A new stage for 'Morrie'
After a book and a TV movie, the stage version of Tuesdays with Morrie offered a chance to refine the story of a friendship that deepened two men's appreciation of life.
By ROBERT HICKS
Published May 5, 2005
Mitch Albom's book Tuesdays with Morrie had been a phenomenal bestseller and adapted by Oprah Winfrey's production company into an Emmy-winning TV movie when playwright Jeffrey Hatcher got a call to write a version for the stage.
"I'd actually never read the book, so I did read it. I thought it would be judicious to concentrate on the two main characters, Morrie and Mitch," Hatcher said from Milwaukee, where he is doing a workshop production of his new play, Armadale.
The Tuesdays with Morrie story - in all its incarnations - recounts the bond between Detroit Free Press sportswriter and columnist Mitch Albom and his former Brandeis University professor, Morrie Schwartz.
(Albom is also the author of the current bestseller The Five People You Meet in Heaven. He recently was suspended briefly from the Free Press for including a scene in his column that described two former college basketball players watching a game being played by their alma mater. In fact, the column was written in advance and the players didn't show up at the game.)
Despite Mitch's promise to stay in touch with his mentor, he abandons the relationship as his career takes off. The two reunite years later, after Mitch learns that Morrie is dying of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease). Mitch commits to regular visits with his old friend and, through their conversations, he begins to see beyond his self-absorbed world and to gain greater insight into his own shortcomings.
"It's not really a conventional play. It's more of a performance art piece," said director B.J. Jones, who leads the cast of David Breitbarth (Mitch) and David S. Howard (Morrie) in the Asolo Theatre production.
Writer Hatcher said Albom wanted to be involved in the stage adaptation because he had some misgivings about the TV movie and, as a national spokesman for ALS research, he wanted to realistically portray the physical degeneration of people stricken with the disease.
Albom took a documentary approach to the stage version at first, Hatcher said, but both writers agreed to fictionalize one element of Morrie's life: In the play, Morrie walks with a cane in the early stages of his disease and progresses to a walker, then a wheelchair.
In reality, Morrie Schwartz already was in a wheelchair by the time Albom renewed their friendship.
"Mitch had been happy and unhappy with aspects of the TV movie," Hatcher said. "He obviously felt the work that the actors Jack Lemmon and Hank Azaria had done was wonderful, but, at the same time, there were parts of his life that he felt had been distorted and he didn't want that to happen in the play. There were also certain aspects of his family life in the book that he didn't want to go into in the play."
For director Jones, the biggest challenge is keeping up with the play's fast-paced dialogue while portraying the gradual development of a deeper understanding between Mitch and Morrie and communicating their understanding of what friendship and life mean.
"I find it has so much acerbic humor and a kind of wonderful cynicism in a life-affirming way," Jones said. He comes to Asolo after receiving an After Dark Award for his direction of the play at his Northlight Theatre in Chicago in 2003.
Both Jones and Hatcher agree that Mitch learns from Morrie that he must be more present in his own life.
"The play really isn't about death," Jones said. "It's about life and how to live it."
PREVIEW: Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie by the Asolo Theatre Company opens Saturday, with a preview Friday, and runs through May 29. Shows are at 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays in Cook Theatre, FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. $31-$33. (941) 351-8000.