James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, and Terrence Howard take applause following a performance of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"
Paula McClain: Why Broadway Is In My Genes
Friday, April 4, 2008
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Durham, NC -- I love the theatre. It seems as if I was born with Broadway in my genetic code, but my first show was actually when I was four years old, almost five. My mother and I took the train from Philadelphia to New York to see a matinee performance of Mary Martin in “Peter Pan” at the Winter Garden Theatre. It was magical. As Mary Martin flew across the stage, I imagined myself doing the same, and yelped with glee, along with all of the other children in the audience. I have been hooked on Broadway, in particular, and the theatre, in general, ever since.
Luckily, I married a man who also enjoys the theatre, and we introduced our daughters to Broadway at an early age. I asked my oldest daughter, Kristina, if she remembered her first Broadway show. Her response was the time we flew to Los Angeles (we lived in Tempe, Arizona, at the time) to see Robert Guillaume, whose popular television series, “Benson,” had either just gone off the air or was on hiatus, in “Phantom of the Opera.” She also remembered the “huge piece of chocolate cake” she ate at the restaurant in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion before the show.
I posed the same question to my youngest, Jessica, and she remembered “The Boyfriend,” a musical we put on our schedule just for her when we attended the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, one summer.
It is impossible to recall all of the shows that I have seen, but certain ones stick out in memory —“Hair” (1969), “Woman of the Year” with Lauren Bacall (1981), “Robeson” with James Earl Jones in 1979 and then again with Avery Brooks in 1988, John Lithgow in “Sweet Smell of Success” (2002), among others. I also remember some I did not particularly enjoy—“An Inspector Calls” in 1992 (I simply could not follow the plot line, and our oldest daughter was so bored she fell asleep).
We try to get to New York or another city at least once a year, sometimes more, to see shows. Our most recent family (which now includes a son-in-law, Josh) theatre trip to New York was this past October. We saw two shows, “The Color Purple” and “Jersey Boys.” Both were spectacular, but “Jersey Boys” was my favorite, as I am a big Four Seasons fan. I could not believe my luck the previous spring in being able to snare five orchestra tickets to “Jersey Boys!”
Richard Palmer: Why science makes for great drama
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There is an underappreciated dramatic aspect to science, says chemist Richard Palmer. Because it’s at the core of many critical issues, perhaps it’s natural for playwrights to turn science into drama. Last semester, students in two classes used theater to explore the history, ethics and philosophy of science. Click here to read more.
We are plotting our next trip, which will be soon. James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, and Terrence Howard are appearing in a limited-run production of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” directed by Debbie Allen. Fortunate for us, it has been held over until June, so we will be rounding up the family again for another trek to “The Great White Way.”
At the beginning of this piece, I questioned whether my love for the theatre was in my genetic code. I am not sure if something like that is passed on genetically, but I do think that family environment plays a role. When my sister and I were closing out our parents’ home, we found two playbills. One was from the 1945 production of Lillian Smith’s “Strange Fruit,” produced and directed by Jose Ferrer, and starring Jane White (daughter of NAACP Field Secretary Walter White), Melchor (Mel) Ferrer, and Earl Jones, the father of James Earl Jones. The other was a 1976 program for a production of “Porgy and Bess,” starring Donnie Ray Albert as Porgy and Clamma Dale as Bess. Two shows, 31 years apart. I can only imagine how many shows they probably saw in those 31 years and after. I wish I were able to engage them in conversation about their choices and preferences in types of theatre, and if their affinity for the theatre explained the summer theatre workshops we were enrolled in as children. It is clear that my affection for the theatre is the result of being raised by parents who truly enjoyed it and who took the time to pass that love on to their children.
