There was a dramatic "curtain
speech" after Sunday night's special Actors' Fund
performance of "Lansky." Mike Burstyn, who shakes
the rafters at the Odyssey Theater in West L.A.
playing the powerful-pitiful Meyer Lansky, followed
the (nightly) standing ovation with this dramatic
tribute to the Actors' Fund: "In 1995, my first
wife, Edie, was in her 4th year of her brave battle
against ovarian cancer at New York's Memorial Sloan
Kettering Hospital. The enormity of the hospital and
medical bills became insurmountable. It was the
Actors Fund that came to our rescue. As it has for
others in our business for the past 125 years. If
not for their financial and moral support, we
probably would have had to sell our home.
Unfortunately, Edie died that year, but she was
comforted by the fact that we would survive
financially, thanks in large part to the efforts of
the wonderful people at the Actors Fund." Among
those on hand to support--and applaud-- was Norman
Lear, who reminisced with Burstyn on their first
meeting in Israel 30 years ago. Another guest was
Israel Consul Deputy for Information Gilad Milo.
Lansky had been refused Israeli citizenship and
forced to return to the U.S. (a decision agreed to
by today's Consulate, which noted the play honestly
represents what happened in 1973 just before the
five-day war).
"Lansky" has its eyes on Off B'way, and negotiations
are ongoing with the Actors Temple, says Burstyn,
who also produces with Dan Israely. Joe Bologna, who
wrote "Lansky" with Richard Krevolin, tells me they
will adjust for the bigger move after the play winds
at the Odyssey, Sept.9. Meanwhile Bologna and wife
Renee Taylor re-play "If You Ever Leave Me, I'm
Going With You," Sept. 7-8-9 at the Sun Coast in
Vegas and will next tour, joined by Lainie Kazan, in
another of his laffers, "Bermuda Ave. Triangle."
Bologna, philosophically says, "We (he and Renee)
don't have to wait for the phone to ring. We create
our own work. We're fortunate. Every night, when the
curtain goes up, we say, 'Thank you, God'--and, no
matter what has gone on backstage-- we're in love
again."
