DANCING MISS DAISY

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

We just came back from seeing “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks,” the new play starring Mark Hamill and Polly Bergen currently in previews on Broadway at the Belasco Theater. Seeing a show in previews, when the kinks are supposed to be worked out, can always be an adventure. In last night’s performance, for instance, the sound system was so out of whack that three minutes into the show, the feedback was practically rupturing everyone’s eardrums. Bergen suddenly dropped character, announced that this was simply unacceptable and she walked off the stage. Mark stood there flummoxed for a moment, then turned to the audience and said hopefully, “So…want to know how a light saber works?”

Twenty minutes later they finally got the sound running properly, earning the gratitude of both cast and audience, and the play started over again.

Fortunately enough, the performance we saw tonight went off without a hitch. Hamill plays a dance instructor hired to come to the home of a baptist minister’s wife and, as the title would imply, spend the next six weeks giving her dance lessons. The reason I call it “Dancing Miss Daisy” is that, at its core, it’s about an aging Southern woman, disconnected from the world, who finds a way of coping with her environment through the most unlikely of touchstones (her character is actually named Lily, but hey…daisy. Lily. Close enough). The characters are engaging, the show is briskly paced, and there’s enough unexpected revelations about both protagonists (it’s a two-person play) to keep you wondering what’s going to be sprung on you next.

What was also classy about Mark was that his throat was getting so strained by the end of the show that the theater personnel had arranged for him to be brought directly to an emergency room afterward to have it treated. Yet despite that, he stopped and signed autographs and posed for pictures with waiting fans.

Support the theater, support Broadway, and support Mark (whose “Comic Book: The Movie” comes out in January on DVD from Miramax.)

PAD

21 comments on “DANCING MISS DAISY”

  2. Hamill has always been a class act. I like his acting out of ‘star wars’ the best. He’s good in whatever he does though. Sounds like a fun play.

  4. I wish I were on the east coast so I’d have the chance to support this — I heard Hamill talk about it at Comic-Con and thought it sounded interesting. He’s truly a neat guy, more than willing to be as out there as most of his fans. 🙂

    [Comic Book: the Movie, though … I’m definitely there for that one. Have Courage!]

    TWL

  5. My one personal contact with Mark Hamill also had him being polite, although at nowhere near the same level. Back in ’86-’87, I lived in LA. One day I was in my regular comics shop, Hi-De-Ho in Santa Monica, to get that week’s books.

    There was a guy standing in front of the next rack to look at. So I said something like “Excuse me, could I get a look there?”. He politely replied “Of course”, and moved over a bit.

    Hey, wait a minute…this guy sure looked and sounded like Mark Hamill…Not generally being of the type to bother folk when they’re going about their every day lives, I didn’t say anything. But since he’d talked with the manager on his way out, I asked the manager as I was checking out if that had in fact been Mark Hamill. He confirmed it, and said Hamill was about to leave for NYC to do a play. Curiously, he was the only celebrity I ever ran into in LA purely by chance (i.e. there were various events I went to where celebs would show up, but in an expected manner. Hamill was the only one I ran into on the street as it were).

    Glad the play went well.

  6. You know, it really is a shame that a large segment of the population think of Mark Hamill as ‘ just Luke from Star Wars’. It’s good to see him get more success and exposure. Everything I have ever read about him mentions what a true professional he is.

    Ever so often when I am watching a Batman animated episode with a friend I’ll ask them if they know who does the voice of the Joker. The reaction I get from people when I mention Mark Hamill is priceless. Comic Book: The Movie is definitely something I want to check out. I hope it becomes a hit for all involved.

  7. That’s what happens when you get type casted in Hollywood. Like I said, I like his acting outside of star wars. I dont just think of him as being that one character he played years ago. I’ve never been lucking enough to meet any celebs but I always did follow his career though.

  9. Where was this range when playing Luke Skywalker?

    Buried along with good scripts for the stories.

  10. Good story, PAD, and neat that you saw Luke Skywalker playing a dance instructor (“I used to teach the tango to womp-rats back home,” perhaps?), but one hesitates to wonder what you’d have made of Wolverine playing a gay Australian song and dance man. (“I”m the best there is at what I do, and what I do best is fabulous, mate!”) 🙂

  11. I will add another story about Mark Hamill, because he certainly deserves the good press. My wife and I were at the San Diego ComicCon about four years ago, when Warner was about to release “Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker”, featuring Mr. Hamill of course.

