Many women have followed in their husbands’ footsteps — Eva Perón, Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Clinton — and kept right on going after their men have faded from the limelight.

Ramping up for the premiere of its Broadway-bound First Wives Club later in the summer, the light is shining on Cornelia, as The Old Globe brings to stage a piece of forgotten history that is well within reach of today’s theater goers.

It reminds us of how far women have come and gives its own take on first wives – both mother and daughter – of a time not too long ago or too far, but both worlds apart.

Welcome to Alabama, 1970, where recently divorced beauty queen Cornelia Folsom (Melinda Page Hamilton) has her eye set on Gov. George Wallace (Robert Foxworth). But this is the South, and there’s more than hanky-panky going on in this sweeping, provocative tale of sex, power and bare-knuckled American politics: Cornelia will do anything to be the next first lady of Alabama.

Cornelia, who acquired a taste for luxury as a child when she spent several years in the governor’s mansion, is now a beautiful woman— a semifinalist in the 1956 Miss Alabama contest, a water ballet champion and the divorced wife of a millionaire.

In love with the limelight, Cornelia wants desperately to return to the governor’s mansion where she grew up so that she can once more enjoy the trappings of power. When she hears that the current governor, a hard-line racist, has been widowed, she determines to become his wife.

The governor, who enjoys a reputation for having driven his wife into an early grave, is a man with big tastes in politics and a malleable viewpoint. Having failed in his 1958 gubernatiorial bid against Cornelia’s uncle, Big Jim Folsom, whose moderate views on racial issues failed to capture Southern voters, Wallace turned bigot and won office in 1962.

But Wallace’s racism doesn’t phase Cornelia.

“I can make George Wallace president,” she tells her mother, Big Ruby, who responds with a line so biting it wouldn’t be fair to give it away.

The play spends lots of time on the characters’ steamy sexual proclivities, but doesn’t neglect the volatile period in which it is set: Wallace’s xenophobic leadership loses favor and he becomes the target of a would-be assassin, at which point Cornelia throws herself over his body – the act for which she is most remembered.

Cornelia boasts a terrific cast: Foxworth’s Wallace has all the delicacy of a bull. Hamilton’s Cornelia is as scheming as she is bewitching. T. Ryder Smith and Hollis McCarthy give fine performances as Wallace’s brother- and sister-in-law. And Beth Grant as Big Ruby is a scene stealer – a big, blowsy, hard-drinking southerner with a capacious mouth and an affected personality. One cannot watch anyone else while she is on stage.

John Lee Beatty’s terrific moving set pieces, Tracy Christensen’s fine costumes and Christopher Akerlind’s effective lighting design combine to make this play easy to watch.

Cornelia plays through June, 21, 2009, at the Old Globe Theatre. Shows Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; matinees Saturday and Sunday, at 2 p.m. For tickets call 619-23-GLOBE or visit www.theoldglobe.org.

As summer begins, Beth Grant kicks her feet up as Big Ruby in Cornelia and reminds us of why we love San Diego so much – savory food, friendly community and great theater!

Sitting over lunch at the Waters Café at The San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park next to The Old Globe she dishes about her love for Hillcrest, all things yogurt and how she got her swagger!

Gay & Lesbian Times: You produced a film called Herpes Boy, which plays on our modern-day fascination with cyber-stories. Tell readers about how you got involved in the project.

Beth Grant: Herpes Boy! It’s a Napoleon Dynamite kind of movie. This sweet kid, Byron Lane was on YouTube, and a friend of mine who is a director was looking for ideas for movies. He found this character. He got in touch with the kid, I say kid, you know I’m so old now. He’s not that young. He’s an adult. But he got in touch with them and he asked him to develop a screen play. And he did and he called me and asked my husband and I who would play the parents. I love this director so much I said ‘sure.’ And when I heard the title I right away said ‘Yes!’ I don’t care what it is. Anyone that would dare to title something, Herpes Boy – I’m doing it!

GLT: Have you seen the preview?

BG: No I haven’t.

GLT: So tell us more about the movie that has such an interesting title.

