Fritz Weaver among Theater Hall of Fame inductees
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Composer Charles Strouse, left, celebrates with Theater Hall of Fame honoree Fritz Weaver. -
Actress Linda Lavin was also inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame Monday night in New York. -
Hall of Famers and costume designers Willa Kim and William Ivey Long were on hand to greet the new class.
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NEW YORK -- The 2010 inductees into the Theater Hall of Fame included three actors, a playwright, music director, stage director, director-librettist and playwright-director -- a taste of the many talents that create the American theater.
They were inducted Monday at Broadway's Gershwin Theatre, where the walls of the north and south rotundas are encrusted with the names in raised gold letters of more than 400 hall members. The eight newcomers were elected last fall by living members of the hall and 200-plus members of the American Theatre Critics Association.
For a Pittsburgher in the hall's 40th year, the most welcome inductee was Fritz Weaver, the tall, craggy faced actor with a hawk-like profile made to be carved on high-value coins and a voice like corrugated flannel or the rumble of rocks cascading down Mount Washington.
The veteran of a nearly 60-year theatrical career, including two dozen shows on Broadway, Mr. Weaver started life in East Liberty, which he said Monday "had everything to do" with his future career. His father was a Shakespeare-loving social worker at Kingsley House and his mother was an opera singer.
He did Shakespeare plays at Peabody High School, where Richard Thompson, "a great drama teacher," was a notable influence. He also recalls doing French classical dramas in French class and at the Alliance Francaise. After three years as a conscientious objector in World War II -- the family were Quakers -- he went to the University of Chicago to study drama and great books, then on to New York and a long career.
Mr. Weaver was one of the four inductees present. Of the others, one is deceased, and work kept three on the other side of the Atlantic. But each inductee was presented or represented by a friend in the theater, some of them quite distinguished, so the ceremony felt, as always, like a celebration of an extended family.
The very model of an induction speech was delivered by famed director/producer Hal Prince, speaking of actress Linda Lavin. Mr. Prince was authoritative but also informal, with anecdotes interwoven with a survey of Ms. Lavin's long career.
They met in 1961, he said, when he was brought in to evaluate "A Family Affair," a John Kander musical stalled in Philadelphia. After a look, he decided to stay and direct: "You're a brave man," said legendary director George Abbott. Mr. Prince quickly determined that Ms. Lavin, who was playing a small part, had star quality, so he kept adding other small roles. It became her Broadway debut, the first of 16 Broadway shows that have brought her many awards, including a Tony for "Broadway Bound" and four more nominations.
First Published January 28, 2011 12:00 am
