For Martini And Olive, the show goes on after actor's death

When actor and director Grant Richey died on Thanksgiving Day at age 49 after a long battle with cancer, there was an immediate outpouring of grief from the Twin Cities theater community. Richey had worked most of the stages in town, in both comic and dramatic roles, but his most indelible character was the fabulously terrible Tony Martini, a polyester-clad '70s refugee who formed half of lounge duo Martini & Olive along with his partner, actress Judy Heneghan. Martini & Olive’s kitsch-happy holiday shows have had audiences guffawing and groaning for 15 years, but this year there might be a few tears as well. Heneghan has reshaped the annual Bryant-Lake Bowl affair into a tribute to Tony Martini; she'll be joined by their regular backing troupe, The Swizzle Stick Dancers, and local author and comic Lorna Landvik (as “Anita Twist”) replaying video and highlighting old favorites. The A.V. Club caught up with Heneghan and her husband Peter Staloch (who plays M&O's manager “Vince”) to talk about Richey, Martini, and how the show must go on. Martini & Olive Unzipped: A Tribute To Tony Martini runs Dec. 29-31 at BLB.

The A.V. Club: You look like nice Midwesterners, which is hard to reconcile that with the videos of you dancing and singing in silver tinsel costumes.

Judy Heneghan: It's grown. It started as just a medley. Grant and I worked so well, as he really loved that music of the '70s—and I did too, but I also wanted to mock a lot of it as so bad. So we worked really well together as I came from the comedy viewpoint and he came from the artistic [viewpoint] and put together those great medleys, which he loved.

Peter Staloch: Grant really was a method actor. He could really lose himself in a character. He was like the Meryl Streep of comedy, almost—he was Tony Martini when he got onstage.

AVC: Grant was first diagnosed with cancer in 1999. Was there a point when you came to the realization that you should prepare to do the show without him?

JH: Last year when we did the show, he was dealing with [his illness] and he had good nights and bad nights, but he was pretty good for the most part. Then this year came around and he was a lot worse, but he really, really wanted to do the show. He kept saying, "This is what I can live for. I can set that goal." He would say, "I don't care if I have to be in a wheelchair onstage, we'll find a way to make that work, make that funny." I've been so fortunate that I've been in town, so I was able to spend a lot of time with Grant. It's really been the long goodbye for us. I spoke to him about Martini & Olive as much as I could. It was walking a fine line—I didn't want to upset him but I did want to know what he would want. We talked about it briefly but not a lot, because I think Grant kind of thought, almost up to the end, that somehow he was going to be here. 

In a way he went out with a bang. He went out on Thanksgiving, and I think that was a perfect day for him to go, because we are so thankful that he was in our lives, and we'll always think of him on that day. He was so thankful for this wonderful community of actors and students, and he wanted to keep working. If it were me, I might want to go on a trip or something, but he wanted to direct and perform.

AVC: How is that going to feel, opening up a Martini & Olive show without Grant?

JH: It's already feeling very surreal, looking through old video and thinking "I want to use a snippet of that." Grant's going to be all over it. We shot a video last year just in case he couldn't make it to the show. So he's talking to me in the video as Olive, giving directions: “Don’t do that, make sure the Swizzles do this.” It’s going to be a celebration. I know it's going to be fun and funny, but it's going to be weird. It's like losing a limb.

AVC: So is this the end of Martini & Olive as an act?

JH: Grant and I always wanted to franchise Martini & Olive and get it going with other people doing it. We wrote the scripts and have all different scenarios, so I know he'd want to keep it going. Here in town, people are so used to it being us two, but in other cities it would probably play much better to have other actors doing it. 

PS: You can't really replace him, especially here.

JH: In this city, it wouldn't feel right, unless you're doing a tribute to him, so he is still very much in it.