Kirk Douglas (Photo courtesy of Center Theatre Group)
One man shows come and go like so much spammed e-mail. Some are decent. Others are clearly vanity pieces mounted because the performer either has nothing else shaking or because s/he is hoping to get seen.
There’s one solo act this weekend that I wish I could see, but it’s sold out, and I don’t even think I could get in. And I know people who know people.
That show would be “Before I Forget” which will have 92-year-old Kirk Douglas reminiscing on his life and his career. He’ll do four performances of his nearly 90 minute show at the theater that bears his name, Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. It runs Friday March 6 and 13 at 8 p.m. and Sunday March 8 and 15 at 2 p.m.
Douglas and his wife Anne kicked in something like $2 million of initial seed money for this, CTG’s third space. And if you’re ever looking to spot the erstwhile Spartacus in the flesh, he’s usually there in the front row for every KDT opening performance. I do believe Douglas was one of the first ones out of his seat a few years back when Adriana Servan tore up her knee in the middle of performing her solo show, “Taking Flight.” The rest of the audience was asked to leave the theater while Servan got medical attention, but Douglas hung back to comfort and make sure she was OK.
Anyway, seeing Douglas onstage is a little challenging. He did make a surprise guest appearance as Lane the Butler back in 2004 when the cast of “Frasier” did a benefit performance of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” at the Mark Taper Forum.
Of course, when you’re in your 90s and still writing books and fixing up playgrounds at Los Angeles Unified School District campuses, that doesn’t leave a lot of time for stage work. A couple of years back, when I interviewed Douglas following the publication of his new autobiography “Let’s Face It,” I suggested that with two new knees and a theater bearing his name, the time might be ripe to return to the boards.
“You have a point there,” he replied. “I never wanted to be in movies. When I was working on Broadway the first time someone offered me to come to Hollywood, I declined. Then I had my son, Michael, and I was broke and I wondered if that producer still wanted me, so I called him up. I did my first movie, and then I went back to Broadway.”
Just to break in a minute here. If those Internet movie and Broadway databases are to believed _ and quite often they are _ Douglas’s first movie would have been “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers” in 1946. That same year, Douglas did indeed return to Broadway for a production of a Sam and Bella Spewack farce called “Woman Bites Dog” which lasted all of five performances.
Guess that movie thing worked out after all Kirk Douglas was not seen on the Broadway stage again until 1963 when he originated the role of Randle P. McMurphy in the stage adaptation of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
Sorry for the interruption. Back to KD…
“When they inaugurated the Kirk Douglas Theatre, I said I always wanted to be a star on the stage, not in the movies,” Douglas said. “In my old age, I knew how to do it. You build your own theater.”
Anyone out there in reader land who happens to catch Douglas in “Before I Forget,” please e-mail me and let me know how it went. In the meantime, Playbill Online’s Robert Simonson had a nice Q and A with Douglas about the show. Check it out here.
Comments
I saw the show tonight (it was the opening performancen) and it was pretty amazing. Kirk had lots of old movie clips projected on a huge screen behind him that played while he took short breaks to rest during the show. The clips also featured personal tidbits from the entire span of life including his ex-wife, his children, his favorite horse, his deceased son and snapshots of himself and old famous celebrity friends.
I loved how candid he was about everything. The show nearly brought me to tears at times. I'm really glad I got to see this living legend in person. It was truly special.
I was also fortunate to see the opening night performance of Kirk Doulgas's one man show. I arrived just as Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones were making their entrance. Lots of camera's and pictures and distraction but to be expected. The theater, named for the actor, is so lovely, small and intimate that there is really not a bad seat in the house. I was upstairs in the side balcony, overlooking the stage and the audience below. Great seats. Angie Dickinson happened to be seated next to me.
Mr. Douglas was enchanting. His spirit for life, for people, for his craft and for his family were so endearing. The 90 minute show went by in a flash, I was ready for it to start over again at it's finish.
Mr. Douglas was in strong voice, he looks great and covered in 90 minutes the highlights of a fascinating life. He paid special tribute to his parents and sisters, 6 of them - no wonder he had a reputation for loving women. He shared such personal moments and insights that I felt truly blessed to have part of the evening. I noticed that the show was being filmed perhaps it will be made available at some point in the future to a larger audience.
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