~ Happy Father's Day...

BY DANNY McCARTHY

HAPPY FATHER’s DAY to those who are celebrating –{!}- Everyone is permitted to grieve in their own way.

My sister’s Jamaica NY Delehanty High School classmate Carol Wagner’s father was ART WAGNER and ART WAGNER just happened to be the musical director for the ORIGINAL Broadway production of CHICAGO.

My grandmother arranged for the two of us to attend a Saturday matinee of the ORIGINAL production of CHICAGO which was at the 46th Street Theatre in 1975.

Dad had taken me to the Manketo’s Antique Shop prior to the matinee - and I was able to literally purchase original PLAYBILLs covering all three stars for that CHICAGO

performance hoping to meet, greet, and obtain autographs on-board them.

After the CHICAGO performance, ART WAGNER introduced my grandmother and I to GWEN VERDON, CHITA RIVERA, and JERRY ORBACH - AND THEY ALL HAND-SIGNED those purchased PLAYBILLs I had brought in-preparation!

BRAVA! to Miss ANN REINKING for "going write-on ahead" and arranging to have an actual revival of CHICAGO to be on Broadway in 1996 AND THAT IT WON BEST REVIVAL

TONY AWARD {among others} - AND IS STILL CONTINUING ~ "AND ALL THAT

JAZZ" {!!!}

I starred as lawyer Sam Weinberg at the Mattituck, New York North Fork Community Theatre {NFCT) June 1993 in AARON SORKIN’s rousing A FEW GOOD MEN. My dad passed away a month after the production's final performance. I continued doing my work at The Traveler Watchman but did not feel up to getting back on stage. THEN - There was a sale at the time in 1994 in Southold and a script of ROBERT BOLT’s A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS was available. I purchased the paperback script and loved the character of the Common Man. The same weekend I got that volume, the NFCT was holding auditions for A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS and I tried out - I GOT THE PART OF THE COMMON MAN! I ended one of my The Traveler Watchman columns with “Carry On!” noting my dad was thinking of me - and that was in 1994! - BEFORE the Fun. group’s song Carry On! was released! {The Fun. group’s Carry On! was released in 2012!}