BG: It’s because he has a birth mark and that’s why he gets this handle on YouTube. It’s about someone who becomes a YouTube celebrity reluctantly. He doesn’t plan to. He’s just trying to find friends. His cousin comes and starts promoting and gives him the title Herpes Boy and he has all these fans. And then other things happen in his family. It’s a really sweet story about being yourself. That everybody just needs to be who they are and we all need to accept each other. It’s got a lovely theme.

GLT: So it’s a family affair?

BG: Well, I co-produced and I’m in it. My husband is involved and my daughter is in it!

GLT: Is this the first time you’re going to be together on film?

BG: We don’t have any scenes together. And she did played the younger me in another feature called Natural Disasters. She looks a lot like me. In that movie she plays a younger me in home movies. They made it look like home movies. It was just four little scenes with no dialogue. My agent thought it was actually me. He said, ‘Wow.’ Where did you get those family movies?’ and I said, ‘That’s my daughter!’

This is her first feature with dialogue where she has a real part and she’s really good in it. I’m so proud of her. I’m so obsessed. She’s everything any mom could ever want in a child. I still am like, I can’t help it. My baby. Just can’t believe that your baby grows up. It’s the most shocking thing. It happens so quickly. I know you’ve probably heard every mother say that. It happens in the blink of an eye. I bet your mama is so proud of you, being married and all!

GLT: She was there and my daddy signed my marriage certificate!

BG: And she always will be there – bravo! It’s a brave new world. Beautiful. Really, wow that’s poetic. Are they religious? They just want their baby to be happy and they’re scared of what you might have to go through. That’s all we really want as parents. We don’t want y’all to have any pain. If we could take all the pain from our children we really would. At least that’s the way I am. I just can’t stand the thought of Mary having any pain. That’s life, there is going to be pain no matter what.

GLT: You’re known for playing women who are conservatives, religious zealots or sticklers for rules. What part of yourself do you bring to these roles?

BG: I do have great characters, I love ’em too. They’re like friends of mine.

GLT: Who is Sissy Hickey really?

BG: The character is very much my grandmother. That’s who I channel. She had a very dry sense of humor and she was kind of the center of the family and a bit of a hypocrite in that she was always nice and sweet and pleasant but rolling her eyes behind people’s backs. But a good person. She also used to like the guys a lot. I feel like Sissy really likes the guys. I had the greatest experience at the Pride parade in Palm Springs. I was in a Lincoln Convertible with two very buff, very handsome men driving me down the parade. I was dressed like Sissy Hickey. And I’m in the back of that thing. I thought to myself, my grandmother is dancing in heaven right now. All those beautiful boys lining the streets and everybody cheering. This is my tribute to her and all my kids.

GLT: Who is Cornelia?

BG: This character in Cornelia is a tribute to my mom. My mama wasn’t an alcoholic. She was kind of a food-a-holic or, as she would say, a choc-a-holic. But she still was limited. She was very close to the governors in North Carolina. She coulda woulda shoulda been governor. I think Ruby, shoulda, coulda woulda been governor.

GLT: Was your family progressive, or did you develop those tendencies on your own?

My mom was a liberal progressive born in Alabama. I was born I Alabama. We are really a Georgia family. As it turns out, I grew up with all these stories. I did have relatives who supported Rollins and it was just shocking to me. And I was for Humphrey in ’68 and I came home for Thanksgiving and, my God, half of my relatives were for Nixon and some of them were for Rollins and none of them were for Humphrey. And in fact at Thanksgiving there was one very wealthy relative who everybody was bowing and scraping to – Cousin Aaron. And at the table they started to kid me for being for Humphrey. And my cousin Aaron said, Well I voted for Mr. Humphrey and it was silence. No one said anything about politics for the rest of the dinner. The young and the old together. Isn’t that funny? I grew up with all of this, so when they sent me the script and asked me if I’d be interested I flipped out. I couldn’t believe that someone had written about these people that I know and had gotten it right.

GLT: So it came naturally?

