Sardi's

Oh, sure.

You take the written test at Sardi's.

[laughs]

And then, and then you go out on the road with Betty Buckley, and she's very strict.

What about you, Mabel?

Well, as long as I'm in Sardi's, I'd like to try something different.

Let me see now.

I think I'll have this tebony.

Now let's look at the setting for a second.

They hold a New York screening just before the holiday launch, followed by a lavish party at Sardi's.

Now, for anyone who doesn't know, Sardi's is not just a restaurant.

It is an iconic old school theater district institution.

It screams classic, dignified, respectable Broadway.

No, it's rough.

I mean, she, so basically, you know, she called me in and she's like, let's go to Sardi's.

Okay.

She had the respect to sort of touch base.

I know it's rough.

Well, I have, I have a question.

How was the meal at Sardi's?

It was just like a Cosmo and like tears really.

And with all of these things that you were doing, when's the first time you ever landed on a stage? Let me start with that.

Because it might have nothing to do with being a speaker, right? The first time I was on a stage, I was at Sardi's in New York.

And somebody said, oh, we want you to introduce your boss.

And I'm going, the restaurant was full.

only thing I care about as far as acting goes.

When you were a kid, you were growing up, your mom was a waitress at Sardi's, which is this very – people have ever seen the before and after Broadway photos where there's a bunch of caricatures of actors on the wall.

It was the hang before theaters, the hang afterwards.

Yeah.

And then that's how American Horror Story came to me.

Did you ever...

The thing when I was reading about you, like Sardis surrounded by Broadway, which must have been amazing.

Beyond anything I could have possibly ever imagined or dreamt of in my

There's another place as far as actors' bars.

There's probably new ones these days, but it was always Sardi's.

But I think Sardi's is closed temporarily now.

It is right now,

temporarily.

And so we went to the party and all the cast was there and everybody was putting on a good face but not many people showed up.

And it was like one of those things that you know you see it in movies at sardi's you know when opening night they go to sardi's and the guy comes in with the hot off the press paper that he took from the truck at the new york times building around and they read the review and you know everybody starts shuffling for the exits you know it was a it was one of those movie moments

And it's interesting because Channel Z, which you talked about, they rediscovered the whole cut, and it's kind of been, on its own merit, revisited and it's considered a masterpiece in some

ways.

I had, actually had the most fun when it was just, Barbara would come in my room and she'd say, "I'd like you to dine with me, dear." It would send shivers up my spine.

But when I tell you, we would go to Sardi's, we would just go, and it was so much fun.

Like, she, she would give me the best advice, dating advice.

M- she told me not to get married.