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[[left page]] GOLDEN GIRLS continued from page 39 stool and first faces the audience, the delight of recognition fills the theatre? Shirl Bernheim's eyes roll up when you ask what she's doing after her current Broadway assignment (as Linda Lavin's bowel-obsessed mother in The Tale of the Allergist's Wife). "C'mon," she cracks caustically. "In the hereafter? This may be my last hurrah. Where are they looking for a little old lady who now walks with a cane and has a filthy mouth?" Well, considering what a hilarious foil she is for the verbally rampaging Lavin, "they" need look no further. She sinks 'em like Ben Hogan. That should be a thrill for Bernheim, but she downplays it. "I don't know what a thrill is. I'm 79 and a half, for God's sake." Still, you know she's having the time of her life. One hint: "There are nights when I don't like what I do, and then I go out through that stage door, and they're waiting for me!" You probably wouldn't guess from the Bronx Jewish accent that she affects in this – and in Off-Broadway's The Old Lady's Guide to Survival, opposite June Havoc, a few years back – that Bernheim studied with Maria Ouspenskaya. "She used to tell me, 'Your woice wimits you.' I didn't think about it then, but boy did her woice limit her!!" Her only other New York theatre credit is Grease, which she did for ten weeks one summer when the original "Miss Lynch" went to England to birdwatch. Later, she toured in the part. Indeed, the bulk of her work has been on the road or in regional theatres. In Louisville she was mugged and, having no understudy, "had to go on, all beat up, with my face like a California sunset." And two years ago, she was struck by a car crossing the “Boulevard of Death” (a.k.a. Queens Boulevard). It took her a year to recover, but the allergist’s mother-in-law was waiting for her when she could come back to work again. The stage has been a perfect tonic for her. “I come into my dressing room every night, and all the problems that beset me at home just fall away,” she says. “They’re gone." ”There are nights when I don’t like what I do, then I go out through that stage door, and they’re waiting for me!” —The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife’s Shirl Bernheim [[caption inside the photo]]Shirl Bernheim (far r.) with the original cast of The Tale of the Allergist's Wife: (from left) Michele Lee, Linda Lavin , Tony Roberts and Anil Kumar [[credited]]Joan Marcus[[/credited]][[/caption inside the photo]] [[photo : two actors and three actresses on stage]] WWW.PLAYBILL.COM [[underlined]]PURE THEATRE ONLINE[[/underlined]] 50 [[/left page]] [[right page]] [[advertising American Airlines]] member of oneworld MORE ROOM ON BOARD MORE ROOM THROUGHOUT COACH FOR MORE COACH PASSENGERS. ONLY ON AmericanAirlines® www.aa.com ^[[2011.45.12]] [[/right page]]