BG: It did! In fact I happened to come across an old e-mail I had written. “Wowie, zowie,” was what I wrote. “Genius he got it right.” And that’s what appealed to me. Going back to, the character I do in extract is a tribute to my mama’s secretary LaRae, who was a lipstick lesbian. At least that’s what they call them in the South. I don’t know if that’s the term they use everywhere. She had teased, bleach blonde hair and lipstick and she was sweet but she complained a lot. That’s my character in extract. So your readers will know the secret of that character is my mother’s secretary LaRae. My mama had a gay secretary; one of her best friends from high school was a lesbian.

GLT: How’d you decide to do the role of Ruby Folsom?

BG: My mom had just passed away in October and my acting teacher had just passed away in October a week later. It was one of the darkest times of my life. I had been in deep grief. I continued working and functioning. I had been very sad. The person that pushed me forward and the man who held the bar for me to keep trying to be better and better were both gone in a week. And I got this script and I thought Milton and my mother brought me this. There’s no doubt in my mind I’m supposed to do this play. I’m so happy to do this play. It’s been a huge sacrifice in terms of being away from my daughter. I love her so much and it was a big decision for our family to figure out to come to San Diego and do this for 10 weeks. We made the decision as a family. My agent supported it. And I love San Diego. I love living in Hillcrest. I want to know how Hillcrest happened? Because it’s fabulous!

GLT: What is it that you love so much about Hillcrest?

BG: First of all, all those wonderful craftsman houses have been restored. From a purely superficial level I love that so much. When I walk, I take a long walk. Every house is unique; every person has done it differently beautifully in their own way. It’s the most gorgeous walking area I’ve ever been in. So superficially I love the beauty of it. Preserving the history of San Diego, preserving the craftsman preserving the community they apparently came in and saved the community. I can’t walk down the street and someone doesn’t stop me about Too Wong Foo or Sissy Hickey.

You have such a wonderful community here. Everyone’s been friendly and gracious and kind strangers on the street.

I am apart of the community. You don’t have to be gay to be apart of the community. Why is it we all love the same people? Why do we love Judy Garland so much? Why do we love Barbara Streisand so much? Streisand grew up with so much pain garland grew up with so much pain and they are able to communicate that. No wonder we all love them. So yeah I think we’re together.

Today we went to Urban Grind and they weren’t serving bagels and they weren’t serving breakfast and so they said oh I’ll just give you a poppy for free because they didn’t have what’s on the menu. I mean I don’t think that would happen in LA at any place I can think of. It’s not cheap – three lattes! And you have so many frozen yogurt shops all within walking distance.

GLT: So we share a love for frozen yogurt?

It’s my fave! It’s the only reason I’m not a size 20.

I couldn’t believe when I’ve found Fiji. That’s the most sophisticated yogurt in LA to help yourself. There’s something about it that’s really good. It’s like ice cream. The no sugar added, I keep it in my freezer. It’s funny the little things that bind us.

GLT: It sounds like you’ve really bonded not only with Hillcrest, but also this role? t

BG: It’s been an opportunity to use my mother as an example of these progressive Southerners because they did exist. Sadly, because of the glass ceiling that we’re all still banging up against. It’s not just women. Its gays and women. To be all of who we are. We have so much to give the world. We have so much creativity. We have so much of our pain and we can really help change the world.

GLT: You grew up in the Baby Boomer generation in the South. What most surprises you about the 21st century?

This is going to sound strange because here I’m kind of complaining about the lack of progress, but I can’t believe how far we’ve come. When I look at it (I’m 59, I’ll be 60 in September), and when I was a freshman in college nobody ever even said ‘gay.’ It was 1969 maybe even 1970 before any friend even told me they were gay. And I didn’t even believe him. Frank Wiersy. I said, ’Frank what are you talking about?’ I didn’t get it. But it was about that time in the ’60s, the gay rights movement started in New York. They’d just had the first gay Pride parade. But this was the South, so it hadn’t quite trickled down. So think of how far we’ve come. Its not far enough. We’ve have a long way to go.

GLT: You speak for gay rights and marriage equality, tell us more about that.

