When I was 11 the family went on tour with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in what was to be their farewell to the stage: The Visit. Rehearsals were held across the street from the Victory Theatre (where I would appear, many years later, in Mac Wellman's Crowbar), at the New Amsterdam Roof. The grand renovation by Disney was many years away, and the Roof was a shabby, decrepit place to work. Nevertheless, the admirable Miss Fontanne arrived each day in an elegant suit, and casually draped her sables over a bentwood chair, in sheer defiance of the dusty reality around her. Before we set out on the road we did a runthrough of the play for John Gielgud and the cast of Much Ado About Nothing who were preparing to open at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre where The Visit had been the inaugural production. As they were leaving, Gielgud, who was also the director of Much Ado, called out, "Lovely, Alfred." He meant the direction--Mr. Lunt had re-created Peter Brook's staging of the Broadway production, while adding some touches of his own.
When I was eight (1956) I had made my Broadway debut at the Henry Miller’s Theatre in the Dylan Thomas play Under Milk Wood, in the role of The Child. In '89, the opening night party for Crowbar (a play about theatrical ghosts) was held in the old Henry Miller which had by then become a disco. On the stage where I had spoken the immortal words "Nogood Boyo gave me three pennies yesterday, but I wouldn’t" a bright red sportscar was wedged into the back wall. In the late sixties the same space had been showing male films.
Ah yes, life upon the wicked stage. In Crowbar I sang and danced in a chorus of 19th century spirits:
All theatres are haunted
Time is empty air
To be
Or no-body
