” then I’m taking my pal the smart, funny author and radio talk show host, Lisa Birnbach, to “The Norman Conquest: Round and Round the Garden,” followed by dinner with Jeff Daniels…it’ll feel like (not so) ol’ times.



The Tonys are Sunday–there’s an early rehearsal which I will have to go to cause I’m presenting the award to Best Featured Actor. I hope I still fit into the Reem Acra dress after all those scrumptious meals on the boat in the Galapagos. I will be tweeting the whole time so stay tuned. Monday after the Tonys I go to Paris to film a commercial for L’Oreal (in English and French–i have stayed fluent in that language). It’s a great company to work for. Imagine a company that has a 71 year old brand ambassador (that’s what we’re called). I am the “face for older women everywhere in the world but the U.S. Diane Keaton does it here. Hopefully the film with her will go in Sept. When it’s 100 percent certain I’ll tell you about it. I’d love to work with her.



Very soon the “store” will be set up on my blog so that those who want to can buy the mug shot totes, clutches, mugs etc that I’m selling to benefit the non-profit, G-CAPP that I founded 15 years ago. (See the side bar for their website).

 All for now. I will finish packing and then to bed. I’m wiped.



Carole holding Tulea to say goodbye. I won’t see T. Again for 2 weeks.

View from my terrace of the beautiful Atlanta skyline.

See you next time.