I was an usher at the Public when Virginia Vestoff did an absolutely dreadful musical of the Misanthrope. It was so bad that the only way to improve it was to get a completely new score--which they did! And it too was pretty darn bad. The poor performers were doing the new version in rehearsals during the day and the old one at night.
Vestoff was clearly well-loved and very sweet.
Her voice is lovely in Man With a Load of Mischief--I never saw her in it. She was wonderful in Getting My Act Together, which I did see. At the final performance at Circle in the Square (Gretchen Cryer had returned), Vestoff was in the audience. She was visibly ill. My friends and I went over to talk to her, to tell her how much we admired her work and how glad we were to see her out and about. She was very friendly and sweet. She was gone not long afterward. |
