She "arrived at showbiz stardom with a featured role" in the musical "It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman" (1966). She received her first Tony Award nomination in 1970, for her role in the Neil Simon play "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" (1969). Clive Barnes, in his review for "The New York Times", wrote: "Linda Lavin, eyebrows, flaunting like telegraphed messages, mouth twitching and pouting, voice as dry as thunder and with a cough like electric static, is beautiful as Elaine, the sex cat feeling coolly kittenish and looking for a safe tin roof." Lavin's last Broadway credit before she moved to Hollywood was in "Paul Sills' Story Theatre" in 1971.