There she was, the unsinkable Molly Brown, raging against a roiling sea in 1964 Metrocolor. The scene was completely cornball and utterly gripping. She shrieked her credo: “I hate the word `down,’ and I love the word `up!'” For this, Mary Frances Reynolds was Oscar-nominated.
Almost four decades later, Debbie Reynolds is still up. Performing regularly at the Drury Lane Theatre, Reynolds still attracts the multitudes — most over 50, and few looking as good as she does at 70. Oblivious to the fact that she is unheralded by local media, she hit town in October for her fifth annual four-day lovefest with area seniors, and the tour buses lined up outside the Evergreen Park theater for what looked like miles.
“Every year she always sells out daily, 850 seats,” says Drury Lane CEO and executive producer John Lazarra. “They come from everywhere — Wisconsin, Indiana.”
In an era when dozens of senior citizens are drawing huge crowds to theaters, casinos, lounges and other venues, the John Lazarras of the world aren’t having any trouble drumming up business. Reynolds is just one in a group of prominent older entertainers who are racking up what Variety writers used to call “boffo” returns at the box office.
A recent New York Times magazine article stated that although people over 50 account for half of all discretionary spending in the U.S., less than 10 percent of advertising is aimed at them. People over 50 also seem to be the focus of few critical reviews, but that’s not stopping entertainment venues from catering to them.
“I book people I feel my customers want to see,” Lazarra says. “And they come if they want to. Like, Patti Page has a maple sugar farm, and is semi-retired, but she comes for me. Same with Jim Nabors, who’s a wealthy landowner in Hawaii. He chooses to perform here. Same with Bobby Vinton. These performers are still great, and my stage is home for a lot of them. They’re friends.”
Ravinia spokesman Nick Pullia says the Highland Park concert venue always sees high turnout when it books older stars.
“Age is not a criteria to us,” Pullia says. “Tony Bennett is a primary example. And in our Martinis at the Martin cabaret series, these older stars are terrifically in demand. If you like a certain genre of music, like cabaret, you get the best: Bobby Short, Lainie Kazan, Barbara Cook, all older performers. These shows sell out, every seat.”
Outside the movie industry
Reynolds, who also has a recurring spot on the sitcom “Will & Grace” as Grace’s mother, says stars her age, especially women, are often more successful entertaining outside the movie industry.
“Men over 60 — Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, James Garner, the men seem to be OK. The women, I guess we’re all supposed to drop down a hole,” Reynolds says. “I was lucky to get to do `Mother’ [in 1996] for Albert Brooks, and the mother’s age wasn’t specified. I always give my age because I don’t really give a frankly Scarlett. But the industry does. If you give ’em a 70 or a 60, they just think that’s a dead person.”
Far from dead, Reynolds is quick on her feet and always ready with a witty line. Her audience expects perky and she gives it.
“After my first husband, I thought my next one should be rich,” she confides to the crowd. “He was. A gambler. He lost all his money, 32 million, and nine million of mine, and then he died. I don’t know where he went, up or down.” After relating her third husband woes, she concedes that she should have married Burt Reynolds. “We share the same last name, and we could have shared wigs.”
Skilled at mimicry, she flings a pink marabou wrapper over her spangles, assumes the accent of a spoiled Hungarian temptress, and becomes Zsa Zsa Gabor. Imitating Barbra Streisand, her props are a chic black dress, a pageboy wig and a false nose — somewhat over the top, but her voice and timing are flawless.
The audience laughs in the right places, loving her as she plays to the elderly deaf man in the first row. She sits on his lap and repeats punch lines he missed. Her act is a long way from improv, though there are ad libs because she is witty and, like old-time vaudeville troupers, on the lookout for paroxysms of audience response.
Reynolds rap
Clips from her films are projected on a screen above the audience and she sings along, telling Hollywood tales. To the rapt audience she says, “They don’t have songs today like we sang in the ’40s — like `Mairzy Doats.’ Let’s sing it, it’s my rap. I call it Reynolds rap.” Her drummer, Gerry Genuario, and her conductor/pianist, Joey Singer, strike a few exclamatory notes.
“I told George Lucas, `Just because we get older . . .'” she sighs. “They don’t really want us, they don’t get how cute we are.” The audience empathy is almost palpable.
Mike Scanland, talent buyer and producer at Chicago’s Jam Productions, says many older performers are at the top of their games and don’t want to retire.
“Casinos and riverboats, land-based, offer new touring circuits for the journeyman entertainer,” he says. “They may have been on the job for a long time, but they love to perform.” For nationwide Hyatt Gaming Properties, Scanland has booked Harry Belafonte, Lou Rawls, Paul Anka, Tom Jones, The Beach Boys, Merle Haggard and The Righteous Brothers. “Casino audiences who are older love older entertainers.”
Charles Blum, president and talent buyer for Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville, Ind., says, “We have something for everyone, 8 to 80. I’ve booked Tom Jones, the Oak Ridge Boys, Mitzi Gaynor last year, and she brought in really mixed audiences.
“Often you find all ages at concerts, because sometimes teens are exposed to the music of people like Humperdink and Wayne Newton by what I call the tweeners, between 40 and retirement,” he says. “So, they get to like this music too.”
“A White Christmas Fantasy — A Tribute to Santa & Bing Crosby” appears at the Star Plaza Dec. 5, and tribute shows for Jack Benny, Johnny Carson, the Andrews Sisters and Liberace are scheduled there in 2003, says Michael Embrey, producer and creator of FunMe Events, Excursions & Entertainment.
Older entertainers are also big in the cruise ship industry.
“Because many cruises attract seniors,” says Robin Cahill, who books acts for Royal Caribbean out of Miami. “I’ve hired Ben Vereen, Mickey Dolenz, The Fifth Dimension, The Platters, Charo and others.”
Erik Elvejord books older stars on some Holland American ships out of Seattle. “Stars like Sandy Duncan or the Gatling Brothers love it; they fly in and fly out, part of a long cruise. We’ve had Marvin Hamlisch and Debbie Reynolds.”
Living life to its fullest
Reynolds, after her Drury Lane performance had ended, relaxed in a closed-off area at the theater’s Martinique Restaurant and ordered lobster.
“OK, we’re not 21,” she says of herself and her fellow senior performers. “We’re a supertrain, millions like us. We’re talented, we love our work and we love our life. And by God, we’re going to live it to the fullest.”
And that keeps Lazarra happy.
“The reason I love her,” he says, “is that she’s the consummate performer. This trip, before she came, she was rehearsing “Will & Grace” on TV all week, and she told them she had to leave for her commitment in Chicago. She flew half the night, had little sleep and preparation time, and did her first 2 p.m. show, never complaining. It was as good a show as all the others all week. I’d do anything for her.”
And the audience?
“They’ll keep on coming,” Lazarra says. “I’ve already booked her for 2003.”
