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.
To date, David Schwimmer made his one and only Broadway
appearance this past year in the revival of The
Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. He played Lt.
Barney Greenwald, the role originally played on Broadway
in 1954 by Henry Fonda.
Although no stranger to theatre, Schwimmer is best
known as the character Dr. Ross Geller on the long
running TV sitcom Friends. While playing
the nebbishy paleontologist for the show’s entire
ten year run, David also made several appearances in
other projects: The Pallbearer (1996), Breast
Men (1997), Six Days Seven Nights (1998)
and “Band of Brothers” (2001)
to name a few.
Schwimmer received his undergraduate
education at Northwestern University. Upon graduating he became
a co-founding member of Chicago’s Looking Glass
Theatre Company in 1988. The theatre has become
a preeminent player in the Chicago theatre scene. David
is a company member and has acted in and directed several
productions there.
1) David Schwimmer starred
in the 2006 revival of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial with Željko
Ivanek
2) Željko Ivanek appeared in The Pillowman with Jeff
Goldblum
3) Jeff Goldblum did one official performance of The Moony
Shapiro Songbook with Judy Kaye.
4) Judy Kaye was the original “Carlotta”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.
