Reporting by Ron Fassler and Melissa Griegel.
Last night at a cocktail party at the Algonquin, on the site where Al Hirschfeld once hung out with the esteemed members of the hotel’s illustrious and infamous roundtable, drawings now available in a new book were displayed on the walls to be perused, potentially bought, and most definitely celebrated. Hirschfeld Icons, a poster book with easy-to-tear-out 11 x 14 pages, is written by David Leopold, Creative Director of The Al Hirschfeld Foundation. His insights into Hirschfeld’s art is impeccable, matched only by his personal history with the artist—friends for 13 years prior to the master’s death in 2003. It was only last September that Leopold published another poster book, Hirschfeld’s Sondheim, reported on by TheaterPizzazz here.
Doug Koons, Matt Roper (Chico Marx), Seth Sheldon (Harpo Marx), Noah Diamond (Groucho Marx), Charles Busch, Alexis Michelle (Liza Minelli), Katherine Easton, Gene DiNapoli (Elvis Presley), David Leopold
For the occasion, the congenial gathering of theatre folk included (among others) playwright and actor Charles Busch, theatre historian and author Peter Filichia, and theatre producer Eric Krebs. Enjoying hors d’oeuvres and beverages, everyone took the time to check out icons on the walls who ranged from rock and roll (Elvis Presley), jazz (Duke Ellington), television (Jerry Seinfeld), film (Alfred Hitchcock), literature (Ernest Hemingway), and a broad swath of Broadway royalty. One on display of Laurence Olivier in 1958’s The Entertainer was positively enthralling. And the addition of a few look-a-like performers joining the party in various cosplaying of Liza, Elvis, and the Marx Brothers kept things bubbly, if the champagne wasn’t already doing the trick.
“Liza Minelli” shows off a portrait of Judy Garland, along with the “Marx Brothers” and “Elvis” with their portraits.
The book, published in plush fashion by Harry N. Abrams, is a delight. Both in color and black and white, it demands to be part of any serious theatergoers library. The memories that these illustrations bring up run the gamut from mere adoration to the profound. There was never anybody like Hirschfeld before or since and how extraordinary was it that his talents were on display throughout nine decades between the 1920s and the early 2000—an eighty-two-year active career. Don’t forget, he wasn’t only a visual chronicler, but an eyewitness to possibly seeing more theatre, both out of town and on Broadway, than any single individual. He loved the theatre with all his heart and that’s what makes his art so damn great; his passion.
Editor-in-Chief of Abrams ComicArts (L) with David Leopold, Alexis Michelle, and the team from Abrams
Of course, part of Hirschfeld’s consistent appeal was his hiding of the “Ninas” in his drawings. The name of his daughter, once snuck into an illustration in 1945, the year she was born. It spawned thousands more to come that could be found in a hairdo, the crook of an arm, or the fringes of a skirt. In a lovely forward written expressly for the book, Dick Cavett claims that “part of the suspense was the hunt . . . there you sat, squinting at Liza or Brando or Merman as rendered by a jazz riff of ink, counting the looping Ns, delighted as if you’d discovered buried treasure.” What theatre nerd doesn’t relate to that?
David Leopold autographing his new book.
In his own forward, David Leopold quotes the late playwright Terrence McNally for perhaps the final word on Hirschfeld: “No one ‘writes’ more accurately of the performing arts than Al Hirschfeld. He accomplishes on a blank page with his pen and ink in a few strokes what many of us need a lifetime of words to say.”
Amen.
Hirschfeld’s Icons is available wherever books are sold. For more about Al Hirschfeld, visit Alhirschfeldfoundation.org.
Photos by Melissa Griegel Photography
