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Boston Globe
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Stephen Mo Hanan, who played three roles in ‘Cats,' dies at 78
'As a matter of fact, I've brought my concertina,' he recalled telling Nunn in an interview with The Washington Post in 1982. 'He said, 'Give me something in Italian.' Well, I've never had a problem with shyness. I sang 'Funiculi, Funicula.'' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Mr. Hanan was ultimately cast in three parts: Bustopher Jones, a portly cat, and the dual role of Asparagus, an aging theater cat, who, while reminiscing, transforms (with help from an inflatable costume) into a former role, Growltiger, a tough pirate, and performs a parody of Giacomo Puccini's 'Turandot.' Advertisement During rehearsals, Hanan kept a detailed journal, which he published in 2002 as 'A Cat's Diary.' In an entry about the second day of rehearsal, he described an assignment from Nunn: to 'pick a cartoon cat we know of, withdraw to ourselves and prepare a vignette of that cat, then return to the circle and each in turn will present.' Advertisement He continued: 'I choose Fritz the Cat,' the Robert Crumb character, 'making a pass at some kitty. Watching the others is a gas -- people's individualities are beginning to emerge.' Mr. Hanan and another cast member, Harry Groener, were nominated for the Tony Award for best featured actor in a musical. They both lost; tap dancer Charles (Honi) Coles won for 'My One and Only.' In the years following 'Cats,' Mr. Hanan's many roles included Moonface Martin in 'Anything Goes,' at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis; the double role of Voltaire and Dr. Pangloss in 'Candide,' at the Huntington Theater in Boston; and another dual role, Mr. Darling and Captain Hook, in 'Peter Pan,' on Broadway and on tour. He also portrayed villainous innkeeper Thenardier in 'Les Miserables' in London. In 1999, Mr. Hanan created a stage role of his own: Al Jolson, the popular vaudevillian who performed in blackface, sang on Broadway, and starred in 'The Jazz Singer,' the pioneering sound motion picture. 'Jolson & Co.,' which Mr. Hanan wrote with Jay Berkow, was staged off-Broadway, at the York Theater Company. Jolson 'was pure id,' Mr. Hanan, who bore a physical resemblance to him, told Harvard magazine in 2002, when the show was revived at the Century Center for the Performing Arts in New York. 'He didn't censor himself, neither his joy nor his rage. With Jolson you can be completely over the top; you have to be. His personality demands that kind of size." 'Jolson & Co.' re-creates a 1946 radio interview with Barry Gray as a way of looking back on his remarkable life. Mr. Hanan sang many of the songs Jolson was known for, including 'Swanee' and 'California, Here I Come.' Advertisement Reviewing the show in New York magazine, John Simon praised Mr. Hanan's performance as 'mostly impersonation but, as such, unbeatable.' He added, 'On top of the Jolson looks, the incarnator has absorbed all the vocal, facial, and kinetic mannerisms as if he had stolen the man's very soul.' Stephen Hanan Kaplan was born on Jan. 7, 1947, in Washington. His mother, Lottie (Klein) Kaplan, was a high school English teacher; his father, Jonah Kaplan, was a pharmacist. While attending Harvard College, Stephen performed in theatrical productions at the Loeb Drama Center and with the Hasty Pudding Club. He acquired the nickname Mo on a trip to Bermuda during college, after a friend, future Broadway librettist John Weidman, observed that his outfit made him look like 'some guy named Mo who cleans cabanas in the Catskills,' Mr. Hanan told the website TheaterMania in 2002. After graduating in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in English literature, he studied for a year at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art on a Fulbright fellowship. Back in New York, he had difficulty landing roles, so in 1971 he moved to San Francisco, where he lived on a commune and spent six years singing for money, mostly at the ferry terminal, which earned him enough to spend winters in Mexico and Guatemala. Once, outside the stage door at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, he encountered Luciano Pavarotti, who had just performed in Giuseppe Verdi's 'Un Ballo in Maschera,' and summoned the nerve to sing for the great tenor. 