This is a weekly feature on BroadwayLiving.com.
It’s just like the game “Six Degrees of
Kevin Bacon”. You know how it goes…someone
throws out an actor’s name and you have to try
to connect them to Kevin Bacon in six steps or less.
I thought it might be fun to do the same thing with
the theater’s luminaries. I will be trying to
connect them to the longest running show in Broadway
history, The Phantom of the Opera and its very first “Phantom”,
Michael Crawford.
Frank Langella was nominated for a fifth Tony Award
on Tuesday for his portrayal of Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon.
He’s won the award twice before. His first award
came with his Broadway debut in 1975 in the role of
Leslie in Edward Albee’s Seascape. He scored
his second Tony triumph as Flegont Alexandrovitch Tropatchov
in 2002’s Fortune’s Fool. His two other
nominations were for Dracula (1978) and Match (2004).
Frank got his start in New York with the Lincoln Center
Repertory company, making his NYC debut in The Immoralist
in 1963. What’s followed has been an impressive
career filled with numerous film and television appearances
and a tremendous body of work on the stage as an actor,
director and producer.
1) Frank Langella was in the 1983 play, Passion, with
Bob Gunton
3) Bob Gunton did Big River with Patti Cohenour
4) Patti Cohenour was the original Christine alternate
in The Phantom of the Opera with Michael Crawford.
So that’s the game. Join me each week as I try
to come up with new ways of connecting Michael Crawford
to the entire theater community.