BG: That’s when my life changed actually. It started because of Sordid Lives. Del Shores had donated some things from the production to the Human Rights Campaign, which is a wonderful organization, which God knows we need. You know like glee clubs, they are the backbone. Anyway, they said this is a really big event. I said great I’d be happy to do it. They weren’t kidding. I had no Idea. There was like a thousand people. They wrote a basic speech for me and then they said I could juice it up any way I wanted. They don’t know me – I’m like such a perfectionist and I’m such a whore, I like laughs a lot. I just kept juicing it up and juicing it up and the teleprompter guy was just fabulous. Literally five minutes before I went on stage we were doing rewrites. It was just so great. It was my first time that I was able to publicly come out and be an advocate. In a public way, not my character, but Beth Grant could say I support gay marriage!

GLT: What do you think about doing a prequel to Cornelia about Big Ruby?

BG: To show that period of time when she was campaigning for Jim. That’s a good idea, that’s a great idea!

GLT: Do you think a production like this could have happened eight years ago?

BG: Are you saying that maybe Bush is a bit like Wallace in using his charisma? I know that when they asked Hillary if there is anything nice you can say about Bush, she said that he can be very charming.

GLT: How about the parallels between the Wallace ambition for presidency and the Clintons?

BG: Very interesting. I think he’s a brilliant guy, but I think she’s more brilliant. Primary Colors, that movie, I thought was very realistic. In my opinion, I don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, but that’s the way it felt to me. She couldn’t at that time. It was too soon yet.

Hillary even said, “I’m not a Tammy Wynette” referencing “Stand by Your Man.” But she was.

GLT: Do you think Cornelia serves as a history lesson for the younger generation that might not be familiar with the First Lady of Alabama?

BG: There are things in this play that I didn’t know. There are things in this play that I didn’t understand and I was from there. I never understood how my grandmother could have been for him – George Wallace. I just thought it just doesn’t go with who she is. She’s this Yankee this funny acerbic brilliant woman. And now I understand, he was charismatic and he was considered good looking. He was hot and he was sexy. As he said in the play, “I get people hot and excited.” It wasn’t that my grandmother was a bigot; it was that she liked his pizzazz and his energy. I never knew that part, I never knew he could trick the people like that. But there’s something about charisma, there really is, it’s really appealing.

GLT: Speaking of appealing. What is your favorite role you’ve played?

BG: It’s gotta be Willa Dean in Trailer Trash Housewife. That’s the closest to me, I’ve ever played. I could do that play if we got to go to New York, I would sign a run of the contract. I never thought in my life I would say that about any role.

GLT: What is it that is so special about that production and that role?

BG: That it changed my life. I found the victim in me. I think the biggest enemy in all of us is clinging to victim. I think we cannot be victims. Yes we were victims growing up’ it’s true we were. But now we’re adults and we have to move past it. We have to not be victims anymore. We have to change. The thing I love about Willa Dean is she is trapped; she is obsessed with this guy.

She is trapped in this trailer; she doesn’t even have a phone but she is trying to change. She is looking up a new word in that dictionary every day, and she is watching Oprah and she is watching Dr. Phil and she is trying as best as she can to change. And she goes out and she gets that sorry job at Wal-Mart and she is trying to change. And I love her for that. Because I’ve never those odds against me that Willa Dean has. And yet she has a spirit. She inspires me.

GLT: And Sissy Hickey?

BG: I love her, love her, love her, love her. But Sissy ,she doesn’t get a dramatic arc ever because she’s kind of the heart of the family and the vortex and I like being able to play a character arc. And change, I like change and I like truth to power and Willa Dean represents truth to power that we have to change. This white male society has to change. They cannot treat us this way. They cannot kick out their gay sons. They have to buck up.

Just like your daddy signed your marriage certificate. Thank you. He bucked up and then he found love right? He’s probably never been happier in his life. People find their heart. And that’s what happens when people open their hearts, love comes pouring out. Love is the answer, it’s all about love. Love is limitless. Once the heart is cracked open there’s no stopping it. You can’t ever. There’s a line in Wicked, that says you can never go back to sleep. Once you’re awake you can never go back to sleep. Once you know that unconditional love you’re done for. One of the wisest things I ever heard was from a lady born into slavery. She was 103 and we’d interviewed her for a documentary I was working on. We said if you have any advice for the younger generation, what would it be and she said love everybody don’t hate anybody, just love everybody I never heard anything wiser. It’s so corny it’s so simple and it’s the truth. And you can’t stop love.

