SUPPORTING PLAYER BECOMES LEAD PLAYER FOR DC THEATRE SCENE
Dec 28 — Broadway quadruple-threat – actor, agent, author and librettist – Richard Seff will join the staff of DC Theatre Scene effective January 1, DCTS Editor Lorraine Treanor announced today. Seff, the author of the well-received Broadway autobiography, SUPPORTING PLAYER: My Life Upon the Wicked Stage, will write a column entitled “Broadway His Way”.
“Bringing Mr. Seff on board is a terrific coup for DC Theatre Scene,” Treanor said. “Many DC theatre goers keep up with what is happening in New York, and now we can give them an insiders’ view of what to see and where to go. I cannot imagine anyone who can write with more authority about Broadway and the New York theatre scene than Richard Seff.”
As an agent, Seff represented Chita Rivera, John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Julie Andrews, among others. After twenty years behind the scenes, Seff returned to the stage and film in 1974.
Seff’s stage career spanned sixty years and included on-and off-Broadway productions of The Sea Gull, Summer and Smoke, My Fair Lady and The Cocktail Hour. Since 2003, Actors Equity has been presenting the Richard Seff Award to established male and female character actors. This year’s recipients were Mary Louise Wilson (Grey Gardens) and David Margulies (All That I Will Ever Be).
His play Paris is Out! got a Broadway run in 1969-1970. Shine! The Horatio Alger Musical, for which he wrote the libretto, won the National Music Theatre Festival Award in 2001.
Richard Seff first came to the attention of DC Theatre Scene through podcast interviews which became “A Lifetime on Broadway” and “Inside Broadway” conducted by DCTS columnist Joel Markowitz, who calls Seff “a legend in New York theatre.” It is through their friendship that Mr. Seff is adding one more career – theatre columnist.
Watch for the first Broadway His Way column in January.
