Record-breaking swimmer Diana Nyad does one-woman show
Diana Nyad, who made history as the first person to swim across the Florida Straits without a shark cage, isn’t scared of wading into another challenge: theater. The 65-year-old endurance swimmer is performing “Onward! The Diana Nyad Story,” a one-woman show in Key West, Florida, near the spot where in 2013 she achieved her dream of 35 years.
“I think the show has a little bit of a lightning-in-a-bottle to it. I think big and I’d love to make it to Broadway,” she said Friday. “But, as I’ve learned with anything, the only way to get there is to work quietly and slowly, step by step by step.”
Nyad is performing the 90-minute show five times at The Studios of Key West, ending Sunday.
In the show, Nyad focuses on her record-breaking 110-mile, 53-hour swim from Cuba to Key West on Labor Day 2013, as well as stories from her childhood. It uses photographs, video and special effects, and Nyad even wears a jellyfish mask.
It opens with Nyad in a swimsuit on a hidden platform 3 feet off the stage, pretending to swim while surrounded by jellyfish, and singing Neil Young’s “The Needle and Damage Done.”
In the years since the swim, Nyad has been on “Dancing With the Stars,” met Oprah Winfrey, did a 48-hour swim to raise money for victims of Superstorm Sandy and written a memoir, out in the fall.
‘American Horror Story’ star injured
Ben Woolf, an actor on “American Horror Story: Freak Show,” was in critical condition Friday after being hit by the side mirror of a passing vehicle in Hollywood.
The accident occurred Thursday night on Hollywood Boulevard just east of U.S. 101. Woolf, who is 4 feet 4 inches tall, was hit in the head and rushed to the hospital.
The motorist stopped at the scene and was not cited or arrested.
Woolf has been a cast member on the FX show since 2011.
The birthday bunch
Actor Gary Lockwood is 78. Actor Alan Rickman is 69. Actress Tyne Daly is 69. Actor Anthony Daniels is 69. Actor William Petersen is 62. Actor Kelsey Grammer is 60. Singer Mary Chapin Carpenter is 57. Actor William Baldwin is 52. Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt is 36. Singer Charlotte Church is 29. Actress Ellen Page is 28. Actress Sophie Turner (TV: “Game of Thrones”) is 19.