Wasn't it Oscar Wilde who said that "life imitates art far more than art imitates life"?
Lucky is the person to witness it full force in action. And Wilde would have loved last week's performance of the off-Broadway hit, Celebrity Autobiography, skillfully created by Eugene Pack and Dayle Reyfel. During each show, celebrities, who have included Ryan Reynolds, Matthew Broderick and Kristen Wiig read from memoirs of stars -- think Cher, Ricky Martin, the Situation, Suzanne Somers. (In "Early Poems of Suzanne Somers," the actress writes, "it was only two weeks, but we loved, God how we loved until you had to go back home with gifts for the children.")
But at this past Monday's performance, Dayle Reyfel, who brilliantly reads from Marilu Henner's tome, By All Means, Keep On Moving, gave the audience something extra special.
Reyfel began reading from Henner's memoir:
"Doing Taxi was five years of self-examination and growth for me as both an artist and a woman. From day one, the cast had a lusty, affectionate spirit that made me feel I had come home. Tony [Danza] would walk in, back me against a wall or throw me down on a table, and kiss and grope me all over, as someone would yell out, "Is Tony in yet?" That kind of frisky energy drove life on the set.
At the end of her reading, Reyfel joyfully announced to the crowd: "I am beyond excited to introduce this brilliant performer for the first time in our show. And in the words of Marliu, 'Is Tony in yet? Yes! Please welcome, Tony Danza!'"
It turned out that Danza, one of the evening's performers, was standing in the back of the intimate cabaret-style theater (and on deck to read David Hasselhoff's Don't Hassel the Hoff, which he did with great panache). What's more, he and his real life Taxi co-star Carol Kane, were huddled together in fits of laughter during Reyfel's reading. (Later that night, Kane performed from Dolly Parton's memoir.) After Reyfel's too fitting introduction, an unruffled Danza took to the stage. His response to Henner's story? "It's all true!"
And it's all true...