STAGE VIEWS: Mary Poppins and Grinch Star Ed Dixon | Playbill

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Special Features STAGE VIEWS: Mary Poppins and Grinch Star Ed Dixon Playbill.com's new series features brief chats with Broadway actors commenting on their recent theatregoing experiences, what productions they are looking forward to and more. Here, via e-mail, we hear from singing actor Ed Dixon.

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Ed Dixon

What show recently impressed you?
The two best things I've seen lately were the Kennedy Center Honors (I cried through the whole thing) and an improv by Zoe Caldwell on Facebook. I haven't been able to see any shows lately because I've been so busy. The Kennedy Center Honors inspired me in a way I haven't been in a while, and Zoe Caldwell always inspires me. I only got to catch The Kennedy Center Honors because I was home sick. Oh, I forgot, I got to see Jeff McCarthy and Annette O'Toole in Southern Comfort before I went out on the road with Mary Poppins. They and it were awesome! I was so impressed by Southern Comfort because I thought everyone from the writers to the performers were so far outside their comfort zones and so brave and dangerous. Also very inspiring.

What production are you most excited to see?
I'm still excited to see The Book of Mormon since I've been working constantly ever since it opened. I just think it would be my idea of comedy heaven.

What play/musical would you most like to revive on Broadway, and which role would you want to play?
I'm hoping to bring my Modern Major General to Broadway next year in the revamped Pirates of Penzance called Pirates! We've already worked on it at Goodspeed, Paper Mill and the Huntington. Now the Muny is getting behind us, and it's a role I would adore to bring to New York. I would also love to play Max von Meyerling in a revamped and cut down version of Sunset Boulevard. I did the first national (Joseph Jefferson nomination) and won the Helen Hayes Award for the Signature Theatre version, but I never got to do it in New York. I would love that.

What are your current/upcoming projects?
I am currently editing my book, "Secrets of a Life On Stage ... And Off," about my last 40 years on Broadway. Hope to have it out in 2012. When I finish Mary Poppins, I'm going to do a Lyrics and Lyricists at the 92nd Street Y (Noel Coward and Cole Porter) and a Broadway-bound Pirates! at Muny, the new version by Nell Benjamin, John McDaniel and Gordon Greenberg.

*** On Broadway Ed Dixon has been seen in Mary Poppins; Sunday in the Park With George; How the Grinch Stole Christmas; Gore Vidal’s The Best Man; The Iceman Cometh; Les Misérables; Cyrano – The Musical; The Three Musketeers; No, No, Nanette; and The Scarlet Pimpernel. His touring credits include The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with Ann-Margret, Pippin with Ben Vereen and Sunset Boulevard as well as regional productions of Pirates!

 
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