Who Makes Sure "The Show Must Go On" on Tony Night?
By David Drake
12 Jun 2006
 |
 |
Tony production supervisor Alan Hall.
|
Chatting with Tony production supervisor Alan Hall
As the Production
Supervisor of 22 Tony Award shows, Alan Hall has been there, done that. And
then some.
Backstage tonight, Hall is managing literally
hundreds of stage folk at a time as they change their set, click their mic, cue
their camera, tap their baton and hit their mark - all timed to the second.
"I've been threatening to
retire for years now," Hall says with a gentle laugh. "But this year,
it's time. 2006 will be my final Tonys."
Arriving in Gotham from his native
England in 1964, the 26-year-old stage manager was brought across the pond when
Alexander H. Cohen transferred the four-man British comedy revue Beyond the Fringe to Broadway, and he stayed with the tour for more than a year. While on Broadway,
however, Hall says, "I fell in love with American musicals and decided not
to go back" to the U.K.
That kind of statement made David Merrick's
ears perk. Indeed, the legendary producer put Hall in charge of the international
tour of Hello, Dolly! "Everybody used to say David Merrick was very
cheap," Hall says. "Well, he wouldn't pay you a lot over minimum,
but he would keep you working 52 weeks a year."
Hopping from long-running hits like
Promises, Promises and I Do! I Do! to one-nighters like The November
People and Heathen!, Hall became one of Broadway's busiest production
stage managers. Moving on to such directors as Hal Prince, Trevor Nunn and Mike
Nichols, Hall PSM'ed such shows as Sweeney Todd, Chess, numerous Royal
Shakespeare Company seasons and The Real Thing, among some 30 other Broadway
productions. It was a full career. And one, beginning in 1979, that included the
annual Tony Awards ceremony.
Starting as a coordinating stage manager
for his first three Tony shows, Hall moved up to production supervisor. Hall says,
"I've really seen it grow tremendously." He supervised all the Tony
shows since then, with the exception of the Don Misher-produced years.
His stories reach back to the days
when the Tony telecast originated each year from a different Broadway theatre. "The
one I remember the most is when Sugar Babies was in the Hellinger." He and his crew had to strike the Sugar Babies set, build the Tony set, rehearse
the awards, run the awards show, then strike the Tony set and re-install Sugar Babies - and all within 43 hours.
Hall sighs, not with exhaustion, but
rather with great satisfaction. Now, having retired to his home in Maine with Ruth,
his wife of 23 years, Hall says, "I've always believed stage managing
was a young person's job. And it's time to let other people do the work. I've always loved the Tonys, and have grown to love them greatly. And," Hall says with an air of true bittersweet joy, "I will miss them enormously."
David Drake is a columnist for the national edition of Playbill and author of The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me.
Contact Us | Advertise | Privacy Policy
Send questions and comments to the Webmaster
Copyright © 2009 Playbill, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|