A NEW DAY

I’m from N.Y. but retired to Iowa.I have three sons who live in N.Y. I just visited them,but I want to return to see your play.I ‘ve seen several of your movies that I enjoyed.I enjoy your performances.Hope to see you in more of your work. Regards,Anthony

I am just finishing the last chapter of your book and am thoroughly enjoying it. Each year each member of my book club selects a biography or autobiography and reads it and does a report on it. I have already e-mailed all of them that your book needs to be a book club selection. I will do my report at our next meeting. We all lived during the Vietnam war and I, for one, found it really enlightening. I think I’m also going to have to organize a trip to New York to see the play. You just rock, that’s all I can say. Thanks for being so passionate about everything you do.

I only learnt of your blog 24 hours ago.And,WOW.
I began with your first (jan 5)and,yes,i knew you were a wonderful,moving writer.But this is amazing because
you’re doing so many other things.
I have always admired you as an artist and a political person,and i have one request.Please make your next career project a film.
Last year showed that good films are still being made.
Thank you.

A dream about Robert Redford them him there in person, yum indeed!

I know you dont read reviews, so I won’t say anything about them! Savour it all when its over and you want to recall every bit. This blog must be exciting for you as well. Its exciting for me to know that youre reading what Im writing to you. Im in Toronto and have admired you and your work for as long as I can rememeber. I sent a message the other day saying ‘break a leg’ but I googled it before I did, just to see the origin of the expression. Wanted to be on the safe side!

I never had any doubt that the play would be a huge success but it must be wonderful for you to see the marquee, the glowing reviews, and to have terrific friends popping back stage to say “hello”.

Looks like you broke two legs on this one, Jane!

Linda M. Lopeke
The SMARTSTART Coach

You got rave reviews in our local paper today – The Berkshire Eagle / western MA.

Iam so glade u are out there to help women and our issues and iam very happy the plays doing so well and think ur dad would be very pleased and happy.

You are CUTE as can be in that cap. Were you dreaming of those iceblue eyes? It sounds like you are enjoying every second. Good on you!

I read Wendell Brock’s review in the AJC…of course it was VERY favorable. Looks like everything is moving smoothly. Love the photos. Love Robert Redford! Thanks for sharing.

I is only right that when you work hard and make things believable your get the acknowledgment , nice to see that it works right
that is a wonderful video look like your production would make a special Documentary film I hope some is on it Jane

How is it possible? You are so inspiring and beautiful.
Redford looks younger than Hanks! 🙂 Both are amazing talents. YOU my dear are a force of nature. You inspire me to be a better woman and live a deeper life.
xoxoxo Congrats on the good reviews!

That photo of you and Redford is damned sexy. Please work together again. You make beautiful sparks together.

BTW…Your reference to reading blog comments reminded me of the starstruck mash note I sent you when I was 13. I don’t know where you found the time (it was the China Syndrome/Electric Horseman period), but you actually sent a personal, handwritten response from your home address. I walked on clouds for a year, never doubting that you wrote it yourself. Now with 32 years of hindsight, I can honestly say you were the best celebrity crush a kid from a small town could ever have.

Thank you and rock on, Ms. Fonda.

Last semester my Drama-Emphasis English teacher told us it’s an old Vaudville term. There’d be a bunch of acts lined up and to “break a leg” was to get onstage, past the little pieces of curtain on the sides of the stage.

Dear Jane,

One day we hope you’ll visit Sweden again. Oh, one more thing…have you ever performed in any of August Strindberg’s plays?

With best regards from Sweden,

Boutique Topaz

PS- We follow you on Twitter!

“Oooooh I’ll be sore tomorrow.” sily Jane, FEEL THE BURN. lol xoxox

Hello

I read in an article that you were in a play and idly linked to this site a few days ago. Have been out of touch with your work for a long time but you were a major figure for me in the 70’s and 80’s — I was 12 when China Syndrome came out and it meant so much — at that age I was starting to understand how powerful a polemic movies can be and it was dynamite to me: the issues fuel the story but never bog it down and trip it up. And Lemmon…what a performance! Saw Klute again lately and it’s still great as are you and Donald Sutherland — have you re-watched it in this period of your life? It really stands up. Anyway, generally, NICE ONE JANE is the basic point of this. Huge kudos and love to you and thank you for your work.

But I’m writing because I’m caught by my reaction to this blog. I like that you seem direct and grounded and honest — which is either pure star-wishery on my part, or confirmation of a latent mensch-iness I perceived about you growing up. Either way, I’ve found myself dropping in daily.

But it’s such an odd relationship to have with a distant star: There’s an eerie intimacy — I found myself today being a bit like Sandra Bernhardt musing about Jerry Lewis in King of Comedy, thinking to myself, “I wonder if Jane’s done her show yet”. Which is crazy! I don’t know you at all — it’s stalker stuff! Except, because of this technology, we do have a relationship of sorts. Firstly I’ve sent you a message. I could have done all this by post, but that’s printing, stamps, tracking down an address and the fact is, no matter how much I claim to wax lyrical over you, I wouldn’t have got it together to write till now. But posting on a website is easy and instant. Frankly it rewards the lazy. Stop reading now. Mainly though, I’m struck by how the technology affects the politics of this kind of relationship — it’s the incongruity of having a public figure offer up a connection to the minutiae of her life at high frequency and inviting me to respond while it’s happening. It turns an idea of celebrity upside-down, makes it human, less commodified, still remote of course, but pleasantly accessible. Cool!

