| Guiding Light has been good to Kim Zimmer. It has also been good for Zimmer; she'd be the first to tell you that. After playing the tempestuous Reva Shayne Lewis for seven years, however, a lady needs a change. Zimmer is leaving Springfield for parts unknown. And she's departing as she does everything else: in a big way! "When ABC fired me from One Life to Live (Echo DiSavoy, 1983)," she laughs, "it was the best thing that could ever have happened to me. I went to GL, got a wonderful role, won two Emmys, had two more children and bought a house." "I also picked up on my singing career --- thanks to Paulette and Larry Weber (Clarence Bailey, GL) when I appeared in their production at New York's Whaler Bar. It kicked off a whole other area of my career that I loved, but I never thought would ever happen for me. I used to kid around a lot and say that someday I would be 'Kim Zimmer Live at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.' Now that I've done Carnegie Hall," she says with conviction, "I can certainly do Caesar's Palace!" Yes, she did say Carnegie Hall --- the New York concert hall that is the goal of the greatest singers, musicians and orchestras of the world. How did she get to Carnegie Hall? It's worth retelling an old and famous New York joke: A music-loving tourist, lost in his own search for the world-renowned hall, stops a stranger on the street and asks, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" Unknown to him, the stranger is one of the world's greatest violinists, Mischa Elman, who sighs deeply and replies, "Practice! Practice! Practice!" Zimmer doesn't play the violin, but she did diligently practice and hone her musical solo act, not only at the Whaler, but in personal appearances across the country. She finally got to Carnegie Hall as the star soloist of a program titled, Barbershop and Broadway. "I didn't do anything to get here; my husband did it all for me," she quips in her dressing room after the performance. True, her husband, actor/director A.C. Weary, did make the initial contact with Paul Tiboris, producer of the event, but after that, she had to make it on her own. She does admit that this has been quite an experience! "I remember one time coming here to see Liza Minnelli in concert. I thought to myself, 'Oh God, wouldn't it be wonderful to sing here!' I didn't have to do anything but dream about it after that and A.C. and Paul made it all possible for me." The evening was a family affair because Weary was the emcee of the event. He calls it, "One of the biggest thrills of my career." Though he claims, "I was a nervous wreck," he looked elegant and in full command of the stage each time he appeared. In preparing for her debut at the venerable concert hall, Zimmer said she tried to calm her nervousness with mind games, repeating to herself over and over, "It's just the Whaler Bar!" But GL castmates congratulating her on the upcoming appearance kept reminding her it was Carnegie Hall, reinforcing her jitters. In a tight, red-sequined dress that would have done Reva proud, she was a standout on the large concert stage: "Once I got out there and started to sing, it was great and the sound was incredible. I really enjoyed it!" She alternated between belting out show tunes and singing quiet ballads from Broadway musicals, with her usual accompanist, Richard Danley, at the grand piano. She was high with excitement, greeting friends and well-wishers in her dressing room. Known as the Maestros' Room, it is full of memories and mementos of the world's foremost conductors, including Toscanini, Damrosch, Bernstein and Tchaikovsky, who conducted at the opening of the hall 100 years ago. The appearance was a fitting finale for Zimmer, who is leaving GL the first week in July. Because she is once again an Emmy nominee, a third Emmy could be the ultimate coda. "It would be nice," she grins. "Then I'd have one for each of my children." The prospect of leaving GL is bittersweet, she admits. "I know everybody says the same thing when they leave a soap --- that they're going to miss the people they worked with. But I really am going to miss everyone. Of the three soaps I've done, this one has the most special people. There's no back-stabbing, no major egos. It's a family-oriented show; everybody is married, everybody has kids. There's no distinction between the cast and the crew because everybody is considered one in the same." "Sometimes when I think back, the years went by quickly but then again, it seems like a lifetime ago --- and it really was! I've changed a lot. I've become more mature and I've made changed in my priorities. My family is now my priority. I've become very aware of how precious time is and how fast it goes." "There won't be any tears on my last day of shooting, because I think I've had the tears already when we were in Florida on a remote. I was very emotional because we were shooting Reva's presumed death. I was very divorced from the action and I felt myself standing in corners a lot and just crying." "Yes, I'm going to miss Reva," she reflects, and adds mischievously, "especially her clothes. But I'm not going to miss the exhaustion of Reva. I'm heading for Michigan with the children for a few weeks to visit with my family, and then it's off to California, where we have already rented a house. I'm ready to have my biggest worry in life be to get the kids out of bed and get them dressed in time to catch the school bus. I'd like to enjoy that for a while." "Everyone assumes I'm going to California for something workwise. But the truth is, I'm not. I'm going because the family and I need a change. And I need to have more time with them." "If A.C. and I don't like the lifestyle, or if we don't feel we are doing productive work, we'll come back east. I can't say for sure now, but I think if I ever go back to daytime, it will be to Reva," Zimmer says. So we say, "hail and farewell" to Reva and Kim Zimmer. It's been a great pleasure knowing both of you! |