Focus On: Ann Talman
“Elizabeth Taylor and The Shadow of Her Smile”

Q & A with Broadway Veteran Ann Talman about her show “Elizabeth Taylor and The Shadow of Her Smile”

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Your show beautifully blends storytelling and song—what do you hope audiences take away from this unique tribute to Elizabeth Taylor and your friendship with her?

I have been told that the show humanizes Elizabeth in ways nothing else ever has and that is a thrilling compliment to me and tribute to her. Also it introduces her to younger people who might not have known about her but leave fascinated and then GOOGLE!

She was a wonderful, loving, friend, daughter, mother, step mother, surrogate mother and eventually grandmother. AND she was the first celebrity to stand up and use her fame and fortune for AIDS activism. I address this in the show. AIDS was just rearing its head while we were in London with the show in 1982. It was being called, "That gay cancer from San Francisco." Within a year we had lost loved ones to it. She and Princess Di were the only people seen in photos unafraid to TOUCH AIDS patients! You saw them hugging them openly and fearlessly.

She was gracious and very generous. She was very funny and irreverent. She loved music, and cabaret especially. I did a cabaret while we were on Broadway in 1981 that ran 6 weeks. She came twice! And when I did a night in London in 1982 she was there and had wanted to lend me her jewelry! I was afraid I'd be kidnapped. We also attended the cabaret Peggy Lee and Tony Bennett did in Miami in 1981 at The Diplomat. 

You’re performing on Mother’s Day weekend—what makes this show a special experience to share with mothers, daughters, and families?

The show is at its heart about how Elizabeth almost uncannily sensed I was motherless the moment we met and she took me under her wing in a motherly fashion. Her daughter Liza Todd and I are only months apart in age and Kate Burton, who had been a dear friend of mine since 1980 and I are 3 days apart. My mother had been killed instantly in a car crash my junior year of college. My mother was severely clinically depressed the entire 20 years I knew her. 

I have had many people tell me that the mother aspect of the show is what meant the most to them, especially if they had similar issues. I spent a lot of time on this aspect of the show. I even did a solo show workshop with my mentor Matt Hoverman's protege to write a 20 minute show just about the mother issues of my bond with Elizabeth. I called it Who's Afraid of Elizabeth Taylor lol and never intended to actually mount it but merely to do the work to dig deep. 

I never wanted the show to be a tell all or shallow.

You include classics from Broadway and the Great American Songbook—how do those musical choices help bring your memories with Elizabeth Taylor to life for the audience?

They all further the narrative at all times. That was a very specific goal of mine. A song should always further the story and not repeat it or stray from it. In a musical or in cabaret. Some of the songs I include were percolating in my mind even in 1981 as I was experiencing it all. For example I always knew I would one day sing Long Before I Knew You about Elizabeth but it has also taken on a deeper meaning to be about my own mother as well. Then 2 other songs were always on my list even as far back as 1981. Once In A Lifetime and If They Could See Me Now. 

Elizabeth would often say things to me like: "Annie take it all in darling, take it all in." or, "Darling, this is a once in a lifetime dream we are living!" 

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