ZazAngels Presents Tuesdays With Morrie

ZazAngels Presents "Tuesdays With Morrie" on Broadway April 10, 2000: The cast of "Tuesdays With Morrie", Director Robert Downey Sr., Kaity Tong, Vincent Irizarry and Jerry Stiller, together onstage after their performance at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.

Tuesdays With Morrie Lights Up Broadway

Broadway is usually dark on Monday nights, but on Monday, April 10, the Great White Way blazed with the star power and energy generated by celebrities and guests at a benefit for Michael Zaslow's ZazAngels --- a fund created to find a cure for ALS by the late daytime Emmy-Award winning actor and PAL Michael Zaslow and his wife, Susan Hufford.

The highlight of the evening featured a wonderful performance of excerpts from Mitch Albom's best-selling book, "Tuesdays With Morrie." Stage, screen and TV stars Jerry Stiller (as Morrie) and Vincent Irizarry (as Mitch) led the cast, with an inspired turn by award-winning New York WB Channel 11 news co-anchor Kaity Tong as Ted Koppel!   Distinguished writer, stage and screen director, and New York ALSA Chapter Board member Robert Downey, Sr., directed the production. Susan Hufford, widow of Michael Zaslow, wrote the stage adaptation.

Ms. Hufford welcomed the crowd and read a statement from PAL Bill Barvin, who sat by her side in his wheelchair. Bill, a former film industry professional, exemplified through his remarks the indomitable will and fighting spirit demonstrated by so many ALS patients.

The evening's honoree was Jason Perline, Chairman of the Board of Van Wagner Communications, Vice-Chairman of the Broadway Association, and Chapter Board member. Presenting the award, Chapter President Dorine Gordon stated that Jason "has more than outstanding ability, he has a sense of compassion, and the two give him his distinction." Jason's wife, Goldie, has battled ALS for more than 20 years. In a moving gesture, he called to the stage Clover Green, his wife's principal caregiver for 15 years and, passing the award to her, declared that it was she who truly deserved it.

A posthumous award was bestowed on Janet Frank, respected New York City voice coach and singer. Kate Pierson, lead singer of the B-52's and former student of Ms. Frank, delivered a memorable tribute to her friend and teacher who died of ALS last December after waging a courageous battle against the disease.

The festive evening included a cocktail reception and silent auction. At both, luminaries such as Blythe Danner, Susan Lucci, Martha Byrne and Elizabeth Hubbard mingled with ALS patients, caregivers and benefactors.

More than 400 people attended the event, which raised $160,000 to be used for cutting-edge research to find a cure for ALS.

Though the evening glittered with celebrities, it was the spirit of the ALS patients and their caregivers, past and present, that contributed the brightest and most enduring light to the occasion.

[From: ALSA - Greater New York Chapter - July 2000 Newsletter]

Kaity Tong, Vincent Irizarry and Jerry Stiller on stage at the Richard Rodgers Theatre with a portrait of Michael Zaslow, the inspiration for the evening's benefit.

THE STARS SHINE!
A Night of Triumph and Tribute For Michael Zaslow
Soap Opera Update, May 9, 2000

Cheers and tears filled Broadway's Richard Rodgers Theatre as the acting community honored the late Michael Zaslow (David, One Life To Live; Roger, Guiding Light) by keeping alive his dream of beating ALS by the end of 2000.

Vincent Irizarry (David, All My Children), along with Jerry Stiller (Frank Costanza, Seinfeld) and NYC newscaster Kaity Tong, presented a theatrical reading of "Tuesdays With Morrie" for ZazAngels, the organization formed by Zaslow before his tragic and untimely death.

The performances were flawless as the actors received heartfelt standing ovations from the audience, which included fellow actors. Among them were Irizarry's All My Children co-star Susan Lucci (Erica) and Zaslow's longtime Guiding Light co-star Maureen Garrett (Holly). Irizarry described the night as "a joy beyond description. I saw Michael when he was sick and he was really courageous. Doing this gave me the opportunity to give something back to the cause."

mzvi1991fr.jpg (16537 bytes)

Vincent Irizarry, "All My Children's" Dr. David Hayward [pictured above in 1991 with Michael Zaslow, with whom he co-starred on "Guiding Light" from 1991-96], just co-starred with comedian Jerry Stiller in a one-night performance of "Tuesdays with Morrie." It was a ZazAngels organization benefit to remember late actor Michael Zaslow and his fight against ALS, the disease - also called Lou Gehrig's disease - that claimed Zaslow's life. "I think the greatest moments of Michael's life came after he contracted the disease," Irizarry says. "He showed so much courage. Michael wouldn't hide from the public just because he had this. He went on working at 'One Life to Live' right up to when he passed away. "There was a real beauty in his presence when he was going through it," Irizarry says. [Claire Siegel, New York Post, April 17, 2000].

"All the love you created is still there.
All the memories are still there.
You live on -- in the hearts of everyone
you have touched and nurtured while you were here.
Death ends a life, not a relationship."

--Morrie Schwartz in
"Tuesdays With Morrie", by Mitch Albom

The "Morrie" Connection: Frank Grillo and Wendy Moniz, formerly Hart and Dinah, Roger Thorpe's son and ex-wife on "Guiding Light", joined Michael to raise money for ALS research at a benefit in Flushing , New York on November 15, 1998. On December 5, 1999, Wendy co-starred as Mitch Albom's wife in "Oprah Winfrey Presents: Tuesdays With Morrie", which aired on ABC-TV. ZazAngels presented the first theatrical adaptation of "Tuesdays With Morrie" as part of an ALS awareness benefit at The Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway on April 10, 2000.