Final bow for golden girl Lois Winter Crandell Submitted By: N.O.V.A March 2006 Source: Times Picayune 01-25-2006 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Lois Winter Crandell, who died last week at the age of 91, was a polished, irreplaceable presence in local theater, our grande dame indeed, in both senses of the phrase. "She was the leading aristocrat of the New Orleans stage," said Frank Gagnard, former chief critic of The Times-Picayune, who had reviewed and admired Crandell for years. He wrote the wickedly witty monologue "Garden of Memories" for her, and it became one of the highlights of all the "Native Tongues" evenings. "I wrote with her voice in mind," Gagnard said, "and hearing my words come out of her mouth was a dream come true." In an interview last year, Crandell said, "Monologues are difficult. You're out there on your own and you sink or swim. Carl Walker directed and told me, 'This woman is lower than a snake's belly.' And I said, 'I think I can handle that.' " "Her discipline and instincts were extraordinary," Walker said. "She was always seeking the humanity, the humor, the pathos in every character she played, and her emotions grew from the character. In 'Garden of Memories' she was playing an evil, hateful woman, and the audience enjoyed every minute of it." Walker also directed her as Ouiser in "Steel Magnolias" and in "Driving Miss Daisy," with Harold Evans, with whom she shared a camaraderie onstage and off. "What a gracious person," Evans said. "She possessed the qualities that the character did: real gentility, manners and breeding. And she was always a lot of fun to be around." When "Magnolias" playwright Robert Harling's parents came to see "Steel Magnolias," Walker said, "his mother hugged Lois and said, 'You're the best Ouiser I've ever seen.' " Ouiser's famous line was, "I'm not crazy, I've just been in a bad mood for 40 years." Crandell said she went through a shorter but similar period like that. She returned to New Orleans after traveling the world as an Army colonel's wife, divorced, with two children to support. She had a full-time job with the city of New Orleans Health Department but became a major player in community theater. She played "sophisticated lady" parts at first, in plays such as "The Reluctant Debutante" and "Any Wednesday." But she was discontent, a "brooder," she said, and began to take on edgier roles: the sharp-tongued Eleanor of Aquitaine in "The Lion in Winter"; the severe Mary Todd Lincoln in "The Last of Mrs. Lincoln"; the waspish mother in "Butterflies Are Free"; the worldly Mother Superior in "Agnes of God." "The word was," she said, "if you want a bitch, get Lois Crandell." As she got older, she ventured out from Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre, where she had grown up playing Shaw, Kaufman & Hart and Noel Coward. She appeared at the Contemporary Arts Center, Rivertown Repertory Theatre, the old Tulane Center Stage and the original Minacapelli's. She had been off the stage for four years when director Keith Briggs lured her back for "Morning's at Seven" at Rivertown in 2001, opposite her longtime friend and colleague Stocker Fontelieu. Their association dates back 53 years, to Dorothy Parker's play "Ladies of the Corridor," in which they both appeared at Le Petit. He subsequently acted with and directed her on many, many occasions. "For a long time," Crandell said, "I didn't think there was any director but Stocker Fontelieu." "Lois brought a perception, a knowledge of character to the stage that was as if she'd been researching the part long before she got it," Fontelieu said. "If you had her in your play, you knew you were off and running." When Fontelieu read the A.R. Gurney play "The Golden Age," about a literary mystery which featured what the playwright described as "a spectacular old woman," Fontelieu thought, "He must know Lois Crandell." "I gave her the play," he said, "and she called me two days later and said, 'If you cast anybody other than me as that old lady, it will be the last play you'll ever direct.' " In my review, I wrote, "Effortlessly elegant, with a cultivated speaking voice and a regal bearing, Crandell is playing a crafty, cunning woman of mystery in a spirited, patrician performance. The role carries a heavy line load, airy aphorisms tossed off with élan, barbed banter and at one point, Crandell forcefully enunciates a very undignified four-letter word that prompted more than a few gasps. "On opening night, at the age of 90, she was letter-perfect throughout the evening." "There were a lot of famous names dropped in the play," Fontelieu said, "and I 'improved' it with a few more, and Lois loved this. She helped in finding era-appropriate people we could mention. She always had input into whatever play we were doing. She helped define a play in a very creative way." "Lois radiated the joy of being in the theater," said Helen Blanke, who co-starred with her in "The Golden Age," along with Jimmy Murphy. "I kept thinking to myself, 'You're never going to have a better experience than this.' Because you learned so much working with Lois, just listening and watching her. Jimmy and I marveled at her power onstage. We worked hard to keep up with her. "At the end of the play, her character died, but she went out in style and that's the way it was with Lois, too." "You know what I like to think she's doing now?" asked Gagnard. "She's teaching God how to take a curtain call, and she's saying, 'Bow from the hips, dear, keep the spine straight.' "