'I raced to the money note and he, exclaiming 'Che voce d'oro' -- or 'What a golden voice' -- beckoned me over amid applause,' Mr. Hanan wrote in an unpublished essay. Advertisement After returning to New York, he landed small parts in New York Shakespeare Festival productions of 'All's Well That Ends Well' and 'The Taming of the Shrew' in Central Park in 1978. (Around that time, he dropped his surname and began using his middle name instead, because there was another actor with a similar name.) In 1980, director Wilford Leach cast him as Samuel, the second in command to Kline's Pirate King, in the Shakespeare in the Park production of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operetta 'The Pirates of Penzance,' which also starred Linda Ronstadt. Mr. Hanan stayed with the show when it moved to Broadway in 1981. In 2006, Mr. Hanan moved up in rank to play the Major-General in a Yiddish-language version of 'Pirates' (called 'Di Yam Gazlonim!'), put on by the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene at the Jewish Community Center in New York (now the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan). Allen Lewis Rickman, the director, recalled that Mr. Hanan did not know Yiddish and had to learn his lines phonetically. 'He was quite a character and very entertaining, one of those people who you know is a real pro,' Rickman said in an interview. 'He had a clownish streak -- that was his first instinct -- but not in a scene-stealing way.' This article originally appeared in
New York Times
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Stephen Mo Hanan, Who Played Three Roles in ‘Cats,' Dies at 78
Stephen Mo Hanan, a vibrant performer who sang arias and other music as a busker in San Francisco before playing Kevin Kline's lieutenant in the acclaimed 1981 Broadway production of 'The Pirates of Penzance' and three felines in the original Broadway cast of 'Cats,' died on April 3 at his home in Manhattan. He was 78. Gary Widlund, his husband and only immediate survivor, said the cause was a heart attack. At his audition for 'Cats,' Mr. Hanan (pronounced HAN-un) told Andrew Lloyd Webber, the composer, and Trevor Nunn, the director, that he had spent several years singing and accompanying himself on a concertina at a ferry terminal at the foot of Market Street in San Francisco. 'As a matter of fact, I've brought my concertina,' he recalled telling Mr. Nunn in an interview with The Washington Post in 1982. 'He said, 'Give me something in Italian.' Well, I've never had a problem with shyness. I sang 'Funiculi, Funicula.'' Mr. Hanan was ultimately cast in three parts: Bustopher Jones, a portly cat, and the dual role of Asparagus, an aging theater cat, who, while reminiscing, transforms (with help from an inflatable costume) into a former role, Growltiger, a tough pirate, and performs a parody of Puccini's 'Turandot.' During rehearsals, Mr. Hanan kept a detailed journal, which he published in 2002 as 'A Cat's Diary.' In an entry about the second day of rehearsal, he described an assignment from Mr. Nunn: to 'pick a cartoon cat we know of, withdraw to ourselves and prepare a vignette of that cat, then return to the circle and each in turn will present.' He continued: 'I choose Fritz the Cat,' the Robert Crumb character, 'making a pass at some kitty. Watching the others is a gas — people's individualities are beginning to emerge.' He and another cast member, Harry Groener, were both nominated for the Tony Award for best featured actor in a musical. They both lost; the tap dancer Charles (Honi) Coles won for 'My One and Only.' In the years following 'Cats,' Mr. Hanan's many roles included Moonface Martin in 'Anything Goes,' at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis; the double role of Voltaire and Dr. Pangloss in 'Candide,' at the Huntington Theater in Boston; and another dual role, Mr. Darling and Captain Hook, in 'Peter Pan,' on Broadway and on tour. He also portrayed the villainous innkeeper Thenardier in 'Les Miserables' in London. In 1999, Mr. Hanan created a stage role of his own: Al Jolson, the popular vaudevillian who performed in blackface, sang on Broadway and starred in 'The Jazz Singer,' the pioneering sound motion picture. 'Jolson & Co.,' which Mr. Hanan wrote with Jay Berkow, was staged Off Broadway, at the York Theater Company. Al Jolson 'was pure id,' Mr. Hanan, who bore a physical resemblance to him, told Harvard magazine in 2002, when the show was revived at the Century Center for the Performing Arts in Manhattan. 'He didn't censor himself, neither his joy nor his rage. With Jolson you can be completely over the top; you have to be. His personality demands that kind of size.' 