GLT: Let’s talk a little about Sordid Lives. I’m sure there are many people wondering if you have scars from snapping that rubber band?

BG: My scars… I swear and during the movie it was worse because we had to do so many different takes of me popping it. On stage we kind of cheated – I had a soft rubber band. In the movie there was no acting involved. That was pure snapping!

The first time we had a big promotion it had run for a year in Palm Springs and they had a big party. They kept telling me it was a hit in Palm Springs, and so we get there and Del said, just wait just wait. So we get there and it’s jam packed and I went ‘Oh.’ They introduced me and people are throwing rubber bands at me. People were dressed like me, I began to cry. Again it was my grandmother. I was so moved to think that that many people got her and loved her and identified with her. I think that everybody’s got a relative like that. Whether it is an aunt, or a grandmother, or a mother or a cousin or whatever; everybody’s got a cousin like that. And Del Shores really found a universal cord in that writing.

GLT: With Cornelia, the character has an objective with the play, what do you think people’s take on that will be?

We see it as a feminist play. The shoulda, woulda, couldas that I was saying. It’s a play about addiction, I’m an alcoholic. She’s addicted to the limelight. He’s addicted to power. But she also is the child of an alcoholic parent and I think some of that is wanting her mother’s love too. But I think that not only does she want that mansion, but more so she wants her mama.

What we all want more than anything we all want parent love. We want our parents to love us. That’s the thing that drives us all. Nothing do we want more. They say that if you’re bonded to your mom, those are the people that are successful in life. And if you’re not you have a harder time.

GLT: You always play a strong woman with a weakness or two. Does every person have a fatal flaw?

BG: We’re all human; we have lots of flaws. I consider myself a good person, but I have selfishness; I have greed; I have jealousy; I have envy; I have pride. I also think low selfesteem is a flaw. I think it’s a waste of time. I have it but sometimes I think we give it too much emphasis. Like if I’m feeling sorry for myself, and I get into the pity pot believe me, and when I start going there I just have to say I have so much to be grateful for and try to take an action separate from that and really I make gratitude lists.

I did it before the Secret. I write down everything I’m grateful for. Sometimes I will come across an old gratitude list and I’ll read it and it just makes my day. I’ll say oh my god I forgot all these grateful things in my life.

GLT: Is that the message you would pass on?

BG: I would. I would say fighting doesn’t work. We’ve proven that. How many wars have we had? It just doesn’t work. But I’m not saying be a pacifist. I’m saying speak your mind. Tell the truth. Be in the moment. Deal with people one on one. But we can’t do to them what they do to us. And it’s hard to love them. It’s hard to love bigots; it’s very hard. But I think we have to find a way to do it. I do visualizations. I put people in a golden light, I watch them floating up in the sky. I pray that the universe will whisper in their ear. I do think it’s a friendly universe. I do think it’s love, and I do think we can tap into that. There’s nobody that has any power over us. We are free because we’re free.

Maya Angelou, who I love, once said the future of the world depends on gays and women. And who loves each other more? Right!? No one. We get it. We are bonded by our pain and we can laugh at it. We have gallows humor, I think we’re so witty so creative so smart. I think if we bond together we can’t be stopped!

Subscriptions are also available for the Globe’s 2009 Summer Season, including the renowned Shakespeare Festival, featuring Cyrano de Bergerac, Twelfth Night and Coriolanus, playing in a rotating schedule in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre June 14 through Sept. 27; The Broadway-bound musical, The First Wives Club playing in the Old Globe Theatre July 15 through Aug. 23; and the classic comedy The Mystery of Irma Vep playing in the Globe’s arena stage at the San Diego Museum of Art’s James S. Copley Auditorium July 31 through Sept. 6.

For tickets, visit www. www.theoldglobe.org.