As a result, I’m enjoying finding out about your process and am surprised to feel this odd, real-but-unreal connection to you in this phase of your life. You are a familiar stranger, yet, assuming you are reading this, here we are interacting. This could only have happened in an age of computers.

Come to London and do a play one day, it’s such a great environment for theatre and it would be fantastic to see you work.

Very best wishes and thanks again

Best wishes!

I so wish I could see your play it sounds wonderful. Great photo of you and Mr. Redford. Glad you are happy and relaxed.

Dear Ms. Fonda: I have admired your work throughout the years and am just thrilled at the success you are having on Broadway! My dad was an actor (he died in ’92 from HIV/AIDS) and I remember when I was a kid before he went on stage I said “good luck” and he got a bit peeved with me and said “Never say good luck to an actor, always say “break a leg”. I asked him why he would want me to wish his leg broken and he said..”it’s better to break a leg then fall flat on your face on stage (figuratively of course). That stuck with me all these years…Thanks for your blog, it is a great treat for your fans!

Break a leg
Meaning

Said to actors for good luck before they go on stage, especially on an opening nights.

Origin

Theatrical types are well-known for their belief in superstitions, or at least for their willingness to make a show of pretending to believe them. The term ‘break a leg’ appears to come from the belief that one ought not to utter the words ‘good luck’ to an actor. By wishing someone bad luck, it is supposed that the opposite will occur. Other superstitions are that it is bad luck to whistle in a theatre, to say the final line of a play during dress rehearsal, or to say the name of ‘the Scottish Play’ in a theatre’s green room.

The word ‘break’ has many meanings – the OED lists 57 distinct uses of it as a verb alone. That gives considerable scope for speculation over what is meant by the phrase. The most common interpretation of ‘break’ in this context is, ‘to deviate from a straight line’, as in the cricketing term, ‘off break’. That is, unstraighten the leg by bending at the knee, by bowing or curtseying.

‘Break a leg’ also means, ‘make a strenuous effort’. There are many references to the phrase used that way, which pre-date the earliest theatrical good luck charm meaning. For example, from The Hammond Times, Indiana, 1942:

“Whatever the army or navy want, the Continental Roll [and Steel Foundry] will turn out … Or break a leg trying.”

From the Evening State Journal, Nebraska, 1937:

“With all the break-a-leg dancing there are many who still warm to graceful soft shoe stepping.”

So, it is possible that when an actor is told to ‘break a leg’, he/she may just be being exhorted to put on an energetic, exciting performance.

There are many other possible derivations in circulation, mostly referring to the ‘good luck’ message. In diminishing order of plausibility, ‘break a leg’ these are:

Put on a performance good enough that you will have to bend your knee in a bow or curtsey to acknowledge the applause.
Impress the audience so much that you will need to bend down to pick up the coins they throw onto the stage.
Pass out onto the stage to receive a curtain call (the side curtains on a stage are known as legs).
Go on stage and have your ‘big break’.
Evoke the powers of the celebrated actress Sarah Bernhardt, who had one leg.
A reference to John Wilkes Booth, who broke his leg when jumping on stage, attempting to flee after shooting President Lincoln.
It is tempting to believe the phrase to be ancient and to imagine it whispered to Tudor minstrels as they went on stage at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. There was an earlier meaning of ‘break a leg’ of that vintage (1670), which was ‘to give birth to a bastard’. This is now entirely out of use and is not related to the theatrical version. The current meaning is nothing like as old. The term originates in the American theatre in the 20th century and all the earliest references to its use are from US sources. The earliest citation we can find in print is from as late as 1948, from an edition of the US newspaper, The Charleston Gazette, in May that year. This is from their ‘Ask The Gazette’ column:

Q. What are some of the well-known superstitions of the theatre?
A. Superstitions of the stage are numerous and many are particular to individual actors and actresses. That it is bad luck to whistle in a dressing room is a widely accepted belief. Another is that one actor should not wish another good luck before a performance but say instead ‘I hope you break a leg.’

That pretty much rules out the Sarah Bernhardt and John Wilkes Booth interpretations which, as well as being rather fanciful, date from too far before any printed version.

There is a German saying, ‘Hals und Beinbruch’, meaning ‘break your neck and leg’, which dates back to at least WWII, as Luftwaffe slang, and is therefore earlier than any known English version. It may be that this is a corruption of the Hebrew blessing, ‘hatzlakha u-brakha’, meaning ‘success and blessing’.

German and Yiddish were commonly used languages of the large Jewish contingent of the US theatre world. We can’t be certain of the origin of the phrase, but it’s highly likely to have migrated to English from the earlier German and Hebrew versions.

Dear Jane,

Perfect Quotes!
Yes you and Bob looked terrific, as did everyone else.
I forgot to mention how powerful the comment about vulnerability instead of nudity is. Your friend Eve did exactly what your heart felt, and that is a real Treasure! Something my best friend would do. I commend Moises sensitivity, as vulnerability helps us grow.
Keep on savoring every moment in this remarkable chapter of your life.

Ride The Wave

Just looking at the theatre on google (street veiw) thanks for the internet. and you have the most beutiifull eyes.. Roy. uk.

Thanks for sharing the little video clip of opening night. Sounds like the show is going smashingly well!

First workout in weeks…try first workout in years! You were in my ballet class at Loring’s school years ago…too many missed workouts since then!

Jane! I cant believe you might be reading this.. I just want you to know that I think you are so amazing, I want to be an actress when I grow up & you and Meryl Streep are my idols! I hope to meet you one day, Ive seen lots of your movies! There all fabulous :))) Your also soo gorgeous! Keep it up 🙂
-Aisha x