After a two month hiatus, we kick off season three of “Cocktails at Table 7” with the incomparable Stockard Channing. Long a favorite of film, television and Broadway audiences, Stockard brought her formidable talents as a raconteur to Table 7, sharing hilarious and heartfelt stories about her days as a fresh-faced Joe Allen regular crashing at Pa Walton’s brother’s house, her chutzpah-infused first meeting with Hollywood megastars Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson, and the challenges one faces replacing Liza Minnelli in a Broadway musical starring Liza Minnelli. We also reflected on her artistic kinship with John Guare, her admiration for Elaine Stritch and Ethel Merman, and her lovely personal connection to Bar Centrale.
Stockard Channing is a highly accomplished American stage, television, and film actor, who made her Broadway debut in the 1971 Broadway musical adaptation of "Two Gentlemen of Verona." She is perhaps best known to audiences for playing the feisty Betty Rizzo in the classic film musical, “Grease,” and First Lady Abbey Bartlet on the seminal NBC television drama, “The West Wing.” She originated the role of socialite Ouisa Kittredge in the acclaimed stage and film versions of “Six Degrees of Separation,” for which she was nominated for a Tony and an Oscar. Miss Channing won the 1985 Tony Award for Best Actress for the Broadway revival of “A Day in the Death of Joe Egg,” and has won three Emmy Awards for her work on The West Wing as well as for her performance as Judy Shepherd in “The Matthew Shepard Story.” Other film appearances include “The Fortune,” “ The Big Bus,” Neil Simon’s “The Cheap Detective,” and “Practical Magic.” She also played the recurring role of Veronica Loy on the popular CBS drama “The Good Wife.”