Elaine Tag

Elaine MayShe revolutionised stand-up comedy and was among the many first comedians of the sound era to bring her unique skills to writing and directing movies, akin to A Latest Leaf (1971) and The Heartbreak Kid (1972). Her script-doctoring saved Warren Beatty’s Reds (1981) and Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie (1982). Her screenplays for Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Primary Colours (1998) earned Oscar nominations. And yet Elaine May, who at 86 is about to return to Broadway this autumn in Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery, stays criminally unsung for somebody of her talents and influence. Little doubt Ishtar (1987), her unaccountably reviled and remarkably prescient allegory of blundering Americans within the Middle East, put an end to her directorial profession. Still, like the...