Publishers Weekly
07/01/2019
New York Times editor Jacobs explores the life of colorful and brash actor Elaine Stritch (1925–2014) in this celebratory biography. Stritch was born in Detroit, Mich., into a middle-class Catholic family and moved to New York City in 1943 “in pursuit of fun, music, nightclubs, and theater.” So began a legendary, boozy career that would include roles on Broadway (in Noël Coward’s Sail Away and Stephen Sondheim’s Company, among many others), in films (Woody Allen’s September and Small Time Crooks), and on television (most notably in Tina Fey’s 30 Rock). Jacobs moves meticulously through Stritch’s decades on the stage, from her audition for the road company of Oklahoma! shortly after her arrival in New York, to such achievements as her 2002 Tony Award–winning one-woman show At Liberty. The author covers Stritch’s complicated relationships with men (including her sex-deprived marriage to actor John Bay), her loneliness, and her struggles with alcoholism. She captures Stritch’s big personality through amusing stories, including the time Stritch smuggled her dog into England in a bag. Jacobs ends by praising Stritch for her “wit, resilience, unusual forthrightness, and courage.” This book, lush with detail and heavy on Broadway history, will appeal to Stritch fans and theater geeks everywhere. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
"Sparkling details . . . clink around Jacobs’s biography, Still Here, like ice in a rocks glass. Stritch, who died in 2014, was a true character, “full of piss and vinegar,” as Gleason said. It would be possible to write a serviceable book about her life by simply quoting her many one-liners, or by describing her habit of wearing only tights on stage . . . [b]ut Jacobs, an editor of the Styles section of The New York Times, doesn’t rely on Stritch’s charm to fuel the narrative." —Rachel Syme, The New Yorker
"[A] meticulously researched biography, which uses Stritch’s struggles with alcoholism as a window into her work and her life . . . as a chronicle of one impossible brilliant actor and the community around her, this biography provides a thoroughly entertaining and vividly drawn picture of show business in the 20th century." —Jason Robert Brown, The New York Times Book Review
"Fun . . . hits all the marks . . . Elaine would have loved Jacobs’s bio. It’s the picture she wanted to leave behind." —John Guare, Book Post
"Alexandra Jacobs’s Still Here: The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch is, like all good biographies, sympathetic to its subject yet unsparing in its analysis of her flaws. It also provides a marvelous trip back in time to a Broadway that’s gone forever: a Broadway before the advent of megamusicals, of body-miking, of the Disneyfication of Times Square . . . compulsively readable." —Brooke Allen, The Wall Street Journal
"Is it worth reading a 352-page biography of an actress whose most famous moment rests on singing one song, 'I’m Still Here?' . . . Let us put it this way: we could happily read 500 pages if they were written by Alexandra Jacobs. It helps, of course, that Stritch was such a character, that Jacobs was granted access to Stritch’s archives and family, and that candor comes easily to anyone Jacobs interviews." —Air Mail
"Compulsively readable . . . ravenously consuming . . . manna from heaven . . . If ever someone knew how to put a genuinely irresistible book together, it's Jacobs in Still Here." —Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News
"Stritch famously loved a good time and a good story, so she probably would have enjoyed Jacobs’s gossipy text, studded with juicy anecdotes . . . an absorbing story." —Wendy Smith, The Washington Post
"A fab read . . . Still Here will make you feel as if Stritch, brought back to life, is looking into your eyes and singing just for you." —Kathi Wolfe, Washington Blade
"[Still Here is] meticulously researched (supported by extensive interview and archival records), gossipy, vivid in period detail and atmosphere, and even analytical, guided by a central attempt to come to grips with Stritch’s onstage luminosity and offstage behavior . . . Highly enjoyable and full of personality." —Matt Windman, Theater News Online
"This book, lush with detail and heavy on Broadway history, will appeal to Stritch fans and theater geeks everywhere." —Publishers Weekly
"Alexandra Jacobs incorporates an astonishing amount of research, including countless personal interviews . . . her portrayal of Stritch is wholly fleshed out, from the actor’s earliest days as a socialite in Detroit to her time as the reigning grand dame of Broadway . . . Still Here will be a boon to those who revel in hearing about short-lived plays and musicals like Time Of The Barracudas and Goldilocks . . . This biography expertly sketches out the vast other hours of her life, painting a thorough picture of a woman who lived life on her own terms—in an age when it was exceedingly difficult to do so." —Gwen Ihnat, The A.V. Club
"Jacobs utilizes the massive cache of information [Stritch] left in her wake, including copious interviews and her archives. This meticulous research allows for the conjuring of a surprising and complex realness that serves as a deep and resounding undercurrent to the public persona so widely known . . . The power of Jacobs’ biography is the way she sets Stritch’s story against the canvas of a shifting century, allowing us to watch as the world expands beyond these limiting boxes for female performers, and cheer as Stritch was able to expand herself." —Kelly McMasters, Newsday
"Alexandra Jacobs’s engaging new biography, Still Here, fleshes out our picture of the raspy-voiced actress and singer . . . Written with the cooperation of the estate, clear-eyed affection, and considerable stylistic flair, “Still Here,” offers an intimate, somewhat open-ended portrait of Stritch that leaves intact, perhaps inevitably, the mysteries of her personality." —Julia M. Klein, The Boston Globe
