B (5:32)

It really isn't my documentary. It's David Serra's. But I was very impressed. No, Because I didn't want it to feel like a total vanity production. This French guy comes up to me and goes, I want to make a documentary about you. And I said, are you talking to me? Looked over my shoulder. But he did it, and he did a good job.

D (5:50)

He did a great job.

B (5:51)

He's very lucky.

D (5:53)

And I hadn't even realized some of the earlier work in your career. I kind of jumped in a bit later. You have had the most amazing journey through stage and TV and film and everything. And it's just incredible luck.

B (6:07)

And it's corny as anything, but it's usually the synchronicity of many other exterior. You know, they say coincidence is just when God wants to be anonymous, but many other exterior circumstances that conspire to help you on your way or the other way, actually. So kindness matters. If I learned anything in my life is that kindness is on the same level as talent. That for patronage, you need to be decent to people. People need to feel seen and heard when you're with them.

D (6:39)

And I saw you were part of the big Carnegie hall production this week. Tell us about that.

B (6:44)

It was a thrill. I was called by a producer, no fool, she. And she said, would you like to perform at Carnegie Hall? Well, there isn't a Broadway actor that wouldn't say yes to that one. And we're gathering performers to support the rebuilding of Kibbutz Bieri. And you'll be performing with Elie Shirabi, who was in captivity for 491 days and only lost his wife, his children, and his brother, who were murdered by the terrorists. And I said it would be a great privilege. And I showed up. Juliana Margulies, Debra Messing, Steve Guttenberg, David Schwimmer, most importantly, Elie Schrabi. And these Brits came in from the UK with a. Oh, yeah, here it is. It was called Letters Light and Love. And they're not two Housewives, but they've never produced anything in Carnegie Hall. And they went to the right patron, Danny Cohn, a Producer who's a British Jew or a Jewish person, a British Englishman. And he said, you've come to the right place because I am the artistic advisor to the Blavatnik family. Now, Len Blavatnik is, to put it mildly, loaded and is a philanthropist. He's a Russian Jewish philanthropist who left during the Refusenik era and has made his way in the world and does phenomenal things. He owns the Royal Haymarket Theater, which is like the Palace Theater. So they gave the theater free of charge to these two women and they did a show with big British stars that did very well. And then they brought it to America and then we did it and. And they said it went even better here. But why did it go better here? Because we're more expressive. You know, when you get a standing ovation in Britain, it's no joke. It's like it was for me and every other performer in the 70s that you got a standing ovation for your opening night. And if you were off the charts, astonishingly phenomenal. Otherwise, it was, you know, very vociferous. CLAPPING. Nowadays, people, you know, get up for a salamander, you know,

D (8:53)

you're gonna have to give Toba a standing ovation after this.

B (8:56)

Yeah, right.

D (8:58)

Can't let the salamander get the leg up there. Oh, my goodness. Well, let's go back to Lillyville, which I know we spoke about years ago. But in case for people who haven't read it, talk about Lilyville. And I also in your documentary, wish there were a few more imitations of your mom, because those are my favorites.

B (9:14)

May I just read you a quick excerpt, not from the book, but from my description of it? Yeah. This is for next week, but never mind.

D (9:26)

Oh, wait, read that.

B (9:27)

Zibby has top billing. Zibby has top billing.

D (9:30)

Tova. I know, we were getting to that too. Tova, of course, is Bina in Nobody Wants this with Adam Brody and Kristen Baum.

B (9:39)

This is short, but it's. Let me tell you about Lillyville. My mother, Lily, was born on a dining room table in the Bronx in 1911. She lived till she was a robust over 103 years young. And when I told her I wanted to be an actress, she said, why don't you just go into the kitchen, get my challah knife, stick it in my heart and twist it. When she came to Broadway to watch me in the musical Pippin and she saw me stop the show singing upside down while simultaneously performing a full out aerial act 30ft in the air, she said, tauva, that you should have to earn a living this way. And on a trapeze. Yet when I brought her to see Golda Meir in what would become the longest running one woman play in the history of Broadway, her comment tauva, I rate your parts by how you look. Dolly Levi was a 10. Golda Meir, 0. Welcome to Lilyville, where my mother, Lily, reigns supreme. And though all my parts happened on Broadway, in Hollywood, in concert halls, they all took place in Lilyville. For better or for exasperation, how do a Jewish mother who believes you cannot have it all and a daughter who lives like you can get along? They don't. Lilly was born before women's suffrage. I was born in the lap of the women's liberation movement. There was a two generation chasm between us. My mother gave birth when she was almost 40. Lilyville is about the bumpy uphill journey of my mother and me to try to figure us out. And in doing so, the memoir reflects the ever changing expectations of women for over 110 years. I couldn't possibly envision my memoir in any other format than the one I know best as a theater piece. The book is constructed in three acts with two intermissions. So come on to the theater of my memories. I'm Jewish. We're all about schmoozing. Well, schmoozing and suffering. Well, schmoozing, schmoozing, suffering and guilt. So I hope you buy this.