'Jolson & Co.' recreates a 1946 radio interview with Barry Gray as a way of looking back on his remarkable life. Mr. Hanan sang many of the songs Mr. Jolson was known for, including 'Swanee' and 'California, Here I Come.' Reviewing the show in New York magazine, John Simon praised Mr. Hanan's performance as 'mostly impersonation but, as such, unbeatable.' He added, 'On top of the Jolson looks, the incarnator has absorbed all the vocal, facial, and kinetic mannerisms as if he had stolen the man's very soul.' Mr. Hanan was born Stephen Hanan Kaplan on Jan. 7, 1947, in Washington. His mother, Lottie (Klein) Kaplan, was a high school English teacher; his father, Jonah Kaplan, was a pharmacist. While attending Harvard College, Stephen performed in theatrical productions at the Loeb Drama Center and with the Hasty Pudding Club. He acquired the nickname Mo on a trip to Bermuda during college, after a friend, the future Broadway librettist John Weidman, observed that his outfit made him look like 'some guy named Mo who cleans cabanas in the Catskills,' Mr. Hanan told the website TheaterMania in 2002. After graduating in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in English literature, he studied for a year at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art on a Fulbright fellowship. Back in New York, he had difficulty landing roles, so in 1971 he moved to San Francisco, where he lived on a commune and spent six years singing for money, mostly at the ferry terminal, which earned him enough to spend winters in Mexico and Guatemala. Once, outside the stage door at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, he encountered Luciano Pavarotti, who had just performed in Verdi's 'Un Ballo in Maschera,' and summoned the nerve to sing for the great tenor. 'I raced to the money note and he, exclaiming 'Che voce d'oro' — or 'What a golden voice' — beckoned me over amid applause,' Mr. Hanan wrote in an unpublished essay. After returning to New York again, he landed small parts in New York Shakespeare Festival productions of 'All's Well That Ends Well' and 'The Taming of the Shrew' in Central Park in 1978. (Around that time, he dropped his surname and began using his middle name instead, because there was another actor with a similar name.) In 1980, the director Wilford Leach cast him as Samuel, the second in command to Mr. Kline's Pirate King, in the Shakespeare in the Park production of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operetta 'The Pirates of Penzance,' which also starred Linda Ronstadt. Mr. Hanan stayed with the show when it moved to Broadway in 1981. Rex Smith, who played Frederic, the male romantic lead, said in an interview that Mr. Hanan 'embodied all that was required to be the Pirate King's lieutenant, and for that you had to stand and deliver every night — if you're not going to be keelhauled.' In 2006, Mr. Hanan moved up in rank to play the Major-General in a Yiddish-language version of 'Pirates' (called 'Di Yam Gazlonim!'), put on by the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan (now the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan). Allen Lewis Rickman, the director, of that show recalled that Mr. Hanan did not know Yiddish and had to learn his lines phonetically. 'He was quite a character and very entertaining, one of those people who you know is a real pro,' Mr. Rickman said in an interview. 'He had a clownish streak — that was his first instinct — but not in a scene-stealing way.'
New York Times
16-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘We Planned a Rare Date Night Out and Found a Friend to Babysit'
Seeing Stars Dear Diary: It was 1985, and my husband and I were living on the Upper East Side. We planned a rare date night out and found a friend to babysit our 1-year-old daughter. We set out for a nearby theater where 'Cocoon,' with Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn among the stars, was playing. I was a fan of the couple, having seen them onstage at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis when I was growing up in Iowa. Unfortunately, when we got to the theater, we found that the next showing was sold out. Determined not to waste the evening, we walked a few blocks to another theater, where 'Prizzi's Honor,' with Kathleen Turner, Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston, was about to start. As we waited to buy tickets, I noticed an older couple standing a few feet ahead of us in line. I nudged my husband 'Look,' I whispered. 'That couple: That's Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn!' — Jean Young Puzzling Dear Diary: I was happily doing a crossword puzzle on the subway when my pen ran out of ink. I shook it, but no luck, so I put it and the puzzle in my purse and pulled out a magazine. A few seconds later, a pen appeared in front of me, held by the man sitting beside me. I thanked him profusely and took my puzzle back out, but his pen didn't work either. I gave it back to him and returned to the magazine. A few second later, the same man offered me another pen. This one worked. I thanked him again and returned to working the puzzle. Many stops later, I finished and began to return the pen. 'Keep it,' he said. 'I've got a bag full.' 'No,' I said. 