By Jennifer R Jones | Posted on December 23, 2017 10:25 AM
John Lithgow Takes The Stage In His One-Man Show, Stories By Heart, Which Has Begun Previews At The American Airlines Theatre.
Multi Award Winning Actor Takes On Solo Show
On December 21, 2017, John Lithgow began performances at the American Airlines Theatre for his one man show, John Lithgow: Stories by Heart. This Roundabout Theatre Company production is directed by Daniel Sullivan, whose previous directorial credits include The Little Foxes, Sylvia, The Country House, The Snow Geese, Orphans, Glengarry Glen Ross, and The Columnist, the last of which also starred John Lithgow.
This one-man show, which is scheduled for its opening night on January 11, 2018, comes to Broadway following successful runs Off-Broadway at the Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi Newhouse venue.
Lithgow's Enthralling Performance
The debut was from April to June 2008, and then the show returned for an encore Off-Broadway run in 2009, with two stories in repertory. Following these runs, Lithgow also took the show on the road at theatres across the country, whenever breaks in his schedule allowed.
While the Lincoln Center incarnations were directed by LCT regular Jack O’Brien, this Broadway outing is helmed by Roundabout regular Daniel Sullivan. An ode to the power of storytelling, Stories by Heart is a unique event that encompasses stories from Lithgow’s own life, his family’s lives, as well as adaptations of classic stories by P.G. Wodehouse and Ring Lardner. The show is currently scheduled to run until March 4, 2018, after which a production of Tom Stoppard’s play Travesties will begin at the American Airlines Theatre.
A Tour De Force From A Beloved Storyteller
John Lithgow’s career is as full of accolades as it is versatile. Lithgow’s career got off to a promising start with his Broadway debut in the 1973 production of The Changing Room, for which he won both the Tony and the Drama Desk Awards for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
He starred opposite Meryl Streep in A Memory of Two Mondays in 1976, and he earned his second Tony Award nomination, and his first for Best Actor in a Play, for the 1985 production of Requiem of a Heavyweight.
A Legacy Of Excellence
While he was also nominated for that same honor for the 1988 production of M. Butterfly, he did not win another Tony Award until 2002, which was the award for Best Actor in a Musical for Sweet Smell of Success. He also earned lead acting Tony nominations for the 2005 production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, as well as the 2012 production of The Columnist, directed by Daniel Sullivan.
Meanwhile, he earned two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The World According to Garp in 1983, and Terms of Endearment in 1984. Nevertheless, his career really took off in the realm of television. He earned his first Primetime Emmy nomination in 1984 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in The Day After, and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for Amazing Stories in 1986.
Triumph's On Screen
That same year, he was nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for Resting Place. In 1995, he was nominated for that same award for My Brother’s Keeper. His best known role was the starring part of Dick Solomon from 1996-2001 in NBC’s 3rd Rock from the Sun, which earned his 6 Emmy nominations, and 3 wins: in 1996, 1997, and 1999.
In 2010, he won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor for Dexter, and most recently, in 2017, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for portraying Winston Churchill in The Crown. With this extensive list of awards and diverse roles, it is an immense pleasure to witness Lithgow on stage in his one-man show on the unbeatable platform of Broadway for a limited time only.