D (12:10)

What happened when this book came out? Did you just go around and crack everybody up everywhere you went?

B (12:16)

Well, it was during COVID So we had all these meetings on Zoom and the good clients, you know, the good askers, would ask for 100 books beforehand. That was the greatest. And I'd sit there signing it and sending my wonderful assistant, people like Sarah Zorn, without whom I couldn't function. Thank you. Sarah Zorn would go to USPS or in a rush to FedEx, and we would get these books out and somehow then they would distribute them. So those first meetings were like that. But of course, it's now been proven that in person meetings is better for the health of your brain. Seriously. Seriously. That living in community and all these things about the blue zones have to do with people going like this and not like this with their telephone, which is both scary and wonderful. And I'm now in the third act of my four act life. And the third act of my marriage will be. We just celebrated the 50th anniversary of our first kiss. Aw. On February 16, 1920, 26. He came backstage to Yentl. February 16, 1976 for the Washington's Birthday Special Matinee. And of course, February 16 this year fell on that Monday. So to the day, to the day we celebrated. And every day I lean over with my five feet. I used to be five, two and a half. Let's not discuss it. I leave Lena with my five feet and I put that leg over my six foot husband. And it's a very different feeling. It's very similar to the feeling of the first years of our marriage that the, as they say in the Torah, number thy days, for thy days are numbered. That we have these very precious times where we're still, well, we're still functioning on all cylinders. And I tell you, I'm getting so much work. I said to Patti LuPone, what's going on? Maybe everybody else is dead, you know, swear to God. So I can't even get facework done every day. You know, I keep getting jobs and it gives people encouragement that I have the New York City subway map on my face. So. So when it came out, you know, I got a very good rating. It was number one in parent child relations on Amazon. That was a really good thing. And the book, the book sold. And this book is curated. It's the 26th draft. When I handed in the 19th, my editor said, this isn't a book yet. These are pearls on a coffee table not yet strung together. It was a very good metaphor. It was then that I thought with the help of one of my best friends, Jeff Harner, who's a brilliant, brilliant cabaret artist and director and multi award winning cabaret artist with the Mac Award and every other word you could get in all events, he said, why don't you do it as a theater piece? Why don't you write it? So instead of chapters, I give you scenes. Instead of sections, I give you acts. Instead of opening remarks, a forward, I give you an overture. And instead of the last part, the epilogue, I give you the exit music. So it's constructed like that and it has two intermissions, so you can even go to the bathroom. And that was a good idea to begin with. And I wanted to make the book since I don't believe I'm an international brand. But clearly David Sarajo does believe I am an international brand. Anyway, since I'm not an international, I said, where can I go beyond my career? I'm not going to write. And I'm certainly not. I wrote this book. Nobody ghost wrote this book for me. So if you want to be with me, read this book. I mean, it is My voice and all my education. And it's a toast to. To the exigencies my parents put me under academically to achieve excellence. As my mother would say, excellence before happiness. So anyway, I went beyond my career. The career are what we call the in ones between chapters. In one is when the curtain comes down, a shallow curtain comes down in the front of the Broadway stage and somebody tap dances or does a number as they're changing the scenery behind you. So the big stage is the mother daughter relationship of two women who are at least an acre or two apart, like two beautiful trees. And eventually they bowered together because we had 18 years without my father and my mother would live to over 103. And I had my mother till I was 65 and my brother was 70. And we had time to work everything out because time runs out. So am I in a happy moment in my marriage? I'm in an ecstatic time in my marriage. And I'm so grateful I gave this. I demanded to give this party the first kiss. Andy's modest and is a negotiator. My father was a litigator. They both went to the same law school, et cetera. And they're both brilliant lawyers. But Andy goes behind the scenes. He said, don't do this. I said, andy, we have to do this. We have to stop the conveyor belt on this moment. So. So the party asked for. They said, your presence. P R E S E N C E. Your presence is our present but festive red. And people came in red. People came in red. Of course, my fan base and my age limit is kind of like this now. So people listen to me. People used to go up to Golda's balcony, and that was 2003, 4 and 5 on Broadway and say, I want tickets to Tova's balcony. And they said, no, it's Golda's balcony. It's Golda. It's the prime minister. You're slow, Suzuki. What is it they say? Montessori method, but you'll get it. Okay. God. Anyway, I've enjoyed very much talking about the book. And then you bringing it up and into my consciousness again is great, Libby. Really appreciate it.

