THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 8, 1996 TAG: 9610080042
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: 95 lines
ARCHIE BUNKER'S ditzy ``little goil'' Gloria arrives at Chrysler Hall tonight in a production of ``Grease'' that is already so popular it's been held over for three extra performances.
Sorry, Sally Struthers, but that's still the way we think of you - as the vulnerable, blond, addle-brained daughter of ultra-bigot Archie in ``All in the Family.'' Will we ever get over it?
``Probably not,'' Struthers sighed as she spoke from her Brentwood Home in Los Angeles. ``I'm used to it. People see `All in the Family' every day and they think of it as a new show. They come up to me and they always ask if I remember this particular show they just saw. First, they'll describe the plot. As often as not, I don't remember it at all. You have to remember, we did some 200 shows and it's been 18 years.''
Struthers won two Emmys for playing Gloria and, in spite of the fact that she cut out of the show when her contract came to an end, she says ``I never really got tired of playing her. It was the same character, but it was an entirely new show every week - and before a live audience. I never search out the show now but sometimes, late at night, it'll come on and it will bring back fond memories. Still, it would be interesting to think of what I might have been if I hadn't been what they call, quote, `a TV person,' unquote.''
Struthers clearly intended to be more than a one-character actress. She went from high school in Portland, Ore., to studies at the Pasadena Playhouse. After two years, she made her first TV appearance, as a dancer, on a Herb Alpert special.
She landed a small role in the now-classic movie ``Five Easy Pieces'' in 1970.
``I saw Jack Nicholson in Tiffany's, shopping, the other day and my girlfriend kept urging me to go over and say `hello,' but I figured he wouldn't remember me. I had just a small part. But he came over to me and talked a good while. He's a real dear of a man - and a true professional on a set.''
She also had a scene-stealing role in ``The Getaway'' with Steve McQueen as well as successful TV movies but her Broadway debut, ``Wally's Cafe'' ran only a short while and her overly-publicized return to TV in her own show, in 1982, lasted only one season. The show, called ``Gloria,'' cast her again as Gloria Bunker Stivic.
She's been on the road with ``Grease'' since August of 1994 and, as she puts it, ``love it, but, on the other hand, it means I have to live in hotel rooms and not be with my daughter and my dog. And I can't have a home. The main thing I miss about TV is that it was a job that allowed me to live at home. My contract on `Grease' is up in another six months, but I keep renewing it.''
She plays the tough English teacher Miss Lynch.
``Audiences are different in different parts of the country,'' she said. ``I've never been able to figure it out. We never can see the audience until at the end when they turn the house lights up. Sometimes you wonder if they're out there. Other times, they're wild. The real challenging thing about theater is being spontaneous and new about it every time out - even though you've been playing the part for eight performances a week for years.''
When off the road, Struthers lives in a house once occupied by screen legend Rita Hayworth. Her daughter, Samantha, 17, recently visited her on the road to evaluate colleges.
``On every day I didn't have a matinee, I took her to college campuses all over New England,'' mom said. ``She's settled on Vassar as the place she wants to go. We're getting applications off.''
Her work with Save the Children, an organization to aid disenfranchised, hungry and uneducated children around the world, will, according to her ``continue forever, as long as I live. It's the most satisfying thing I've ever done. I'd like to think that we'd wipe out world hunger during my lifetime but it doesn't look as if that will happen, so I'll continue to work. Since I've been touring in `Grease,' I couldn't travel for them as much as before, but I still plan to do that.''
As for the phenomenal success of ``Grease,'' which opened on Broadway in 1972 and has been running, in one form or another, ever since, she is loath to explain it.
``This is a show you couldn't beat down with a stick. I mean, people want it - it's that plain and simple. I think, maybe, the attraction is to a simpler time. About the worst thing a kid did back then was to smoke a cigarette or steal a hubcap. We had just won a world war, and everyone was celebrating. Back in the '50s, we didn't lock our doors.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
ON STAGE
``Grease''
When: Opening tonight at 8; performances at 8 p.m. Wednesday
through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, and
8 p.m. Monday through Oct. 16.
Who: Sally Struthers, Tracy Nelson, Adrian Zmed and Don Most
star in the new version produced by Tommy Tune, directed and
choreographed by Jeff Calhoun with music and lyrics by Warren Casey
and Jim Jacobs
Where: Chrysler Hall in Norfolk
How much: $27.50 to $37.50
Tickets: Available at Chrysler Hall box office and all
Ticketmaster outlets. To charge by phone, call 671-8100.
Call: 622-0288
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB