Many years ago there was a restaurant/piano bar, Ted Hook's Backstage. I had the extraordinary opportunity to both bus and wait tables at this amazing establishment. Over my tenure there, I served many celebrities. It was a lot of fun and hard work, but the stories I take from that experience are priceless to me.
The before theater crowd were mostly tour buses. It was a price fixed menu and quite honestly, Backstage didn't survive on its food. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't exceptional, or what you'd imagine an establishment that catered to a large number of "industry personalities" would serve.
What it lacked in noteworthy food, was more than made up in the energy of the place. About an hour after the shows let out, you'd start to see the leads from the various shows make their entrance. Ted Hook had these rather cool looking table lamps made in the design of the circular stars that is the cliche of the backstage stairs leading to the dressing rooms. (Which theaters actually had those stairs?) The lamps could be labeled with the name of a "star". If you were famous, when you arrived, you were seated at a table with your name on the lamp. (There was even this device in the cloak room that allowed for quickly printing a new name, if needed.
Steve Ross held court at the piano bar and he was amazing. To this day, I have never seen anyone better than Steve Ross was at what he did. The piano was magic and more often than not, at some point in the evening there would be a performance by either Steve or a visiting celebrity that I can only describe as lost theater magic.
I saw Nell Carter sing I version of, I'm Telling You I'm Not Going, from Dreamgirls before there was a Dreamgirls and Ms. Carter decided to take, Give Me a Break, instead of waiting for the creative team to finally mount Dreamgirls and ultimately making Jennifer Holiday's career.
I think somewhere on here I wrote about waiting on Lucy Ball - she was visiting with her daughter, Lucy Arnez who was starring in, They're Playing Our Song. (She was monstrous. I was so crushed as I had adored her film and TV characters.)
The stories go on...
ARTc3 formerly ARTc. Actually been a poster since 2004. My name isn't Art. Drop the "3" and say the signature and you'll understand.
Updated On: 12/27/14 at 05:04 PM
