THEATE

Hello, ‘Doctor’
Carol Channing returns with an intimate new show, a new degree and new sense of purpose in life

By Tray Butle
Friday, October 07, 2005

After five decades in show business, and more than 5,000 performances of “Hello, Dolly,” Carol Channing is taking on what she calls her most challenging role ever: Herself.

In “The First 80 Years are the Hardest,” the one-woman cabaret show Channing brings to Feinstein’s next week, the Broadway phenom delivers an up-close-and-personal evening of storytelling, singing, and even a little soft shoe. Call it “Carol Channing Unplugged” — or perhaps the first lady of musical comedy wishes she’d thought of that herself.

“When they hear the title of the show, some people have said, ‘Aw, was it hard on you?’” says Channing, who turns 85 in January. “But no, I had a glorious life in the theater. What I meant was, ‘Don’t give up. Don’t despair.’”

The advice fits Channing’s current life like an opera glove: It’s been two years since her December-December marriage to Harry Kullijian, who was her childhood sweetheart, and Channing is still as giddy as a sophomore when she talks about the relationship.

“I didn’t realize at the time how rarely it is to have such harmony,” she says of her fourth husband. “I consider this my first marriage.”

Earlier this year, talk of a different kind of marriage made Channing’s many gay fans raise an eyebrow or two. In an interview with a gay paper in Palm Springs, the actress was quoted as saying she was against gay marriage, coming out for civil unions instead. Channing’s (gay) publicist Harlan Boll insists the statement was taken out of context.

Despite the flare up, the actress is definitely still aware of who her core fans are. When asked about her dedicated gay following, she gives a dead-pan response: “Oh? I wasn’t aware of it.”

Joking aside, Channing says she’s not sure why drag queens never much cared to tackle her — even in “Hello, Dolly” days — but she was pleased with Carol Burnett’s imitation of her some years back.

It’s a sweetly telling gesture, perhaps, that she brings up that other Carol of comedy, and that the anecdotes she shares in our interview include the likes of Yul Brenner, Sophie Tucker and Kitty Carlisle Hart (who, Channing says, stays young thanks to a near-obsession with swimming — who knew?).

When Channing arrives in New York, she plans to catch her old friend Elaine Stritch, now doing a one-woman show of her own at the Café Carlisle. But beyond that, she hasn’t had a chance to plan for too many other Broadway outings, perhaps because she’s been busy touring “The First 80 Years” — in locales as distant as Sydney. Channing admits she’s dying to see “Hairspray,” and of course catch up with her many New York friends.

But these days she is less concerned with what shows are the toast of Broadway and more focused on passing her vast storehouse of knowledge to the next generation. Last year she added another feather to her well-plumed cap when California State University awarded her an honorary doctorate degree. Two dozen other schools followed suit with similar honors. Channing has since returned the favor to academia by participating in a series of master classes in California schools — giving theater students the chance to rub shoulder pads with a bona fide Broadway legend.

Though she doesn’t much care for the “l” word — “legend” — herself, she’s beside herself with enthusiasm about being involved in the classes and starting up her new arts foundation.

“It’s exciting to me because my life has not been in vain,” she says. “A performance is magnetic at the moment, but it doesn’t last. You can forget a performance, but you won’t forget something you’ve learned.”

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