05/09/2011 - Linda Lavin

Linda Lavin, TONY award winning actor, to be interviewed by Michael Riedel on May 9th, 2011.

BIOGRAPHIES

LINDA LAVIN 

Linda Lavin has performed in various theatre and television roles that garnered her several Tony nominations, an Emmy Award, Golden Globe awards, Drama Desk Awards, a Lucille Lortel Award and a Tony for her hilarious performance in Neil Simon's Broadway Bound.

She has appeared in many theatre productions including The Sisters Rosensweig (Broadway), The New Century (Drama Desk Award/Off Broadway). Broadway: Collected Stories (Tony nomination), Hollywood Arms, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife (Tony nom.); The Diary of Anne Frank (Tony nom., Drama Desk Award); Gypsy; Broadway Bound (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Helen Hayes Awards); The Last of the Red Hot Lovers (Tony nom.); Cop Out; Story Theatre; Something Different; It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman; A Family Affair. Off Broadway: Cakewalk; Death Defying Acts (Obie); The Comedy Of Errors (Public); The Mad Show; Oh, Kay! (Theater World Award), Little Murders (Outer Critics Circle).  Regional: Finishing the Picture, Collected Stones, Doubt, Rabbit Hole, Driving Miss Daisy. Film: The Backup Plan, The Muppets Take Manhattan, See You in the Morning, I Want to Go Home. TV: “Alice,” “Barney Miller,” “Room For Two,” “Conrad Bloom.” National appearances include Birdland, The Metropolitan Room, Wilmington Symphony, NC. 

Linda most recently performed in Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities at Lincoln Center and this month is opening in Follies at the Kennedy Center.

MICHAEL RIEDEL

Michael grew up in Geneseo, New York and initially planned on becoming a lawyer and politician. He performed on stage in high school and college productions and subsequently became a magna cum laude graduate of Columbia University with a BA in history.  

After graduating, he landed a job as Managing Editor of the now-defunct magazine, Theatre Week, which he made more literary by inviting well-known writers and critics of the time to contribute. He was next hired by The Daily News to be a stringer for a gossip column, but soon established his popular Broadway column there. He moved with it to the New York Post in 1998, where he has been ever since.

Breaking with Broadway convention, Michael sometimes attends the first night of previews and has been known to report on a show's problems before the critics have reviewed it. In the words of New York Magazine, “ He’s charming at night, but ruthless in the morning paper."

Photo of Linda Lavin by Bill Westmoreland