Elaine May

Family Background

Elaine Berlin was born in Philadelphia on April 21st, 1932, the daughter of the theatre director and actor Jack Berlin and actress Jeannie Berlin. As a child, Elaine would occasionally perform with her father in the Yiddish Theater he ran. In 1942, she moved to Los Angeles, California.

She married Marvin May sometime in the late 1940’s (exact date unknown) and gave birth to a daughter, actress Jeannie Berlin (named after her mother), in 1949. She later divorced Marvin (again date unknown). In 1962, she married lyricist Sheldon Harnick, best known for his work in Fiddler on the Roof (1971). However, the two soon divorced in 1963.

Career

Career - Stage

In 1947, May studied acting under Maria Ouspenskaya, the veteran theater and screen actress.

In 1950, May attended the University of Chicago and Playwrights Theatre in Chicago.

In 1953, she became a member of the improvisational theatre group The Compass Players, founded by Paul Sills and David Shepherd, which later became The Second City. She remained a member until 1957.

During her membership, May met Mike Nichols and began a successful partnership with him. Together they formed a comedic duo, performing in New York clubs and making several TV appearances. In 1960, the duo showcased the Broadway debut of "An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May."

Throughout the 1960s, thanks in part to the successful duet with Nichols, May wrote, directed, and acted in various forms of theatre. In addition, she wrote and performed for radio and recorded several comedy albums.

May also wrote several plays during this period. Her greatest success was the one-act "Adaptation."

Other stage plays she has written include “Not Enough Rope”, “Mr. Gogol and Mr. Preen”, as well as the one-act plays “Hot Line” and “After the Night and the Music.” She also directed the off-Broadway production of Terrence McNally's “Adaptation/Next.”

Current plays she has written include “Power Plays” in 1998 (co-written with Alan Arkin), “Taller than a Dwarf” in 2000, and “Adult Entertainment” in 2002 (which is directed by the great Stanley Donen).

Interestingly, Nichols and May starred together in a stage version of “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” at the Long Wharf Theater in 1980. Nichols had previous directed a film version of this play back in 1966.

Career - Stage - Partnership with Mike Nichols

Excerpt taken from the Foreward, written by Mike Nichols for The Birdcage shooting script (1997)

The very first time I met Elaine, I was in a play directed by my friend Paul Sills, Miss Julie. It was awful. And a very strange thing happened, which is that Sydney J. Harris, the big Chicago critic, came to the University of Chicago where we were doing it and gave it this great review, which had the horrible result that we had to play it for months and months. And when Harris's review first came out, I was walking down the street and I ran into Paul, who was with this interesting looking girl, Elaine, whom I had never met. And I said, "Paul, have you seen this? and I showed him the review, and Elaine looked over his shoulder and said 'Hah!'" She knew how lousy Miss Julie was, she had seen it. In fact, I remembered her seeing it because she sat in the front row and looked so skeptical and amused that I could barely get through it.

And then the next time I saw her was at the IC station, which is the railroad that you take to go back to the South Side of Chicago where the university is. She was sitting on the bench and I said, "May I sit down?" and she said, in an accent, "If you wish," and we did the whole long spy improvisation. And then we were friends. We did it later on one of the records. But we improvised it in the actual railroad station the first time, before we knew each other.

Career - Film

Career - Film - Directing

May made her film writing and directing debut in 1971 with the cult classic “A New Leaf,” a zany update on 1930s screwball comedy starring Walter Matthau and her. Originally, May handed in a 180-minute black comedy that the studio cut and sweetened into a 102-minute weird romance. It is unknown if the original cut exists.

In her second directorial effort, May found great success with “The Heartbreak Kid.” The film was a critically lauded and modestly popular comedy with an original screenplay by Neil Simon, featuring hilarious performances from Charles Grodin, Eddie Albert, and May's own daughter, actress Jeannie Berlin.

May followed up these two comedies with a bleak crime story entitled “Mikey and Nicky” in 1976. The film is best remembered for the wonderful performances given by actors John Cassavetes and Peter Falk.

May’s next directorial effort would be her last with “Ishtar” in 1987. Largely shot on location in the Middle East, the production was beset by internal difficulties, and advance publicity was so terrible that the picture never got off the ground, becoming one of the biggest cinematic failures of its day.

Career - Film - Writing

May received an Oscar nomination for updating “Here comes Mr. Jordan” as “Heaven Can Wait.”

May reunited with her comedic sidekick Mike Nichols with “The Birdcage” in 1996. The film was a relocating of the classic French farce “La Cage aux Folles” to South Beach, Florida.

May received her second Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay when she re-teamed once again with Nichols on “Primary Colors” in 1997.