Elaine Stritch Defends Producer Garth Drabinsky

According to the Huffington Post's Liz Smith, Elaine Stritch says after another stage appearance, she is going to move out of the Carlyle Hotel and move home to Birmingham, Michigan, but then adds that she will stay in showbiz until theater producer Garth Drabinsky has a parole hearing and is released from prison. 

"He may not be innocent of defrauding donators to Lincoln Center, but he is still the greatest living producer!" Stritch said. "And he and I have another show in us!"

Read the original blog post here.

Five-time Tony Award nominee Stritch has appeared on Broadway in A Little Night Music, Elaine Stritch at Liberty (for which she won a 2002 Tony Award), Angela Lansbury - A Celebration, A Delicate Balance, Show Boat, Company, Love Letters, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Sail Away, Goldilocks, The Sin of Pat Muldoon, Bus Stop, On Your Toes, Pal Joey, Call Me Madam, Yes, M'Lord, Angel in the Wings and Loco. She has also taken the West End stage in Gypsy, Company and Sail Away, and her off-Broadway credits include Cakewalk, a concert version of Follies and Private Lives.

A three-time Emmy Award winner, Stritch plays Jack Donaghy's (Alec Baldwin) mother Colleen on NBC's 30 Rock. Her film credits include Three Violent People, A Farewell to Arms, The Perfect Furlough, Who Killed Teddy Bear, The Spiral Staircase, Providence, September, Small Time Crooks, Cocoon: The Return, OUt to Sea, Autumn in New York, Screwed and more.

Film and theater producer Garth Drabinsky was convicted and sentenced to prison for fraud and forgery in 2009 for misstating his company Livent's financial statements in the '90s. Drabinsky produced the 1996 version of Ragtime; his productions have won a total of 19 Tony Awards.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.