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.
Happy Birthday to Meryl Streep! She is ?? years old
today. What? You thought I was actually going to tell
you. It’s not nice to tell a woman’s age.
If you really want to know you’re going to have
to find out on your own.
Born in Summit, New Jersey, Meryl’s early inclinations
were for the opera. It was while she was a student
at Vassar, where she earned her B.A., that she became
interested in acting. She went on to attend the masters
program at the Yale School of Drama before making her
Broadway debut in a revival of Trelawney of the “Wells” in
1975. In ’76 she appeared in a double-bill of
Tennessee Williams’ 27 Wagons Full of Cotton
and Arthur Miller’s A Memory of Two Mondays,
for which she received her only Tony Award nomination.
She then went on to do the Broadway debut of Kurt Weill’s
Happy End in 1977. After that Ms. Streep disappeared
and was never heard of again… at least on Broadway.
She, of course, moved to Hollywood and became one of
the greatest and most respected film actresses of all
time. She has been nominated a record 14 times for
the Academy Award. She’s won it twice for Kramer
vs. Kramer (1979) and Sophie’s Choice (1982).
Her portrayals have run the gamut from an Iowa farmer’s
housewife to an ultra powerful fashion magazine editor.
Most recently, Meryl has been confirmed for the role
of Donna in the movie version of the ABBA musical,
Mamma Mia.
After over a twenty year absence Ms. Streep returned
to the New York stage in 2001 to play Arkadina in the
Public Theater’s revival of The Seagull at the
Delacorte Theater in Central Park. And last summer
she returned to that same stage to take on the title
role in Mother Courage and Her Children. Let’s
just hope it won’t be twenty more years before
she returns again.
1) Meryl Streep did the 1977 revival of The Cherry
Orchard with Raul Julia
2) Raul Julia starred in the 1992 revival of Man of
La Mancha in which Luis Perez appeared.
3) Luis Perez was the original “Slave Master
in Hannibal” 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.
