James Earl Jones shot to fame as boxer Jack Jefferson in Howard Sackler’s 1967 play “The Great White Hope.”
Jones won the Tony and, two years later, was nominated for an Oscar in the film version.
Now it may be the rapper commonly known as Common’s turn.
Common (the former Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr.) appeared in a reading the other week for a handful of producers and investors who are trying to get the play back in the ring, so to speak.
The reading went well, a source says, adding that Common was “excellent.”
The 41-year-old is eager to play the part and, I’m told, has even offered to help finance the production.
But the bean counters are wary. The play has a cast of 25, and sources say a full-scale Broadway revival would cost nearly $4 million. Which means that, unless everybody agrees to work for scale (with a percentage of the profits thrown in if the production’s a hit), Broadway is simply not realistic.
“I think they’ll have to hook up with one of the nonprofits,” a source says. “It’s something the Roundabout could — and should — do. It’s a lot more interesting than putting on ‘Cabaret’ again.”
It wasn’t easy raising money for the original production. Despite the raves that greeted the premiere at Washington, DC’s Arena Stage, backers were nowhere to be found. Sackler financed the show himself, using the $225,000 he earned from the sale of the play to Hollywood.
When the Broadway production took off, Sackler became a multimillionaire.
But he spent money as fast as he made it — mainly on houses and cars — and he never had another payday like “The Great White Hope.”
In 1982 he went on a diving trip to Ibiza, Spain, where he was found dead in his apartment. It later emerged that, though an expert diver, he shot up to the surface too quickly and died from the bends. His friends, who knew he was fretting about his financial situation, suspected he killed himself, though that couldn’t be proven.
He’s a forgotten writer, but I have another play of his, “Semmelweiss,” that’s very good. It’s about the 19th century Hungarian physician who argued that the spread of infectious diseases could be stopped in hospitals if doctors only washed their hands. The medical establishment at the time rejected the theory, ostracizing Semmelweiss. He wound up in an insane asylum, where he died after being beaten by the guards.
The play never made it to Broadway, due to a feud between Sackler and his producers over casting.
Enterprising producers might give it a look. The only trouble is, the size of the cast — 25.
Sackler thought — and wrote — big.
Everybody’s talking about Adele Dazeem, the actress formerly known as Idina Menzel.
But the best take on John Travolta’s TelePrompTed dyslexia comes from Carly Sakolove, the brilliant impersonator of Broadway divas, whose cabaret show at the Duplex last year was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
Sakolove just posted a parody of “Let It Go” and the Oscar flub on YouTube. Not to be missed!