Theater Hall of Fame inducts 8 with reminiscence and laughter
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NEW YORK -- Phylicia Rashad gave the most affectionate speech, Brian Dennehy the funniest and Donald Margulies the best written. But the best overall was by surprise presenter Meryl Streep -- affectionate and funny, delivered in that artless way that is the perfection of art.
There was also Liza Minnelli, gushing sweetly; Jane Alexander, earnest and professorial; Brian Murray, playing the veteran pixie with practiced skill; and a very dry, crisp emcee, Estelle Parsons, riding herd on it all with an amused twinkle.
Those were just the presenters. They gathered last Monday at the Gershwin Theater beneath the gold-lettered names of some 400 members of the American Theater Hall of Fame to pay tribute to the eight members of the class of 2011 (when they were elected): actors Tyne Daly and Ben Vereen, producers Elliot Martin and George White, costume designer Ann Roth and directors Paul Sills, Daniel Sullivan and Woodie King Jr..
On balance, the inductees are never as well-known to the public as the presenters, even when the presenters aren't as starry as these. After all, the Hall of Fame celebrates those who work in every niche of the theater, from onstage to backstage to production offices.
But they are certainly known to each other. As at every annual induction since I first got involved in an official way in 1992, each of the eight inductees noted professional or personal connections with most of the others. And when you take the presenters into account, along with the audience of 100-150 family, colleagues and friends, you understand just how small and tightly knit a profession it is.
This year's induction ceremony and the party to follow were orchestrated, as always, by the very experienced Hall of Fame executive producer, Terry Hodge Taylor.
Jane Alexander presented her old colleague, producer Elliot Martin, 86, saying, "you always remember the first time." That was about her first Broadway audition. She didn't get the part, but she still remembers Mr. Martin as "an impossibly handsome man sitting next to the impossibly tall Mr. [George] Abbott."
The play was "Never Too Late" (1962), Mr. Martin's first credit as producer. He had broken into the theater as a raw westerner in boots and Stetson in the ensemble of "Oklahoma!" He moved into stage managing in 1953 -- his best credit is "Long Day's Journey into Night" (1956) -- then started producing the first of his 34 Broadway shows, many of them revivals of classics.
One original show was "Shadowlands," where Ms. Alexander did get the part, playing opposite Nigel Hawthorne on Broadway, for which she said Mr. Martin had the grace to let her warm up as a replacement in the London production. "The last of the gentleman producers," she called him.
First Published February 4, 2012 12:21 pm
