How these late theater greats changed Broadway forever

How these late theater greats changed Broadway forever

Not to drop a name, but I was at a dinner party once with Robert De Niro (thump!) who said the actress he admired most was Barbara Harris.

De Niro was a student at the Actors Studio in New York in the 1960s where Harris, then on the verge of Broadway stardom, was a member. She rehearsed scenes and monologues in front of De Niro and other aspiring young actors, who were awed by her style and technique.

Harris died this week at 83 from lung cancer, after acclaimed performances in Broadway’s “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever” and films including “Nashville,” “Family Plot” and “The Seduction of Joe Tynan.”

She could have been a big star, says her “On a Clear Day” co-star John Cullum, but she never pushed for it.

“She was so fast and so talented,” he says. “She could have been tops in her field, but I don’t think she thought acting was the most important thing you could do with your life.”

She’d drop out of sight after a show closed and friends would be surprised to see her working at an art gallery in the Village or, in one instance, behind the perfume counter at Bloomingdale’s.

She was eccentric, onstage and off.

“You never knew what she was going to do,” Cullum says. “She loved to improvise. If I had a line — ‘Why are you smiling?’ — she’d frown. It was charming, but it was difficult. She’d be floating all over the place, and the audience loved it.”

Louis Jourdan (who was replaced by John Cullum) and Barbara Harris during tryouts for “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.”Everett Collection

And there was always an edge to her performance.

“She was always on the verge of something,” he says. “She never went bananas, but there was something lurking there, something a little dark.”

Offstage, Harris would sometimes dress like a bag lady and duck out of the theater before VIPs could come backstage to meet her.

She had little interest in promoting herself, or her show.

When “Clear Day” began to wilt at the box office, the press agent lined up a Time magazine profile of her. A Time story, back in the ’60s, always sold tickets.

But at the last minute, Harris refused to do the interview.

“I never knew why,” Cullum says. “She just didn’t want to do it. It didn’t matter to her … And the show closed.”

One of Edward Albee’s favorite actors was Brian Murray, who died this week at 80.

“You never have to worry about your play when you have an actor like Brian in it,” Albee once told me. “He doesn’t get things wrong.”

Murray, who was born in South Africa, appeared on Broadway in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” “The Little Foxes” and an acclaimed revival of “The Crucible.”

He had remarkable stage chemistry with another of Albee’s favorite actors, Marian Seldes. They turned in memorable performances in Albee’s 2001 play “The Play About the Baby.”

“It was my extraordinary luck at a very advanced age to work with Marian,” Murray once said. “She was a leading lady, and I really have to use both those words actively. She was leading. And if ever there was one, a lady.”

Murray loved to tell the story of how Seldes caught an early preview of a production of “Tartuffe” that he directed.

“It was dreadful,” he said. “I was hanging my head and she came up to me and said, ‘Darling, it’s got to get better!’”

Craig Zadan, the movie, theater and TV producer, also died this week — at 69, from complications following shoulder surgery.

He produced the revival of “Promises, Promises” starring Kristin Chenoweth, as well as 2002’s movie musical of “Chicago” and the live TV broadcasts of “Hairspray” and “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

Many Broadway fans have his book “Sondheim & Co.” in their libraries. Zadan, who as a young man was close to Stephen Sondheim, wrote it in the 1970s and ’80s.

While there have been many other books about Sondheim since then — two by the great man himself — for my money, Zadan’s is still the best. Sondheim gave him many hours of interviews and spoke candidly about his musicals “Company,” “Follies,” “A Little Night Music” and “Merrily We Roll Along.”

“Sondheim & Co.” has good gossip but is never malicious. It’s clear Sondheim trusted Zadan, and the composer’s assessments of his shows are lively and sharp.

It’s a book well worth re-reading, or catching anew.

You can hear Michael Riedel weekdays on “Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning” on WOR radio 710.

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