There are certain couples in the entertainment industry for whom one name immediately brings the mention of another. Think Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. Think Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. And going way back think Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. You can add to that list Renée Taylor and the late Joseph Bologna. The two, who were married for over 50 years, regularly wrote plays and appeared in them together. Bologna died in 2017, but not before he and his wife created another show, Renée Taylor’s My Life on a Diet. The show begins performances on Friday at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills and runs through April 14th.
Taylor, who recently turned 86, published her book, My Life on a Diet: Confessions of a Hollywood Diet Junkie in 1986. She and Bologna adapted her tales of Hollywood, diet tips from celebrities and the role humor plays in her life for this one-woman show. Bologna also directed the show. The Off-Broadway League just nominated My Life on a Diet for Best Solo Show.
Taylor worked as a comedienne in New York in the early 1960s. Her opening act was an unknown singer from Brooklyn named Barbra Streisand. She and Bologna received Oscar nominations for their screenplay for 1970’s Lovers and Other Strangers, which was adapted from their successful Broadway comedy. She played Fran Drescher’s mother in The Nanny. She has been working non-stop for over 50 years.
In other words, she has a lot of stories about Bologna, a lot of famous friends and new ideas about all those diets she’s tried as she told me when we recently spoke in advance of opening night.
You rarely had your name mentioned without your husband, Joseph Bologna, also being mentioned. And vice-versa. How important was it that you were considered as a couple first?
We always loved it because we loved working together. We had fun times working together and even alone together. When he was doing something, I would visit him on set. Or if I was doing something, he would visit me. I think we both always enjoyed fun and having sex.
How has the process of being identified solo for the first time in over 50 years been for you?
Ah…gee I haven’t thought about it. I don’t know. But the play I’m doing has a lot of Joe in it. Not just because he wrote and directed it, but there are a lot of videos and scenes from movies I did with him. He’s very much alive and I have to remind myself he’s not physically here. But his spirit is so with me.
He doesn’t become part of the show until the last third. Why is the show structured that way?
Because I have to do the rest of my life before I meet him. You have to see all my failed relationships and failed career choices and my aspirations. When I do meet him, you see how ready I was for him and how ready he was for me.
Does doing My Life on a Diet, which you co-wrote with Joe, allow you to celebrate your life with him?
Yes it does. It’s very healing for me. And I hope for other people in the audience having a long relationship and looking at what’s important in your life. I love him more now than when he was here. From a distance you can see somebody from all angles and appreciate them even more. I don’t know what to say about what it was except big. And multi-dimensional.
The show is based on your book from 1986. How has your perspective on diets and celebrity friends evolved since then?
Oh it’s totally changed. I don’t think diets are important anymore. I think it’s your lifestyle; how you feel about yourself and how you love yourself. That’s more important than what you are eating. But I’ve done them all. I’ve done a million diets. I’m on one now. It’s very simple. It’s Dr. Oz. You don’t don’t eat anything after sundown.
When you were promoting the book, you appeared on Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s show. You talked about wanting to be funny and beautiful. Are those still priorities for you?
You still have to deal with how you feel about yourself and the reason you are on a diet is you don’t feel good about yourself. You think you’ll be good enough if you were thinner or prettier or taller. Then when you let all that go it’s just the inner work you have to do, not the outside work. All our emphasis is on looks in our culture. It’s how you feel inside, how you treat yourself and how you treat other people. That is what’s important.
If Joe was to see the show today what notes would he give you about both the text and the performance?
He would just love it. Although he talks to me every night when I go on. Sometimes I say, “Don’t talk, just kiss me.” And he does. I always took his notes and listened. He went past perfection. It’s very personal.
Is it still personal, nearly two years after his passing?
It was pretty personal and it’s even more so now. It just gets deeper. It just keeps growing. You find things out every night when you say the words, “I never thought of that before.”
For tickets go here.
All photos by Jeremy Daniel/Courtesy of The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts