ENTERTAINMENT
Doug Friedman
reprises his
Broadway role as
Gregory Gardner, a
fair-haired Jewish
dancer, on A
Chorus Line's
national tour.
When Doug
Friedman first saw
A Chorus Line, he
was in seventh
grade and it
changed his life.
LIFE
MELINDA GREENBERG
Special to The Jewish News
g‘G
od I hope I get it.
I hope I get it. Oh
God I need this
job. I really need this job. I've
got to get this job."
Doug Friedman has sung
those lyrics from the
Broadway musical A Chorus
Line hundreds of times, and
he sings them with real feel-
ing.
Between odd jobs and fail-
ed attempts at waiting ta-
bles, Mr. Friedman, a 28-
year-old dancer from New
York, auditioned for a part
in Broadway's longest run-
ning musical three times.
The third time was the
charm and he was given the
chance to join the "line" for
a summer stock production.
"All I ever wanted to do
was be in A Chorus Line,"
said Mr. Friedman in a tele-
phone interview from his ho-
tel room in Jackson, Miss.,
where he was touring with
the show's Broadway Tour of
America.
Born in Astoria, Queens,
and raised on Long Island,
Mr. Friedman first saw A
Chorus Line when he was in
seventh grade and it chang-
ed his life. "That's when I
decided to become a danc-
er," he said, sounding very
much like one of the dancers
in the show reciting an audi-
tion monologue.
And as he sat in that
darkened theater, mesmer-
ized by the line of dancers on
the stage before him, Mr.
Friedman probably never
imagined that one day he
would be up on that very
same stage, dancing the
very same steps, and sing-
ing the very same songs.
Thirteen years after he
first saw the show, Mr.
Friedman stepped into the
role of Gregory Gardner, the
fair-haired Jewish dancer,
whose real name is Sidney
Kenneth Beckenstein. "The
character is very much like
me," he said. "It made sense
for me to play him."
But the road to New
York's Shubert Theatre was
long and filled with disap-
pointment, failure, sore feet,
sleepless nights, and an
endless array of classes to
keep ahead of thousands of
other singers/dancers/actors
trying out for the same
parts.
Despite the uncertainty of
his chosen profession, Mr.
Friedman persevered. Had it
been up to his parents, he
would have thrown away his
dancing shoes and followed
in the footsteps of his father
and brother —both lawyers.
Even today, after he has
appeared in numerous musi-
cal productions in several
theaters, including the
Moulin Rouge in Paris, his
parents still make what he
calls "the lawyer pitch."
"It's part of a family ritu-
al," he said. "They make the
lawyer pitch and I say, 'I'm
sticking with it.' "
Mr. Friedman's dedication
paid off and he joined the
Broadway cast of A Chorus
Line when the show was in
its 14th year, and thought
he "had a job for life." But
five months after he started,
it was announced that the
show would close. Despite
the prospect of unemploy-
ment, Mr. Friedman said it
was "the best thing that
ever happened to him."
"The show was plodding
along and then all of a sud-
den there was a renewed in-
terest in it," he said. "I had
the celebrity-dom I always
dreamed of."
Mr. Friedman jokingly
recalls that when his
grandmother came from
Brooklyn to see the show, he
was nervous about her reac-
tion to his character, who is
gay. "She was so impressed
that people 'wanted my
autograph that the other
thing got overlooked," he
said.
When he appeared in the
last performance, on April
28, 1990 — 6,137 shows af-
ter it first opened — Mr.
Friedman became a part of
theatrical history. The the-
ater's orchestra seats sold
for $500 apiece, members of
the original cast were in the
audience and took bows at
the end of the show. The late
Joseph Papp, who provided
the original funding and
space for the show's earliest
performances, introduced
the ensemble cast one by one
to the audience.
A huge party followed the
performance and Mr.
Friedman was one of the last
to leave. "I knew that once
the party ended it was all
over," he recalled.
But Mr. Friedman's con-
nection to the show that set
the stage for his career did
not end there. He is now a
permanent member of the
national tour and will travel
with the show until June.
Although he has now played
the same role for six years,
Mr. Friedman said he has
not really tired of it.
"I'm not really sick of it
yet," he said. "I bought an
apartment in New,York and
paying for it is what keeps
me working."
Ah, the glamour of show
biz. ❑
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
61