The captivating, brassy Elaine Stritch

Elaine Stritch has been wowing Broadway audiences for more than two-thirds of a century now -- and she still can more than hold her own with a television interviewer, as Lee Cowan discovered:

" 'Oh my God look at that, she's 89 years old!' " said Stritch.

"Do you feel 89?" asked Cowan.

"No!"

"I'm sorry I asked!"

"I'm sorry you asked, too!" she laughed.

To sit down with Broadway legend Elaine Stritch is like being treated to a one-woman show where nothing is off-limits -- and it's quickly clear who's in charge.

She said, "You are one good-looking . . . "

"Are you -- " Cowan interjected.

"Let me finish! You are one good-looking fella, I'll tell you the truth."

"So years ago, we could have been a thing, you and me?"

"Oh my God, yes! Oh my God yes, Are you crazy?"

That's saying a lot coming from the leggy, mouthy blonde who took Broadway by storm. For an astounding 70 years, Stritch captivated audiences, from Noel Coward's "Sail Away," to William Inge's "Bus Stop," and Edward Albee's "A Delicate Balance."

Stritch was poignant, funny, irascible, and most of all, just downright brassy.

She told Cowan, "I'm loaded with talent."

"And you're not shy about saying that?"

"Oh no, I'm loaded! I loved music, and I loved a rhythm, and loved [singing] -- I loved all that stuff. And I loved musical comedy. Ooooh!"

That throaty, unmistakable voice became synonymous with composer Stephen Sondheim, especially her rendition of "The Ladies Who Lunch" from "Company."

She's won countless awards, including a Tony, and three Emmys, her most recent for her role as Alec Baldwin's firecracker of a mother on NBC's "30 Rock."

Time, however, is intruding into her life in a not-so-delicate manner.

And yet, in true Elaine Stritch style, she's decided to make aging a performance.

She agreed to let filmmaker Chiemi Karasawa document her life off-stage in a project fittingly called, "Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me."

"It's sort of an anthem to aging in a way," Karasawa told Cowan. "You know, she makes a statement -- this is who we are, this is what happens in your life, and you need to accept it at every stage."

Cameras followed her everywhere as Stritch was preparing for one of her final shows at the famed Cafe Carlyle in New York.

Karasawa said, "It was really, really an open invitation, and that, I think, takes an incredible amount of courage to expose yourself that way, and typical of Elaine, balls. You know? All out, she's just got 'em."

It's as unfiltered as you might imagine:

"I did 'Virginia Woolf' on Broadway, and for the first time in my life, I had an orgasm."

Was that true? Cowan asked Stritch. You really did?

"You're damn right, I did," she replied. "Would you make that up?"

But while she's scaldingly frank, the film is also poignant and sometimes heartbreaking as it documents Stritch's slow decline.

Diabetes is taking its toll, for one. ("Oh my God, let me have some orange juice right away!"). Her failing memory has left her with an inability to remember lyrics -- and that seems to frustrate her most of all.

"I don't think I've had a happy, happy, happy life," Stritch said. "I don't think I have."

"All the success, all the . . . ?"

"Success doesn't mean a damn thing."

It's not the first time Stritch has put the bumpy parts of her life up in lights. In 2002 her show, "Elaine Stritch at Liberty," took New York by storm.

It was a confessional of sorts -- just her and a stool, opening up about life, love, and her infamous battle with alcoholism.

"You didn't go out on stage for a long time without having a drink, or two," Cowan said.

"Oooh, no. I think drinking is part of performing," Stritch said.

"Even though you were confident that you had the talent, you were still . . . "

"Frightened to death," she said. "I HAD to be entertaining. I HAD to be entertaining the folks."

"That's a lot of pressure."

"Oh, is it ever."

She says she took her first drink at just 13, at her home in Detroit.

She was raised a devout Catholic -- a convent girl -- who at 17 headed for New York intent on making it as someone else, on stage.

"Oh, I didn't kid around with acting. I love the escape of being another human being," she said.

"You liked pretending?"

"Oh, what a word. Yes! Because I didn't like where I was."

Her acting school classmates, however, seemed to like her just fine -- everyone from Marlon Brando to Kirk Douglas: "He fell in love with me," Stritch said, "and he'll tell you that today, and he's still alive!"

"Do you want to talk about your date with Marlon Brando?" Cowan asked.

"Ah, no. I've talked about it too much. Nothing happened."

"He wanted something to happen, though."

"Well, I didn't know. I didn't know anything about that."

"You were a good, virginal Catholic girl?"

"Yes! And I didn't know how to make love. I knew how it meant to fall in love."

Her one and only husband was actor John Bay. But when he died of cancer at just 53, Stritch again escaped into a bottle.

She eventually stopped drinking.

But in explaining it to our own Charles Osgood back in 1996, she said it was less about her health, and more about her career:

"I have a very good reason to stop drinking, I think I wanted to find out if I had any talent, au-naturel. I wanted to find out if I really had it!"

She's remained sober for more than 20 years. But recently she decided she could handle one drink a night. But her haunting insecurities remain, even now.

At the New York premiere for her new documentary, she was welcomed with open arms. But it wasn't until the film ended, when she got a standing ovation, that she truly felt she'd delivered.

"Sitting in the audience, and watching you watching me, this is just too much, I'm telling you," she laughed.

For this life-long performer, it's still all about the audience.

She told Cowan that hearing an audience applaud is "a necessity."

"Oh yes. It's gotta happen. Well, otherwise it's not worth it, you know, unless they are pleased."

Stritch decided to leave New York last year for good, and return home to Detroit, where she's closer to family who all take very good care of her.

When asked if this was one of her last times back in New York, she responded, "No! I'm not that old."

Still, she's candid about the fact that her final curtain call is probably not that far off.

But in the time she has left, Elaine Stritch says she wants to do something she spent her long career avoiding: being herself.

"You're trying to discover yourself off-stage?" Cowan asked.

"Yes! That's it."

"What are you trying to discover?

"What real happiness is."

For more info:

• Documentary: "Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me" (Official site)
• Follow "Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me" on Twitter and Facebook