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.
On Broadway George Furth is known for his prowess with the pen. He is the 1971 Tony Award winner for Best Book of a Musical for Company (1970). He also wrote the books for Merrily We Roll Along (1981) and The Act (1977). His plays include Twigs (1971), The Supporting Cast (1981), Precious Sons (1986) and Getting Away with Murder (1996), on which he once again partnered with Stephen Sondheim in a non-musical foray.
But George first entered the Broadway scene as an actor. He made his Broadway debut in the play A Cook for Mr. General (1961). Next he appeared in the ill-fated musical Hot Spot (1963). The show lasted less than 50 performances but during rehearsals, the show’s composer Mary Rodgers brought in a friend to help rework an opening number. That friend was Stephen Sondheim.
Furth’s Broadway acting career proceeded no further, but he continued to act on television and in films. The character actor made numerous appearances on some of the biggest shows of the 1970’s. And in films he can be seen in Blazing Saddles (1974), Shampoo (1975), Oh, God! (1977) and many, many others. But perhaps his most notable film appearance was in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) as the character “Woodcock”.
The playwright and actor celebrates a birthday today. He was born on this day in 1932. Happy Birthday, George!
1) George Furth was in Hot Spot with Jack Dabdoub
2) Jack Dabdoub was a standby in the 1992 revival of The Most Happy Fella with Melanie Vaughan
3) Melanie Vaughan did Sunday in the Park with George with Cris Groenendaal
4) Cris Groenendaal was the original Monsieur André in Phantom of the Opera with Michael Crawford
“Isn’t this some world? I’m afraid to get married, and you’re
afraid not to. Thank you, Robert. I’m really… it’s just
that you have to want to marry somebody, not just somebody.”
… Amy speaking to Bobby in Company
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.
