Hal Linden, best known to television audiences as the police captain Barney Miller in the 1975-82 sitcom of the same name, is starring as Morrie Schwartz in The Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company’s production of Tuesdays with Morrie.
Hal Linden
Tuesdays with Morrie is based on newspaper columnist Mitch Albom’s conversations with his former professor, Morrie Schwartz, who was dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Their tape-recorded conversations about life’s lessons resulted in a New York Times bestseller. The initial purpose for publishing the conversations was to cover Schwartz’s medical bills.
“Impending death is the norm of everybody’s life,” Linden, 78, says. “The way you live your life… that is the distinction, I think that is what the play is about.”
Linden says that we are all dying; it is only a question of how much time we’ve got to think about it. “It is more immediate with him [Morrie]. It has to do with not your philosophy of death, but your philosophy of life, and how you spend the time until you do die. Which if I were a heavily philosophic man, I would start now…or maybe 20 years ago,” he said with a chuckle.
Both Schwartz and Linden are Jewish. Linden, born Harold Lipshitz in New York City, grew up in a Yiddish-speaking household. Although he can’t speak the language fluently, there are phrases he remembers from childhood. When Linden had a question regarding a Yiddish phrase in the script, he was pleased that a Yiddish speaker was brought in to explain what the phrase meant and how to pronounce it.
Linden has worked in Jewish theatre before, in two productions of Lessons for the West Coast Jewish Theatre in Los Angeles. “What makes it a Jewish theatre company is that it selects plays with Jewish themes.We do need a place to examine those themes and this company [The Harold Green Jewish Theatre] will hopefully fill that need,” he said.
The theatrically-trained Broadway veteran won a Tony Award for his performance in The Rothschilds and loves every medium he works in. “The theatre is an actor’s medium, opposed to films and television, which are directors’ mediums. You get input in theatre that you may never get in film,” he said.
“What I like most about the theatre is rehearsal because that is where you discover and where you make words into flesh. That’s where you do your work… once the show opens, it’s execution, but in rehearsal it’s creation.”
The L.A.-based actor said he’s grateful to have been successful in the acting profession and feels it is a rare thing. “It is like being in college the rest of your life, because what you are doing is learning somebody else’s life every day. That is the most broadening experience you can have… In order to play a character, you have to know the character. You get a much greater understanding of human behaviour from living everybody, rather than just talking about it.”
Linden has been married for 51 years to wife Frances, a former actress, singer and dancer. When not acting, the thespian loves to golf. “I’m trying to go through all the golf courses in Toronto,” said Linden. “I have performed in Toronto many times and I’ve played most of the golf courses here, but I’ve missed a few and I’m trying to rectify that oversight.”
The play is directed by Ted Dykstra and co-stars Rick Roberts as Mitch Albom.
Tuesday With Morrie runs May 8 to 30 at the Winter Garden Theatre, 189 Yonge St. For tickets, call Ticketmaster at 416-872-5555 or online at www.ticketmaster.ca.
