First Listen: Paul Williams' Love Song for Elaine Stritch - 'Looking for Love in the Dark'

By: Jul. 23, 2014
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Variety just premiered a love song composer, singer-songwriter, director and actor Paul Williams wrote for the late, great Elaine Stritch last year after watching her documentary ELAINE STRITCH: SHOOT ME. It's called "Looking for Love in the Dark", and you can listen to it HERE!

The tune is inspired by a scene in the film in which Stritch talks about her husband John Bay.

"I had a real connection when she talked about her husband, that she was made for this man," Williams told Variety. "There was such an acceptance of him being gone, and the love that survived the ages."

When Williams finally met Stritch after her final show last spring at the Carlyle, he said: "She looked at me and said, 'Oh my god! The f-king song!' It was a great Elaine moment."

Broadway legend Elaine Stritch passed away on July 17 at her home in Birmingham, MI. She was 89.

She made her professional stage debut in 1944 and her Broadway debut in the comedy Loco in 1946. Notable Broadway credits include her Tony Award nominated roles in the original production of William Inge's 1955 play Bus Stop, Noël Coward's 1961 musical Sail Away, Stephen Sondheim's 1970 musical Company, which includes her performance of the song "The Ladies Who Lunch", the 1996 revival of the Edward Albee play A Delicate Balanceand her 2001 Tony Award winning one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty.

Stritch won an Emmy Award in 1993, for her guest role on Law & Order and another in 2004, for the television documentary of her one woman show. From 2007 to 2012, she had a recurring role as Jack Donaghy's mother Colleenon NBC's 30 Rock, a role that won her a third Emmy in 2008.

More recently, she appeared in the Broadway revival of the Sondheim-Wheeler musical A Little Night Music, from July 2010 to January 2011, succeeding Angela Lansbury in the role of Madame Armfeldt.

Her documentary, ELAINE STRITCH: SHOOT ME recently had its New York City premiere, in which she is showcased both on and off stage via rare archival footage and intimate cinema vérité. By turns bold, hilarious and moving, the film's journey connects Stritch's present to her past, and an inspiring portrait of a one-of-a-kind survivor emerges.


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