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We Celebrate the Upcoming Broadway Season Through the Legendary Pen of Al Hirschfeld!
We Celebrate the Upcoming Broadway Season Through the Legendary Pen of Al Hirschfeld!
In celebration of The New-York Historical Society's special exhibition "The Hirschfeld Century: The Art of Al Hirschfeld" and the new book "The Hirschfeld Century: Portrait of an Artist and His Age," published July 7, Playbill presents a look back at some classic Al Hirschfeld drawings. We look forward to the upcoming fall season and the various actors and revivals we'll be seeing on the Broadway stage.
23 PHOTOS
TV Historical Figures
Rip Torn, Hal Holbrook, George Grizzard, Jane Alexander, and Edward Hermann, 1976
Hamilton shows how historical figures can be relevant to today’s audience. Forty years ago, there was a flurry of television biopics that tried to do the same.
As the Curtain Rises
Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter, and Christopher Hampton, 1978
Harold Pinter’s Old Times will soon be in New York. Hirschfeld drew the playwright and his shows from close to thirty years, capturing important plays such as The Homecoming , No Man’s Land , and Betrayal . Here Pinter is drawn for the cover of book examining three of England’s greatest contemporary playwrights.
Hume Cronyn in
The Gin Game , 1977
When The Gin Game opens on Broadway in October it will be almost the 40th anniversary of when Hirschfeld first drew this work from the original production.
The Gin Game
Charles Durning and Julie Harris, 1997
20 years after the Broadway premiere, Hirschfeld drew two of Broadway’s leading lights in the two-person comedy.
The Man in the Dog Suit
Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, 1958
Before Sylvia made actors perform as dogs, this 1958 comedy put Hume Cronyn is a dog suit as the shy Oliver who can only be bold and independent when wearing the suit.
Thérèse Raquin
Joyce Bulifant, Philip Coolidge, and Eva le Gallienne, 1961
Zola’s fascinating story was first presented on Broadway in 1945 as simply Therese , with Eva Le Gallienne playing the overbearing aunt. She would re-create the performance in this 1961 television production for the Play of the Week.
The World of Suzie Wong
Frances Nuyen and William Shatner, 1958
The clash of East and West is nothing new on Broadway, with David Mamet’s China Doll being the latest entry. This 1958 play by Paul Osborn was adapted from the novel of the same name and starred the future Captain Kirk from Star Trek in his first lead role on Broadway.
A View from a Bridge
J. Carrol Naish, Eileen Heckart, Jack Warden, Gloria Marlowe, Richard Davalos, and Van Heflin, 1955
This play opened as a one act in repertory with another Arthur Miller one act and met with a mixed reception. It was later adapted by Miller into a standard two act play which is being revived this season.
David Mamet and Ricky Jay, 2002
Mamet came to Hirschfeld’s studio the afternoon before the opening of his On the Stem starring Ricky Jay to pose for this drawing. The two men chatted with Hirschfeld about the history of Broadway and vaudeville. The conversation was reprinted virtually verbatim in the New York Times.
American Buffalo
Al Pacino, James Hayden, and J.J. Johnston, 1983
This season’s China Doll is not the first time Pacino has starred in a Mamet play on Broadway. His first was Mamet’s now celebrated American Buffalo in 1983.
Doug Henning in
The Magic Show , 1976
Magicians have been performing their tricks on Broadway almost as long as there has been a Broadway, and will continue to do so this season with The Illusionists . In 1976, magician Doug Henning did a series of stunts to original music by Stephen Schwartz for a four year run.
Laurie Metcalf in
My Thing of Love , 1995
Stephen King’s Misery, adapted by William Goldman, debuts this season on Broadway with Laurie Metcalf and Bruce Willis. Twenty years ago, Hirschfeld drew Metcalf in her Broadway debut.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, 1995
When the new musical, School of Rock hits the boards this season, it will have an old hand writing the music. Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s career on Broadway has been amply chronicled by Hirschfeld over more than thirty years.
Zero Mostel in
Fiddler on the Roof , 1977
“Tradition” is what the original Tevye sings here in this 1977 revival of the classic musical. It has almost become a tradition to revive this musical for each generation.
Noises Off
Deborah Rush, Jim Piddock, Paxton Whitehead, Victor Garber, Douglas Seale, Brian Murray, Linda Thorson, and Dorothy Loudon, 1983
Michael Frayn’s comedy about the hijinks of a theater troupe provided many great characters for Hirschfeld to draw.
“New York Opening” from
Show Business is No Business , 1951
When Noises Off premiered on Broadway, it featured this Hirschfeld drawing on its poster. When it was adapted for film, it also featured a new Hirschfeld drawing of the cast on its poster.
Rang Tang
F.E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles, 1927
1921’s Shuffle Along was a landmark African American musical on Broadway and these gentlemen wrote the book and starred in the original production. They are sure to play a role in Shuffle Along , Or, The Making Of The Musical Sensation Of 1921 And All That Followed opening later this season.
Eubie Blake, 1978
Buster West and Noble Sissle at the
Ambassadeurs Nightclub , 1928
Hirschfeld caught Noble Sissle, who wrote the lyrics for Shuffle Along , in Paris on the artist’s honeymoon. Sissle was conducting a great hot jazz band featuring Sidney Bechet. West was an eccentric dancer
Frank Langella in
The Father , 1996
This season won’t be the first time Langella plays in The Father , although his first time twenty years ago was in the classic Strinberg play. This season The Father’s author is Florian Zeller.
Long Day’s Journey into Night
Bradford Dillman, Jason Robards, Florence Eldridge, and Frederic March, 1956
This season’s production is the sixth revival of Eugene O’Neill’s perhaps greatest work. This drawing of the original production is on view now at the New York Historical Society’s HIRSCHFELD CENTURY exhibition (on through October 12).
She Loves Me
Barbara Cook, Daniel Massey, Ludwig Donath, Nathaniel Frey, Gino Conforti, Barbara Baxley, and Jack Cassidy, 1963
This was the musical Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick wrote before Fiddler on the Roof . In the original production seen here, Jack Cassidy won the Tony for the Best Featured Actor in a Musical.
Dirty Blonde
Philip Bosco and Claudia Shear, 2000
Tuck Everlasting’s book writer is the talented Claudia Shear seen here as a Mae West of her creation in her own Dirty Blonde . This rare theatrical color work is in the collection of the Library of Congress.
"The Hirschfeld Century: The Art of Al Hirschfeld " is the first major retrospective of the acclaimed portraitist, who immortalized celebrities and Broadway productions with his iconic drawings for nine decades. On view at The New-York Historical Society through Oct. 12, the exhibition features over 100 original drawings from the artist's early work for Hollywood studios to his last drawings for the New York Times. Highlights include classic portraits of Charlie Chaplin, Carol Channing , Ella Fitzgerald , Jane Fonda , and Ringo Starr, as well as cast drawings from such landmark productions as Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story and The Glass Menagerie .
The book "The Hirschfeld Century: Portrait of an Artist and His Age," published by Alfred A. Knopf and featuring biographical text by David Leopold, is currently available exclusively at The New-York Historical Society exhibition, and will be available in bookstores around the country July 7. The artist's extraordinary career is revealed in more than 360 of his iconic black-and-white and color drawings, illustrations, and photographs. Hirschfeld's influences, his techniques, and his evolution from his earliest works to his last drawings, are all chronicled.