"So engrossing an exploration of [Elaine Stritch] that to call it a 'biography' feels somehow inadequate . . . Jacobs thankfully leaves no stone unturned, making herself a warm and welcoming guide for strangers to Stritch while also diving with fervor into the moments devotees think they know inside and out. It is a meticulously researched romp, a harrowing excavation, an emotional séance, and a glittering family reunion." —Natalie Walker, Bookforum
"The Stritch presented here is a study in contrasts: she came off as a brassy freewheeler, but she was naïve enough to think Rock Hudson had a crush on her; she was a self-described strong woman, yet the women's movement didn't dent her staunch apoliticality . . . This was the key to her long-lasting appeal: she had an uncanny ability to play to an audience. This dishy biography will be a ride for the theatrically inclined as Stritch's 70-year career crosses those of Marlon Brando, Ethel Merman, Noël Coward, Angela Lansbury, Bea Arthur, and, of course, Hal Prince and Stephen Sondheim." —Booklist
“One of the more surreal, gratifying, and wonderful experiences of my career was when Elaine Stritch played my mother on 30 Rock. An acting lesson, a therapy session, a chance to know the great La Stritch. This book is your chance.” —Alec Baldwin
“Elaine Stritch brought a raw truth to musical theater that had rarely been seen before or since. Her whole self—warts, drinks, and all. In this biography, Alexandra Jacobs shows Stritch’s every pore, and we are all better for it.” —Sarah Silverman
I laughed. I cried. Alexandra Jacobs lovingly pulls back the curtain on "Stritchy," a sacred cow of American showbiz, revealing her to be as talented, reckless, flawed and fabulous as I always hoped she was.
—Simon Doonan, author of Drag and Wacky Chicks
“Alexandra Jacobs’s Still Here is a delicious, page-turning, and meticulous romp through the distinctive life of a feminist icon. The talented, urbane, smoking-and-drinking queen of Broadway’s tough dames lived a life of accomplishment, boldly frank opinions, and just as bold-faced names that defined the Great White Way (and Hollywood) of recent yore. Elaine Stritch balanced theatrical perfectionism, glamorous Manhattan evenings, and behavioral brinksmanship with the never-quite-dismissed lessons of her Catholic background in the Midwest. I learned as much as I was entertained and left smitten: my idea of a pretty terrific book.” —Sheila Weller, New York Times–bestselling author of Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon—and the Journey of a Generation and Carrie Fisher: A Life On The Edge
NOVEMBER 2019 - AudioFile
Narrator Andrea Burns is amazing! Her performance of NEW YORK TIMES editor Jacobs’s charming, well-researched look at the life of actor Elaine Stritch (1925–2014) is at once intelligent, amusing, and illuminating. In her seventy-year career, Stritch made her own rules, struggled with alcoholism, won awards, and knew many of the most famous authors, actors, and power brokers of the period. Burns's delivery of the many quotes by the madcap, nervy, singular Stritch is a small miracle. She sounds enough like Stritch to be absolutely convincing while maintaining energetic, credible voices for the many people whose lives Stritch touched. Well-earned name-dropping flows affectionately through Stritch’s story, including those of dear friends, work rivals, lovers, composers, producers, and fellow actor/celebrities. Wonderfully entertaining listening. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2019-07-03
New York Times features writer and cultural critic Jacobs makes her book debut with a biography of the glamorous, outspoken entertainer Elaine Stritch (1925-2014).
Stritch's career spanned nearly seven decades, ending in an acclaimed one-woman show that earned her the Tony Award she had long coveted. As an actress and singer, she had middling success, usually hired for a part when a bigger name was unavailable, or when a show went on national tour, or for summer stock. Often, she lost out to Angela Lansbury, who won many of the roles Stritch wanted: as Auntie Mame, for example, which made Lansbury "a definitive star of the musical theater," and as Madame Rose in Gypsy. "I'm sick of Angela Lansbury," Stritch once remarked. "I'm sick of people doing parts that I should be doing." In 1961, her performance in Noel Coward's Sail Away won accolades: She turned the play "into a one-woman show," one critic wrote. "Let's keep the busy Miss Stritch busier." But there were problems in keeping her busy: a reputation for "being tiresome, over-full of suggestions and not knowing a word" of her lines, as Coward noted; and, increasingly, alcoholism. "They all love Elaine," Lee Israel discovered when she worked on a feature story about Stritch. "But along the way lots of people have ceased to trust her," Israel wrote. "She drinks, they say." Stritch defended drinking as "a wonderful thing for social communication," but theater critic John Lahr saw a deep vulnerability. She was "the most panic-struck person I ever knew," he observed, "a hysteric, and completely terrified." In an engaging, thoroughly researched narrative, Jacobs chronicles Stritch's career, boosted by working with Stephen Sondheim and Woody Allen; her half-hearted attempts to get on the wagon; her friendships, romances, and marriage; kleptomania and refusal to pay restaurant tabs; and brazen money-grubbing. Put up at a Florida hotel for an event, for example, she brought her entire winter wardrobe for dry-cleaning "at the production's expense."
A sharply drawn portrait of an ambitious, fierce, and complicated woman.
