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 Sunday evening the 61st Annual Tony Awards will
be presented. The award is named for actress, director
and producer, Antoinette “Tony” Perry.
Ms. Perry made her Broadway debut in the comedy Lady
Jim and soon after was cast as the leading lady in
David Belasco’s The Grand Army Man opposite David
Warfield. From there she tallied up an impressive resume
as an actress until 1927 when a stroke paralyzed a
side of her face, and she left acting.
She shifted her focus to directing and joined forces
with producer, Brock Pemberton, with whom she had started
an association in the early ‘20s as a silent
partner. Perry and Pemberton had their first major
success in 1929 with the comedy, Strictly Dishonorable,
and despite the stock market crash a month later, the
play enjoyed a run of 557 performances. In an era,
and business, dominated by men, Antoinette went on
to direct (and co-produce) a string of hits with Mr.
Pemberton.
Despite her theatrical accomplishments she may best
be remembered as a co-founder of the Theatre Wing of
Allied Relief during World War II. The organization
would later become know as the American Theatre Wing.
The Wing operated the famed Stage Door Canteen where
stars worked as dishwashers, waiters and entertainers
for the armed forces.
On June 28, 1946 Antoinette Perry died of a heart attack.
One year later an award for distinguished stage acting
and technical achievement was established by the Wing
and, in honor, was given her name. At the initial ceremony
in 1947 as the awards were being handed out someone
referred to the award by Ms. Perry’s nickname,
Tony. The name stuck.
Coincidentally, Michael Crawford has only taken home
Ms. Perry’s award once; in 1988 for his role
in The Phantom of the Opera. He beat out Scott Bakula
(Romance, Romance), the late David Carroll (Chess)
and Howard McGillin (Anything Goes) – who went
on to play the Phantom himself.
1) Antoinette Perry did The Ladder with Edward J. McNamara
2) Edward J. McNamara was in The Return of the Vagabond
with Florenz Ames
3) Florenz Ames played the French Ambassador in Of
Thee I Sing with Ken Ayers
4) Ken Ayers appeared in Sugar with John Mineo
5) John Mineo did the short-lived Graciela Daniele
piece Dangerous Games with Luis Perez
6) Luis Perez was the original “Slave Master
in Hannibal” in The Phantom of the Opera with
Michael Crawford.
“
And the Tony goes to…”
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.