D (18:04)

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B (18:15)

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D (18:21)

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A (18:31)

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C (19:01)

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D (20:01)

Tell us a little bit about. Nobody wants this. What has that experience been like for you? What are the actors like?

B (20:08)

It's fantastic. Why is it fantastic? Because the showrunners are kind. And the kingpin, which is Kirsten Bell, is a Michigan kid with her feet on the ground. That kid for her looks and her talent. And in the old days, she could be a real one, could be a real creep. When the star system was in action, it no longer exists. You know, once we started to get email and Instagram and Facebook, Facebook, the world closed down into one exigent, one demanding shtetl. Where you could be witness, where we witness the terrible wars that are going on. Not to get unecumenical, but there was a saying. Not when I was a child, but I heard it floating in the air. If you start with the Jews, it never ends with the Jews. And look where we're at now. We have conflict in Pakistan, in India, in Mexico in the Ukraine and Russia. And of course we have a full out war now in the Middle east between the United States and Israel against the terrorist regime of Iran. And if you ever want to get happy, just go visit a Persian American now. They're just thrilled out of their minds that there's a possibility that they could get their cloaks off and come back into their Chanel and their various incredible. And I don't know if you've ever been to a Persian wedding, but as I said to my daddy, because you've represented the, the Persians, the Alganian family. We went to a bat mitzvah at the Waldorf and I said, daddy, are we at a coronation? I've never seen, you know, 600 people. You know, they get offended if they're cleaner and their hairdresser and the person who, you know, they invite literally 600 people. So anyway, I was. I don't know what I'm talking about.

D (21:49)

Nobody wants this.

B (21:50)

Nobody wants this. So anyway, Christian Bell, it's funny, I always go global. I have to control myself. Okay. Kristen Bell is a fantastic human being. So the happiness comes down from the top. Most very similar to when I did the Walking Dead. Andrew Lincoln would get to the set early to thank the gardeners for mowing the lawn. And then the last day that I was on the series, he showed up. I said, andy, you're not working today. He said, I wanted to be here to watch your work. I wanted to learn. I wanted. I said, what? And when the person who has the most to do and has the biggest billing and gets the final bow is generous, you got it made. That community has it made, that team has it made. So that's my situation. And also the actors now are being siloed. It's not like the beginning of my career where I played Juliet. Three queens of Henry VIII was offered to play Anne Boleyn and little Princess Elizabeth I before she became queen by Richard Rogers. Where two of my nominations are for two Catholics, Maria Morelli in Lenmia Tenor and Sarava Brazilian woman Donna Flor that you have to fight for that. If you're not Brazilian, you don't get that part anymore. So I've been siloed and have been the Jewish mother In the last 24 months of Lea Michele, Anne Hathaway, Oscar Isaac, Rachel Bloom and Adam Brody in two years. And so if anybody needs a mother, I am here for you. I'm so excited. I'm coming out in another series called Mia Missing in Action, which is about the drug culture in Miami. And I get to play a sleeper agent who runs a seedy motel. And then you'll see what I'm capable of and how I train the young agents. It's like, what? So I wore a wig. I was so excited. You know, I'm a redhead in that thing. But usually you get siloed. So the idea if part of being siloed is Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom I've had the honor of playing, Ruth Westheimer and Golda May Eir. I'll take it. I'll take it. You know.

D (24:16)

What does performing do for you?

B (24:19)

I love it. I love being with you. And I'm at a point now in my dotage that I don't have a quickened pace in terms of my pulse. It's interesting, the syntax of an older person and word retrieval. I used to speak like Mrs. Maisel. Now I don't speak so much like Mrs. Maisel. So the difference in my pulse. Are you okay, honey? Come on in. Come in, honey. I had a text that you were great, so thank you. Where did you come from? The bathroom. Yeah, right. That's okay. That's right. Remember that from Crazy X? Where's the bathroom? Where's the bathroom? I need to use your bathroom. Tell me that you have this bathroom in the hovel you call home. That's how that starts. Anyway.

