Arkady Spivak is on a roll these days.
The artistic producer of
Convincing Ed Asner to bring his play to the Georgian Theatre, Tuesday, April 24, took persuasiveness and dogged persistence.
Just don’t say that Arkady showed spunk!
Asner, of course, made a career of portraying the curmudgeonly Lou Grant, first on the Mary Tyler Moore Show throughout the 1970s, then on his own spinoff series – winning seven Emmy Awards on the way. Viewers remember Lou telling Mary Richards, “I hate spunk!”
A Man and His Prostate will provide theatregoers in these parts with Ed’s only Canadian appearance. Spivak admits he had help in importing such talent.
“This time it was much easier. We were matched, as it were, by TiFT’s founding chairman Joe Anderson, who now runs a theatre of his own in
“Joe presented this show earlier this year. Evidently, he said wonderful things about us and we were able to (bring Asner here). God only knows what I will owe (Joe) in return.”
Prostate is the handiwork of Ed Weinberger, a veteran Hollywood TV writer and one of the mainstays of MTM, as well as Taxi, The Associates, and The Cosby Show. His list of honours nears Asner’s in length, including a Peabody Award, three Golden Globes, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Writers Guild of America.
Spivak lauds the work as “unapologetic – one good trait of comedy, and essential. All of the things in it are recognizable, but not on the nose.” Asner’s characters goes into the hospital after a “near tragedy” for an operation he really doesn’t want, and discovers things about himself he never knew before.
After attracting Mercer and now Asner, Spivak is enjoying his success in getting the names of Barrie and TiFT out there, and warning there are more great announcements in the offing.
“
“Imagine, Barrie-made culture is going global.”
Tickets for A Man and His Prostate are available here.