'Save this for the next person like me.' He agreed and took it back. — Jane Comfort Coffee Shop Dear Diary: I was having a lunch meeting with a colleague at a coffee shop on First Avenue. We were discussing the art market and galleries when a man in the next booth turned around. 'Excuse me,' he said, 'I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. I work at a financial company but am trying to start an art education and aesthetics company. Can I ask you a few questions?' We listened. His ideas were interesting, and my colleague took his card. Then, as we were finishing lunch, out of the corner of my eye I saw an older woman approaching us from another nearby booth. 'Excuse me,' she said, 'I'm 90, but I'm confused about when it's correct English to use 'me' or 'I' in a sentence.' My colleague and I chuckled and gave her some examples of when to use 'I' and when to use 'me.' She thanked us and returned to her table. My colleague and her family had been thinking of moving out of New York. After these encounters, she said: 'This is why I could never leave New York.' — Elizabeth Levine For the Birds Dear Diary: It was a bright clear morning in Manhattan. I was visiting from Arkansas, helping my college daughter settle into a summer program. While she was in class, I explored the city. Wandering through Bryant Park, I spied a crowd of people with their phones out and all pointed in one direction. Some of them were cradling large cameras with long lenses. I hurried over, eager for a celebrity sighting. The phones and lenses were angled downward at a cluster of bushes near the carousel. The crowd spoke in hushed tones. I was confused. 'What's going on?' I whispered to a particularly intense young man with a huge camera. His face was aglow. 'It's amazing!' he said. 'The mourning warbler. We don't usually see him here!' He lowered his camera, eager to show me shots of the small, brightly colored songbird. He explained its migratory pattern, its unique features and our stellar luck at being able to witness him. I nodded gratefully, tickled at his joyous rapture over this avian miracle. He returned to his focus, kneeling for more shots. A woman joined us. 'What is all this business?' she asked, her Australian accent evident. 'It's the mourning warbler!' I said, having caught the enthusiasm. 'It's amazing!' — Shelley Russell At the Theater Dear Diary: I went with good friends to a performance of the Nancy Harris play 'The Beacon' at the Irish Repertory Theater on 22nd Street. It is a powerful play about a dysfunctional family hiding secrets, and it hit home hard for me. 'Did you like the play?' one of my friends asked me innocently after the performance. Still reeling, I said I would rather not discuss it and that I had found the play difficult to take. A friendly woman standing nearby spoke up. 'I'm a psychologist,' she said with a smile, 'in case you'd like to schedule a session.' — Howard Husock Read all recent entries and our submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@ or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Guthrie Theater's upcoming season to include 'Little Women', other classics
The beloved coming-of-age drama "Little Women", a Shakespeare tragedy and an acclaimed musical based on true events are among the shows that will take the stage at the Guthrie Theater in the upcoming 2025-2026 season. The upcoming season will begin in September with a re-imagined take on the Henrik Ibsen classic, "A Doll's House." The Pulitzer Prize-winning new play "Primary Trust" will begin performances in October, sharing with audiences a "hopeful story of courage" set in small town New York. "A Christmas Carol", the Guthrie's longstanding holiday tradition, will begin performances Nov. 8. "The Guthrie was founded on the belief that theater is essential to building connections with one another and the world, and our 2025–2026 Season of enduring classics and electrifying new work is a beautiful reflection of that mission," Artistic Director Joseph Haj said in a statement. Haj will direct the family drama "Somewhere", which will begin performances in mid-December on the McGuire Proscenium Stage. The dance-filled show examines the pursuit of dreams as it follows a Puerto Rican family in Manhattan in 1959, the year "West Side Story" toured the U.S. as the musical captured America. Shakespeare's haunting "Macbeth", a thriller set in the English countryside, "Sleuth", and Louisa May Alcott's enduring "Little Women" are also planned. The musical "Come From Away" will begin performances in June, telling the true story of 7,000 plane passengers diverted to small town Canada amid the September 11 terrorist attacks. The season is set to conclude with the Noël Coward comedy "Private Lives." New season subscription packages are expected to go on sale soon. For more, visit
