SAVETHEDATES! MARCH 10-18, 2018 mjff.org 66 p o r t l a n d monthly magazine Isn’t That… her radio program every Wednesday night. I also did a number of plays and musical performances at Deering High School.” L avin went on to study drama at The College of William and Mary and be- gan performing summer stock in New Jersey. Full of drive, she went to Manhattan in the early 1960s in search of theater gigs. There she met famed producer/director Hal Prince while rehearsing her first Broad- way show, A Family Affair. Prince spotted Lavin in the chorus and, impressed with her singing and acting, gave her five more parts in that production. Prince would con- tinue to land roles for Lavin in a number of shows, including Superman and the revival of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide at the New York City Opera in 2017. “We’ve had a long and lasting affectionate relationship,” Lavin says. “He was my earliest and greatest men- tor. As a director, Prince always brought out the best in me.” Roll the credits Her talents have won her a Tony for Broad- way Bound, Drama Desk, Outer Critic, and Helen Hayes Awards, plus numerous nom- inations. She’s starred in over 50 films (in- cluding The Intern, with Robert DeNiro and Anne Hathaway, 2015), TV shows, and plays, leaving her indelible shine on every- thing from The Sopranos, How To Be a Lat- in Lover, Gypsy, The Intern, Follies, and The Good Wife, to The Muppets Take Manhat- Ever heard “Kiss my grits?” It earned stardom in Alice. Fun fact: At age one,Linda Lavin astonished her parents by standing up in her crib and belting out “God Bless America.”According to her mom,Linda was singing before she could talk.A refrain of Lavin’s 1966 Broadway musi- cal hit “You’ve Got Possibilities!” echoes across time and space.From the first,her career was written in the stars. Fun fact: “Production of 9JKL takes place in the former sound stage home of Roseanne (1988),(StageTwo at CBS Studio Center),which,due to its wide and expansive NewYork-themed sets, utilizes one of the largest sound stages on the lot.When Roseanne (2018) was announced as a revival in 2017, it was not able to return to its original stage and instead was moved to Stage 15.”–imdb.com