Supporting Player: My Life Upon the Wicked Stage -- a Star-Filled Theatre Memoir by Richard Seff

NEW YORK - For a stage production to be staged successfully, every player must be present; the lead actors, stage crew, technicians, and all the supporting players. Richard Seff presents a star-filled odyssey through the golden age of Broadway, told from his point of view; that of one of those supporting players. This entertaining and informative memoir follows Richard Seff’s professional life, as actor / agent / playwright / librettist / production associate.

Supporting Player: My Life Upon The Wicked Stage is a fun-filled voyage flowing with interesting and amusing tales of professional moments in the lives of Ethel Merman, Julie Andrews, Rex Harrison, Chita Rivera, Kander and Ebb, Rosalind Russell, Bob Fosse and many others. He has acted in film or on stage with Jason Robards, Ralph Fiennes, Christine Lahti, Christopher Reeve, Richard Thomas, William Hurt, Judd Hirsch, Linda Hunt, James Woods and so many others. In his memoir, he tells of backstage shenanigans, some of them behind closed doors.

The reader will discover what goes on in the wings, and behind closed doors and learn about theatre investing in the Golden Age, when one could buy a piece of a show in the intermission on opening night.

Richard Seff has been fortunate enough to spend his entire life working in theatre where he has performed in mutiple capacities. At the age of 6 he said his first words onstage. Later at 11, he saw his first play on Broadway. He joined Actors’ Equity at 19 and has spent 60 years in the theatrical jungle. He took a 22 year leave of absence from the stage, after a long run on Broadway in support of Claude Rains and on tour with Edward G. Robinson in the prize winning Darkness At Noon.

During those two decades plus he represented numerous artists in musical theatre. He left the talent agency in 1974 at the height of his career to return to the stage. In the 30 years that have followed, he’s appeared in some 25 plays, in one of which, Angels Fall, he won the Carbonell Award for ’Best Supporting Actor In A Play’. He’s been in 7 feature films and has made over 50 television appearances. He is the author of the Broadway play Paris Is Out!. The musical Shine! for which he wrote the book, won a National Music Theatre Network Award in 2001 and has been published by Samuel French, Inc. and recorded by Original Cast Records.