By Chip Deffaa***In her remarkable solo show at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania, Penny Fuller reflected on a career spanning more than 65 years. Through stories and songs, she shared A Life in the Theater. Now it’s no secret that Fuller is in her 80s. But from time to time as she performed, I closed my eyes and just listened. If I did not know her age—if I were making a guess just from the sound of her vibrant voice and the joie de vivre that she projected so vividly, I would have guessed she was in her 30s.
I’m glad I drove down to New Hope to catch her performance. I wish I could have taken every aspiring performer I know with me. Not just because of the sheer entertainment value. (This was the best solo show—or very-nearly solo show—that I’ve seen in years.) But because Fuller, through her stories, songs and strong presence had so much to teach younger artists. A successful career in the arts requires not just talent, but drive, self-confidence and focus. And boy! All of those qualities were abundantly on display.
She was not quite alone on that stage. Her longtime musical director, Bruce Barnes, was at the piano, ready to play seemingly any song she might feel like offering. And the night’s host, Alexander Fraser, the Producing Artistic Director of the Bucks County Playhouse, was there to ask an occasional question, comment on something she’d said, or introduce a film clip. But for the most part, it was simply Penny Fuller, sharing reminiscences with us as if we were guests in her living room. And what a memorable night she treated us to.
She’s long been a great favorite of mine. Let me share one high point of the night.
Fifty-six years ago, I watched Fuller play the ambitious, scheming “Eve Harrington,” opposite Lauren Bacall (as “Margo Channing”) in the original Broadway production of Applause. And now, in New Hope, we in the audience watched a vintage film clip of young Penny Fuller doing her big number from that show back then. Then, midway through the number, the film clip was stopped. The lights came up. And we watched Fuller, now in her 80s, will herself into that character she’d played 56 years before. Fuller became, right before our eyes, the steely, manipulative young “Eve Harrington”—and she performed the rest of the number for us “live.” And the transition from the film clip of Fuller performing the number in her youth, to Fuller performing it now, more than a half-century later, was seamless. I’ve never seen anything quite like that. It took guts to do it. And Fuller pulled it off brilliantly, with a kind of fierce concentration that compels attention.
Fraser said he’d sought for 12 years to bring Fuller—an old friend—to the theater for a show like this. I’m very glad she finally said yes. Accompanied by Barnes on piano, Fuller sang songs from musicals that she’d performed in over the years in New York, ranging from the Gershwins’ Oh, Kay! and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel to Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret and Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George.
She noted that she’d started out as a dramatic actress, and her career included plenty of straight plays (everything from Neil Simon to Shakespeare) as well as musicals; her singing, throughout the night, was informed by her terrific acting skills. I particularly relished her thoughtful, reflective interpretation of Noel Cowards’ If Love Were All, which she added that she’d learned some 60 years ago from her lifelong friend, Linda Lavin (1937-2024), when they were both struggling young “unknowns” rooming together in New York City.
She made it clear that if you want a life in the theater, it’s not enough to hit the notes correctly and say the right lines. Her Moxie, not just her talent, got her places. She said “yes” to opportunities as they arose, even if—on a number of occasions—it meant stepping into a role with almost no time to rehearse.
Fuller noted that she was not the producers’ first choice for the role of “Eve Harrington” in Applause. But when it became clear, during pre-Broadway, out-of-
town tryouts, that the actress they’d originally chosen wasn’t cutting it, they abruptly fired her and had Fuller, with almost no time to prepare, take over the role. The actress who’d been fired watched Fuller perform the role, trying to figure out what she’d done wrong and what Fuller was doing right.
Fuller scored in the role of “Eve Harrington,” she felt, because she realized (as the actress originally cast had not) that she’d somehow have to match, each night, the tremendous strength that Lauren Bacall projected on stage, if audiences were to believe she posed a formidable threat. For Fuller, that was the main goal—to somehow project on stage the same sort of power that Bacall did. Then, and only then, she believed, would the show fully work. She added that she had the highest regard, on stage and offstage, for Lauren Bacall. She recalled the last time she chanced to see Bacall, not long before Bacall’s passing in 2014. Fuller stopped by the restaurant Joe Allen’s for a late dinner. She noticed Bacall, accompanied by her nurse, was dining there that night. She snuck up behind Bacall and said “Ms. Channing, it’s Ms. Harrington.” To which Bacall responded: “Jesus Christ, Fuller! What are you doing out s
o late?”
There were many more stories and songs, and film clips of Fuller in All the President’s Men with Robert Redford (with whom Fuler had worked on Broadway) and The Elephant Man, for which she won an Emmy. Alex Fraser’s questions were pertinent, and Barnes’ accompaniment fit her perfectly. Penny Fuller was comfortable, relaxed and clearly among friends. Her energy brightly filled the Bucks County Playhouse’s Barn (its second, more intimate performing space).
It was a prestige booking for the Playhouse—a night to remember. And I’m very glad that Alex Fraser, who will be retiring shortly as Producing Artistic Director, made it possible. In the last dozen years, Fraser and his colleagues have done a terrific job in turning around the Bucks County Playhouse (which I observed go through a disheartening period of decline in the 1990s and early 2000s). Penny Fuller is one of Fraser’s final bookings before he retires; I’m happy to see him ending his successful tenure on such a high note!
Top photo courtesy of Bruce Barnes