    He was then taken to a nearby Warner Store where he signed autographs, had photos taken, etc. He was supposed to appear for two hours, but there was a tremendous line to meet him, and two hours came with about two thirds of the line dealt with.

    He did not leave until EVERYONE got their signature and their photos, and he wasn’t just quickly, “Hi, nice to meet you, glad you liked Star Wars, ‘bye.” He chatted with people, actually spoke with them, and was a gentleman and a fine person – nice to the kids, patient with the fanboys and fangirls, and all around wonderful.

    Hearing that he was signing autographs and shaking hands while he had to go to a hospital for his throat surprises me not at all – but I’d like to say that this seems typical behavior for this man who KNOWS what part his fans play in his career!

    I remain,

    Sincerely,

    Eric L. Sofer

    The Silver Age Fogey

    x<]:-)(

  12. I just want to chime in saying that (lo, these many years ago) I saw Mark Hamill on Broadway in Larry Shue’s comedy “The Nerd” and even the callow theatregoer I was back then was duly impressed with Hamill’s gifts for comedy and live theatre.

    I don’t get out to the theatre much these days, but am glad to hear Hamill’s back on Broadway, and that he’s such a class act.

  13. Man PAD, you’ve really gotten some run out of this blog entry. I’ve seen references to it on Mark Evanier’s News from Me, and on a couple of Star Wars related fan sites today. Hope it brings a few new fans into the mix for your books and comics.

    jeff

  14. I was at that same Warner Bros. Studio Store signing Eric references above, and I’ll speak to Mark’s politeness and general classiness too. We were probably halfway through the line, so well over an hour into his signing if not more — but he was bright and chatty, joking with me about being left-handed and being awfully nice to a suddenly blushing and stammering Lisa who remembered the crush she’d had on Luke Skywalker at age 11ish.

    [Editor’s note: Lisa just read this and said, quote, “PAST tense?”]

    We have, however, regretted for years that we didn’t ask him to gargle any Gershwin. (Points to anyone who gets that reference…)

    TWL

  15. We have, however, regretted for years that we didn’t ask him to gargle any Gershwin. (Points to anyone who gets that reference…)

    Muppet Show, right?

    PAD

  16. I can hear the whining now. “Oh, my God! Peter David is promoting Broadway! Didn’t he learn anything from the mobs who complained when Evanier did the same thing?”

    Frankly, though, Hamill on Broadway doesn’t do much for me. Even if I could dare to go to New York again, I’d have to sell several small children to buy a ticket to a play. It would be better if he would go on tour in a play. Buying a ticket to a show in Orlando requires that I only sell one small child.

    (Sadly, I don’t think Hamill has a singing voice, the only thing that would keep him from being a roadshow legend in “The Producers.” And yes, I’m thinking of him as Roger DeBris.)

  18. In response to Thomas E. Reed:

    if the only example of Mark Hamill’s singing voice that you’ve heard is a sketch from the Muppet Show that he probably had 3 days to learn and rehearse some 20 years ago, let me inform you that since then Mark’s been on Broadway in lead roles a few times, and I think some of them included singing.

    Also he did this same play (or something very close to it, an earlier staged version) in FLORIDA, for probably less than going to a theme park. In fact, if you check out playbill.com, you’ll find that he got good reviews in it; being one of the factors leading to the Broadway version.

  19. To Rachel Kadushin, who said that Mark Hamill appeared in a theatre in Florida: Probably not. Such an appearance would have set off a stampede by the theatre critics throughout the state (all three of them), who would flock to the theatre to review the play. (Either to write put-downs about “Luke Skywalker sings!” or to be pleasantly surprised at his acting range.)

    Let me assure you, Mark Evanier writes about every Broadway production ever made, especially when reviewing comic books, and never once have I heard him mention Hamill and Broadway together. Could you be speaking of Off Broadway or Off-Off Broadway, perhaps?

    (This is not intended to be a slam at Hamill. I would love to see him in a play. I know from his other work how good an actor he is; voice actors ARE actors first and foremost. But if he has done theatre like you say, he’s remarkably good at hiding it.)

  21. Don’t forget him as Nathan Detroit in “Guys & Dolls” in Springfield. You’d do well to remember whose picture that is in the lobby next to the pepper steak!

Comments are closed.