Andrea Martin, who at age 66 is astonishing audiences as much with her body as with her death-defying performance on a trapeze as Grandmother Berthe in “Pippin,” for which she has been nominated for a Tony for the fifth time, and a Drama Desk Award for the seventh time (she’s won one of each), knows the first time she became convinced she could become a performer. She was 12 years old, it was in Puerto Rico, and her family had taken her to see….Miss Chita Rivera.

But that is not the question, honestly, that many people want her most to answer. It’s: How did she get that body? Short answer: I didn’t want to take that coat off and show that trapeze outfit and have everybody in the audience go “Boo!”