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.
Before he was welcomed to the sixties
as a singing/dancing Baltimore mom or caught a dancing
fever on a Saturday
night or inserted a rubber hose up Mr. Kotter’s
nose, John Travolta was dream drummin’on Broadway.
Travolta was born in Englewood,
NJ. He exhibited
a knack for performing at a very young age. His
love of dancing led him to take tap lesson from Fred
Kelly, Gene Kelly’s brother. At 16 he could
longer wait for his life to begin so he dropped out
of high school to move to New York to pursue a career
as an actor. He found work in several Off-Broadway
productions and was a replacement for the role of Doody
in Grease.
His major Broadway appearance was in the musical Over
Here (1974). The show had music and lyrics
by the Sherman brothers (Mary Poppins, Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang) and was created as a vehicle
for two/thirds of the famed Andrew Sisters, Maxene
and Patty. The show’s score was a nostalgic
look at the music of the ‘40’s. John
played a soldier traveling by train across the country,
before heading off to fight in Europe. His
big feature came in the second act when he expressed
his plans for the future. In “Dream Drummin’”he
paints of jazzy picture of fronting his very own “super”big
band.
Soon after appearing in Over Here, John caught
his big break when he was cast as the wise-cracking
Sweathog, Vinnie Barbarino, in the sitcom Welcome
Back, Kotter (1975-1979). But he became
a star when he got to show off his singing and dancing
talents on the big screen as Tony Manero in Saturday
Night Fever (1977) and Danny Zuko in Grease (1978).
Once again John has returned to
the musical genre with his most recent movie. Travolta
takes on the role of over protective mom, Edna Turnblad,
in
the new movie musical, Hairspray (2007).
1) John Travolta did Over Here with
Bette Henritze
2) Bette Henritze was in the 1996 revival
of Inherit the Wind with
Herdon Lackey
3) Herdon Lackey did The Mystery of Edwin Drood with Patti
Cohenour
4) Patti Cohenour was the original Christine alternate in The
Phantom of the Opera with Michael Crawford.
“I’m dream drummin’.
I’m another Krupa
Heading up a super band
And I’m the leader man.”
…Misfit
in Over Here
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.