D (25:14)

You can dance, too.

B (25:15)

Absolutely. That'll come next. I have no quickening of pulse from there to there. I'm as excited to see you out there as I am in here. Am I a little adrenalized? Yes, but I'm delighted. I'm not frightened. And the trick is to do that when you have to sing, right? Because you'll read in the book. My mother walked in when I was 16 and I was next to our Steinway. And I think at that time, it wasn't even a grand. It was a spinet. And she said, terry, My birth name is Terry Sue. She said, terry, don't you have to be born with a voice? So that did it for me for about three or four decades. And finally I kept getting cast and, you know, one of my nominations, best actress in a musical. And I guess it's that my motto is, I will not be defeated. I will not be defeated. That's why I know that the state of Israel and the Jewish people, we may be. They may pick on 15.8 million people globally, but we are fantastic at survival. We have been honed by our enemies for thousands of years to survive, and we will survive.

D (26:33)

So what projects Aside from starring as more people's moms, what are you excited about?

B (26:38)

Well, I'm excited about doing Mia, where I'm a sleeper agent and she's lethal. She knows how to put a knife through somebody's arm. I mean, she is. Whoa. And for the Walking Dead, I did have to go to a gun range and learn to shoot bullets. And then that thing happened to dear Alex Baldwin. I mean, that was. That was a cloud he did not need. And I actually refused to shoot a gun that's even loaded with fake whatever. Now it's too dangerous. But I'm excited about that project. I'm excited about being hired. Unless you think I'm some heroine. Yes. We all work for nothing at Carnegie hall, of course, but being the emcee of the big, big gala dinner for the Magen David Adom. I say Magen David Adom, but my Ashkenazic stuff was corrected firmly by Israelis for the ambulance squads and the first responders. And that's at the breakers Hotel on March 26th in Palm Beach. So nobody wants. This has excised me from that need to film those days. They've been very good. After all, this is about a Christian girl, Erin Foster, converting to Judaism and falling in love with a Russian Jewish boy. This is Erin Foster's life. And if you want to talk about an Aryan, I mean, put us under your bed if there's a war, baby. She just totally. She looks like she's from. She looks like she's from Denmark. She looks so Scandinavian. And she's a great gal. So she's writing about the fundament of her life. And I think, you know, Zibi, as a writer, the most important thing is to write from which, you know, that's why when I changed this memoir into its theatrical form, I kind of got the courage to go forth and write it. I'm so glad that's the photographer and not a person leaving the house. Oh, my God. Anyway, so I'm excited about doing that. I basically do charity work. I work to enhance the Felt you Fund for Women's Health, which is for early detection of ovarian and all reproductive cancers. And that happened. Thank you. That was born out of the 50th anniversary of my 50th year of my work on Broadway, which was 2023. I made my debut in 1973 with Chris Plummer in Cyrano, the musical of Cyrano at the Palace Theater on 47th and Broadway. Wild to come into New York on Broadway, because I came from Minneapolis, where I was holding spears and understudying the leading ladies for two years at the Guthrie and then got a break. Got a lucky break. So I'm looking forward to those individual gigs, of which I have a few. And when I'm not working, I love to travel. I want to go to Patagonia. I've been to 95 countries. And I don't mean I've been to 95 countries. I mean I've been to 95 countries because I love to look at stuff. And the most exciting trip I've ever done in my life is tracking the guerrillas in Rwanda and Uganda. Now, the plumbing and the road situation and the clarity and cleanliness of the society is better in Rwanda. Know that. So if you only have a choice to go to one or the other, go to Rwanda. The guides are better, and they probably have it all down now. I was back in the day where you really had to walk sometimes five hours to find the alpha males and their family. But we should be so proud to be related to those animals. They fight for 40 seconds. George W. Bush sends people into Iraq, and our boys get killed for weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist there. So it's a very big difference between the Homo sapiens and the great apes. But that was a thrill.

D (30:20)

Okay, all right.

B (30:23)

Am I off the track?

D (30:24)

Tova. Okay, let's end this with a standing ovation for Tova, Please. Thank you so much.

B (30:33)

Thank you.

D (30:38)

Thank you for listening to Totally Booked with Zibby, formerly Moms don't have Time to Read Books. If you loved the show, tell a friend, leave a review. Follow me on Instagram ibbyoens and spread the word. Thanks so much. Oh, and buy the books.

E (31:00)

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D (31:54)

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