By Michael Buckley
29 Dec 2004

He toured as Tom in The Glass Menagerie and came back to Broadway in The Natural Look, a comedy that closed opening night (3/11/67). "My only flop. I did it for a friend, [director] Marty Fried, who at that time was married to Brenda Vaccaro [the female lead]. We played a couple of weeks of previews. It had a wonderful cast — [including] Gene Hackman, Ethel Griffies, Doris Roberts, Zohra Lampert — but it was a first-time lady writer [Leonora Thuna], and she wouldn't change a word, wouldn't take any suggestions.

"But I got to keep the wardrobe. I figured I ought to get something out of it. The day they asked us to clear out the dressing rooms, the stage manager said, 'Oh, by the way, the producers asked if you want to buy any of the wardrobe.' There were a couple of Cardin blazers, a great suit, Gucci loafers — it was beautiful. I said, 'No, I don't think so,' grabbed it all off the rack, and walked out. [Laughs]" (Paging Lennie Briscoe.)

Next came the Off-Broadway comedy, Scuba Duba, in which Orbach's role as Harold Wonder kept him onstage the entire time. "Oh, yeah," he says, savoring the memory. "[Playwright] Bruce Jay Friedman! And it was directed by Jacques Levy — a great guy who later did, among other things, Oh, Calcutta." I ask if Orbach auditioned for that, and he laughs: "No, no!"

He won a 1969 Tony Award as Chuck Baxter in Promises, Promises, the Neil Simon-Burt Bacharach-Hal David musical version of Billy Wilder's "The Apartment." Says Orbach, "Physically, I was all wrong for the part. He should have been shorter, a Bobby Morse type — his opening number is called 'Half as Big as Life' — but it worked out great. Neil Simon wrote the book, and Doc had me talk to the audience a lot because I'd done that in Scuba Duba. He liked me sharing thoughts with the audience."

In the playwright's memoir, "Rewrites," Simon states that, two weeks into rehearsals, he called David Merrick in a panic, claiming that Orbach "seemed sullen, dark, not really likable" in the part. Merrick had not attended rehearsals, but did so the next day — after calling China to try to reach an on-location actor whom Simon had suggested as a replacement. Overnight, Simon writes, Orbach "went from sullen to charming, from grim to delightful, from unlikable to winning — in short, he was terrific."

Orbach later toured (1978-79) in Simon's Chapter Two. He also appeared in TV adaptations of Simon plays: with Lee Grant in a 1982 cable presentation of "Plaza Suite"; opposite Anne Bancroft in 1992's "Broadway Bound," for which he received an Emmy nomination.

6 Rms Riv Vu, in which Orbach co-starred with Jane Alexander, "was a terrific, terrific experience. Ed Sherin, Jane's husband, directed it. It's an amazing feat of staging; it's almost a two-character play, with no furniture on the stage." He also toured in the comedy. Orbach played opposite Maureen Stapleton (reprising her Tony-winning role) in a 1973 Philadelphia production of The Rose Tattoo. "Tennessee Williams came in one night, and said that I was the best Mangiacavallo he had ever seen. Later, Maureen told me, 'He says that to everybody.' [Laughs]"

Orbach thinks that Chicago, for which he earned a third Tony nomination (and in which he later toured), "was a little bit ahead of its time, as far as the dark humor. We opened five nights after Chorus Line, which took all the reviews and the awards that year.

"The original [as compared to the revival] had a lot of values, like the costumes and the movie-dissolve changes from one scene to another. When I did the striptease with the girls and the feathers ["All I Care About Is Love"], I walked out of that [number] in shorts and a T-shirt — into my office, where a tailor is fitting me for a new suit. It was filled with that kind of stuff."

When Gwen Verdon underwent an operation, Liza Minnelli filled in as Roxie Hart, and Orbach had to "totally adjust my performance and the relationship. I couldn't beat up on her, the way I did on Gwen, because Liza was more like a wounded bird. I had to play it more big-brotherly, or the audience would have booed me off the stage. [Laughs]."

Which role has given Orbach the most satisfaction? "Oh, I don't know. I think maybe El Gallo in The Fantasticks. I have fond memories of that."

Playing Harry McGraw, a private detective, on several episodes of Angela Lansbury's "Murder, She Wrote" led to a spin-off series, "The Law and Harry McGraw" (1987-88). "That was such fun. He was the detective who, when he punches someone, breaks his hand; his car won't start. He was a little funnier than Columbo. But it wasn't meant to be. We did 17 of them. [Its success] would have changed my life. Everything would have been different. It would've meant living in L.A."

Among Orbach's movie credits: "Dirty Dancing," as Jennifer Grey's doctor-father ("That was huge, huge"); Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors" ("a personal favorite — something you could get your teeth into"); and "Beauty and the Beast," in which, as the voice of the candelabrum Lumiere, he "reminded people that I could sing."

His performance as a seasoned police detective in "Prince of the City" proved important to Orbach's career. When he was signed for "Law & Order," Orbach remembers, "Dick Wolf told me, 'I want the kind of quality you had in 'Prince of the City.' [The movie] changed my image — for the public and for the business: 'Oh, he's not a song-and-dance guy, he can act.' [Laughs]"

A father of two sons from his first marriage and also a grandfather, Orbach has been married since 1979 to the former Elaine Cancilla.

His only solo album, "Jerry Orbach — Off Broadway," recorded in 1961, is now available as a Decca Broadway CD, and includes such selections as "Try to Remember," "Mack the Knife," "Lazy Afternoon," and "There's a Small Hotel."

On Monday, Feb. 24, Orbach is being honored by the Drama League for having, it states, "appeared in more performances of American musicals than any other living actor." The 2003 Musical Celebration of Broadway Gala takes place in the Pierre Hotel's Grand Ballroom. On the bill: Hinton Battle, Richard Belzer, Christine Ebersole, Judy Kaye, Jesse L. Martin, Donna McKechnie, Liz Smith, Sam Waterston, Dick Wolf, Karen Ziemba, The Fantasticks' Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, and the Carnival! puppets. For ticket information, call Meghan Coleman at 212-244-9494, Ext. 4.

A second-season episode of "Law & Order" featured Orbach as a defense attorney. He had twice tried out to be a series regular, but producers chose other actors: George Dzundza (who quit after a season) and Paul Sorvino (who left after a year-and-a-half). The third time proved to be the charm, and Orbach (probably referring to his predecessors' characters being shot, one fatally) was quoted in a 1992 interview: "They'll really have to shoot me to get me out of here." Eleven years later, he seems a man happy in his work.

Is there a chance, I ask, that Lennie Briscoe may break into song — and "give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle" — on a "Law & Order" episode? "We talked about Lennie falling off the wagon and getting drunk at a karaoke bar," replies Jerry Orbach, "but I think that'll be the point at which 'Law & Order' 'jumps the shark!' [Laughs]."

—Michael Buckley also writes for TheaterMania.com and The Sondheim Review.

View article on single page

Previous Page   1 | 2 Next Page