October 25, 1927– Barbara Cook. The Husband isn’t quite the musical theatre aficionado that I am, but he does have a theatre background & he is a gay man of a certain age & he has excellent taste. In NYC, on a beautiful 1998 October evening, it wasn’t too difficult to pull him into my agenda of seeing Hedwig & The Angry Inch downtown & then hightailing to the Upper Eastside to catch a late night show with one of my most favorite performers, Barbara Cook, doing her cabaret act at The Carlyle. It was our 19th anniversary & we had seen Cook at the same venue on our 16th. I was hoping for a new tradition. To see one of my favorite performers in that tiny venue, just inches away & to listen to that gorgeous, august soprano doing the best music of the past century, & sharing it all with the man that I love.
To fans of musical theater, cabaret, or just superb singing, Tony & Grammy winner Cook has given 2 lifetimes’ worth of happiness. In the 1950s & 1960s, Cook originated the leading roles in many of the best musicals including Candide (1956), She Loves Me (1963) & The Music Man (1957). Among many other achievements, she is possibly the greatest interpreter of the music of Stephen Sondheim.
Much loved by gay people, Cook even starred in a Broadway musical titled The Gay Life (1961). She is also the mother of an out & proud gay son, 56 year old LA based actor/ teacher/ vocal coach Adam LeGrant. She speaks movingly of their experience together with the same warm openness that she brings to her songs. Cook:
“When he told me he was gay, I laughed. I laughed! Because it was the farthest thing from my mind. He said: `Mom, I’m not kidding.’ It was like a thunderbolt, & I was very upset. The family & the grandchildren & all that stuff bothered me. But more than that, here was this person whom I thought I knew so well, & here was this enormous part of his life that I knew nothing about. I felt as if I didn’t know my own son. I was very upset, not so much at the time, because I was in shock, & I also didn’t want to make Adam feel bad. Then I went into a kind of depression & really, really cried for 5 days & mourned the son I thought I’d had. On about the fifth day of that, I said to myself: What the hell is going on?”
“I’ve always felt that I was not a part of the mainstream of life. I don’t know what the hell I mean by that, but it’s the only way I know how to put it. When I had a son it seemed to connect me more to the mainstream. When Adam told me that he was gay, I felt, I’m no longer a part of the mainstream. Then my next thought was: my son is not here to make me feel comfortable. He’s here to be the fullest person he can be & what I have to do is help him fulfill himself as much as I can. When that came to me, the whole thing lifted. I love him so much. I loved him then, & I love him now. & I like him…that’s the thing.”
Cook has involved with PFLAG (Parents, Families & Friends Of Lesbians & Gays) for a long time:
“What I will never, never be able to understand is how a family or a mother or father could ever be able to turn their backs on a child because of homosexuality, & do that to themselves, much less to their children. I can’t understand how anyone could come to that.”
Cook is candid about her struggles with depression, weight, alcohol, & the disappointments of show biz.
As a youngster, I was the ultimate little musical theatre fanatic. I had every Original Cast album of every musical, with a specialty in obscure shows & the flops. Among that collection were shows that had featured Barbara Cook: Flahooley (1951), Plain & Fancy (1955), The Grass Harp (1971); plus hit revivals of classics Show Boat, Carousel, & The King And I. My personal favorite of her many hits is the perfect bon-bon of a musical She Loves Me (1963).
In the 1970s, I was firmly a fan before Cook resurrected her career with a successful turn doing cabaret & concerts. In the summer of 1975, her Barbara Cook At Carnegie Hall concert album was my most played record.
I was so excited about the first time I saw Cook live. I was a 21 year old college student in LA in 1975. In line to see her cabaret act, I sent Cook a note backstage at Studio One, a gay disco in West Hollywood. My missive explained that was I a huge fan, that her concert album was the soundtrack to my life at that moment & that my date for the evening was not a fan of standards or show tunes, but a rock n’ roller that had been won over by the repeated listening of her album while in my company, explaining that she had won over a Led Zeppelin fan with her resplendent interpretations of pop & Broadway & standards.
I was more than a little shocked when a clip-board holding staff member of Studio One, asked those in line: “Stephen? Stephen? Would you come with me? Ms. Cook would like to speak to you”. I was ushered into the tiniest of dressing rooms, where I was treated to a meet & greet with one the most perfect virtuoso performers of the popular song. Cook told me had a real laugh reading my note, What must she have made of me, this young, gushing, saucer eyed fan sporting a big red afro?
Cook received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2011. She continues to give concerts. Her singing has not declined, but it has changed, mellowed & even has more weight & a different emotional depth.
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