Page 7 - Robeson Living Spring 2022

Fuller and Lauren Bacall in the stage production Applause

and, in 2001, as best actress (featured role - play) for Neil Si- Then she eyed her prop - Corie’s suitcase. “I thought, ‘There
mon’s The Dinner Party. are logs in the suitcase that go in the little stove.’ I put that in
and never missed another thing. Robert Redford comes on with
In 2017 Gil Kann interviewed Fuller for the Broadway World terror in his eyes. Mildred Natwick is terrified. Kurt Kasznar...
website: I just calmed them down. I never forgot another thing. Even-
tually when she went on to do a movie, they put me on, that
She talked about the 1963 production of Barefoot In The Park, became my role. And to this day, we are besties, Elizabeth and
she was hired as Elizabeth Ashley’s standby for the lead of I, we still are friends.”
“Corie” opposite Robert Redford playing “Paul.” With only
four rehearsals under her belt and a half-hour notice, Penny In the musical Applause, Penny played Eve Harrington on
was called to go on for Elizabeth, due to Elizabeth’s debilitat- Broadway with Lauren Bacall in 1970 and, later, in its 1973
ing, tweaked back. “I’m in her dressing room. She’s writhing television adaptation. “They called me in out of town before
in pain from some back spasm. She’s so worried about me and they opened on Broadway. They were in trouble. The Eve they
I’m worried about her, which was probably good. I’m putting had chosen was not working. They flew me in from California
on the make-up and said, ‘I don’t have a wedding ring.’ She to Baltimore to look at it. I understood immediately, looking at
said, ‘Use the one I use. It’s my ex-husband Jimmy Faren- it what was wrong. The girl was too young and not a real threat
tino’s.’ They put this heavy fur coat on me which she wore to Lauren Bacall; I mean, Margo.
and they said, ‘Good luck!’ I heard the audience go ‘Awwww’
when they said Elizabeth Ashley wasn’t going on.” This is how I approached it. I want everybody who saw the
movie to think “Maybe I got it wrong. Eve really was not the
With just two minutes into the show; Penny went up on her evil person. That was Margo. I wanted to play her so well when
lines, her actions, her everything. “I started to go over to sit she was first coming in and trying to help that you thought, ‘I
down on the stage and cry. I thought everybody will under- don’t remember this movie right. So when the turn came, it was
stand. Talk about jumping off a cliff.” even more exciting.”

Robeson Living ~ Spring 2022 Page 7