The Playgoer: The Working Actor

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Monday, July 02, 2007

The Working Actor

Not surprisingly, the most revealing New York Times theatre article of the week is in the Real Estate Section.

Most young actors would assume that if you landed the lead role, on Broadway, in not one but two of the most important American plays of recent years and won two Tonys for these performance you'd have it made in the shade. If those plays happened to be Angels in America parts I and II, you might be, um, doubly envious.

Well such dreamers might be surprised to know that only now--more than a decade after said triumphs--can Stephen Spinella afford to buy his own apartment. In Harlem.

Apparently it was the double-whammy of the Broadway run of Spring Awakening and--more importantly--a recurring gig on "24" that pushed him into the affordability bracket.

(Article notes that Spinella in Hollywood "can earn as much in a day as he can during a 10-week run Off Broadway.")

To me the article seems mainly to treat this as a "happy ending" story--not to mention a primer for all us aspiring nesters in the glories of a Harlem fixer-upper. It is the Real Estate section, after all. But for anyone theatrically inclined, this may be more depressing than anything on NYT front page.

Unless you're one of the many desperate readers running off gold-rush style to claim Spinella's previous unthinkable $168 Avenue B walk-up. (Yes, it took him this long to save up, even at $168 a month. More depressing.)

Malachy Walsh beat me to the punch and the punchline on this one.

1 comment:

Malachy Walsh said...

Thanks for the h/t.

Of course, part of the great thing about the arts and the people who devote themselve to creating art (in whatever form) is how we all figger out ways around the impossible.