Edie Falco. Once waiting tables, and then came TV’s “The Sopranos,” “Nurse Jackie,” and now comes off-B’way’s “The True.” Real-life love-triangle story, “The True” goes back 50 years. Edie plays Polly Noonan, a secretary whose duties included the extremely personal care of Albany’s married mayor Erastus Corning.
NOTE: I know this back story personally. Noonan was Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s grandma. Noonan’s daughter married lobbyist Doug Rutnik. Rutnik, Gillibrand’s father, later spent years living with my longtime friend Zenia Mucha. Now in LA in Disney’s highest office, Miss Mucha was a key behind former Sen. D’Amato and ex-Gov. Pataki.
I could tell you a crate more, but this is only a short column.
Whatever truth’s told in “The True,” it opens Sept. 20. And truth as I know it was Noonan’s forever cop-out: “I have no power. I’m just a full-time grandmother.” The forever fact is: With the mayor 40 years, it’s she who ran things.
Edie: “It’s a complicated love story triangle. She was his secret. When they sent me the fantastic script, I didn’t know she was a real person. But I learned she was a force to be reckoned with and made people angry. A wiseass, she did not suffer fools.
“It’s many years since I’ve done Broadway. Last was ‘House of Blue Leaves’ in 2011. You get spoiled doing TV. The stage is so much work, but I’m loving this and wouldn’t miss the chance for anything.”
Did you check any facts with Gillibrand?
“No. I don’t know her well enough.”
“The True” plays at the Pershing Square Signature Center, 42nd and 10th, through Oct. 21.
Please try to pay attention
Things to do. Very special lunch or dinner at 8 ¹/₂ , the swanky elegant brasserie in the swanky elegant 9 W. 57th building . . . New film “Crazy Rich Asians.” This season’s delicious big go-to . . . October. Way-off-B’way’s St. Luke’s Theatre. Straight from Chicago’s tryout. New fun “The Book of Merman” is Mormon missionaries calling on B’way’s once great star Ethel Merman . . . If your summer’s washed out in the Rockaways, be it known the Creole, the world’s most magnificent three-masted sailing yacht, was sold by Greek billionaire Stavros Niarchos to Maurizio Gucci in 1983. Allegra, daughter of the late Maurizio, is now sailing in it off Ibiza, Spain.
Here’s what I’m hearing
Mary J. Blige is the face of furrier/designer Dennis Basso’s new campaign ads . . . “Can We Talk,” Oct. 23’s Streicker Center event in Temple Emanu-El, centers on last year’s terrific book “Joan Rivers Confidential” and will feature daughter Melissa Rivers and PR friend Scott Currie. One of this world’s largest synagogues held Joan’s 2014 farewell . . . Ferrari and Maserati threw a secret feed. Invites said “private estate address provided upon confirmation of your RSVP.” Translation? We’ll check your bank account first. Meaning? Cheapos can snack at a Queens Boulevard used car lot.
Quaid stirred
Christian-themed “I Can Only Imagine,” surprise hit, cost $7 million and so far grossed about $85 mil.
Playing a bad dude, Dennis Quaid says: “Roles get more interesting the older I get. More fire in my belly now than 30 years ago. When fear went up my spine, it was an indicator that I should do it because it’s out of my comfort zone.” Hey, praise the Lord.
Deadly greenhouse gases emanate not from factories and automobiles but — per scientific examination — via the open mouth of Michael Moore.
Not only in New York, kids, not only in New York.