Jim Brochu is a recent Drama Desk Award Winner for best solo performance. Touring the country as Zero Mostel in Zero Hour, he’s won numerous accolades and awards.
Growing up in Brooklyn, Brochu spent a lot of time watching his father hobnob with theatre greats, like Ethel Merman, giving him the opportunity to decide, at a very young age, that the stage was the place for him. So, like every good theatre wannabe, he started out at the bottom – selling orange sodas for 25 cents in the back of a theatre. He came to know character actor David Burns who became his mentor and friend. Brochu went on to a career in TV commercials, most noticeably as a dancing raisin for Post Raisin Bran, along with numerous stage roles and as a writer.
How fitting is it, then, to see this talented man create another more personal one-man show, that provides a sneak peek for an adoring crowd at the Triad Theatre in New York; insight into life as The Character Man, a mini-musical tribute to Broadway’s greatest character actors and the songs they introduced.
With Stephen Schwartz and Sheldon Harnick sitting nearby, along with many theatre folks, Brochu proceeded to make the audience laugh, cry and sing, using a small screen as a video backdrop to show clips of some of the treasured character men in theatre and film history, as he told stories and sang the songs of some of the greats: Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford, Eli Wallach, Robert Preston, Anthony Newley, George S. Irving, Barney Martin, Jackie Gleason, Cyril Ritchard.
Songs that signified some of the great talents included: “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid,” “Little Green Snake,” “Ya Got Trouble,” “Mr. Cellophane,” “The Butler’s Song,” “Meeskite,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Captain Hooks Waltz,” “Who Can I Turn To?” and “For Good.”
Brochu has, once again, created another perfect vehicle for his own character man talents. We look forward to seeing the on-going results.
Posted by Sandi Durell
on October 8, 2012. Filed under Cabaret and Interviews - Sandi Durell,COLUMNS,ENTERTAIMENT,Theatre.
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