By
Sam Leiter
As Stephen Sondheim’s great song from Follies goes, "I’m
Still Here,” but that tenuous grasp on existence was tested several times this
year, my 85th. My general health remains reasonably sound, despite
the usual cardiac and urological concerns (not to mention dental!) that accompany advanced age for men.
On the other hand, a couple of falls affecting, first, my wrist, and then my ribs,
have reminded me that you can’t take anything for granted when you’re growing
old. Make sure you’re well stocked with Ibuprofen the next time your ribs meet
the ground when you misstep off a curb.
I was still here in 2025, however, to continue doing what I love
most, reading books, going to the theatre, and writing about both, albeit at an
inevitably declining pace. Of the
limited number of shows I attended as a voting member of the Drama Desk Awards,
I reviewed about 75%, clocking in at only 59 reviews for the year, writing mainly
for Theater Life, followed by Theater Pizzazz, with a last-minute pair for
TheaterScene.net. I fell off somewhat in book reviews as well, doing just 14
for my Leiter Looks at Books column on Theater Pizzazz, in addition to a long
one about the translation of an epic Japanese play for an academic publication,
the impressive Impressions: The Journal
of the Japanese Art Society of America.
Pushing the output
down was not only my advancing age, but the need for my wife and me to emotionally
and otherwise support our son, Justin, whose wife, Nancy, after years of
struggle, had, last year, gone on hospice care for dementia at home in Hackensack,
NJ. This meant spending nearly every weekend in New Jersey, driving there from
Howard Beach on Fridays and returning on Mondays. On the way home we’d usually
detour to visit our great-grandkids, Brooklyn and Skylar, now 4 ½ and 1 ½ respectively,
either at their home in Oceanside, or at my daughter’s, their nana, in Baldwin.
With very few exceptions, I was able to see shows only from Tuesday through Thursday.
Tragically, on
Tuesday, December 16, my daughter-in-law, the beautiful Nancy Lee Leiter,
passed away, only 60 years old, leaving behind a loving husband whose grief
could shake mountains. Marcia and I will continue spending as much time with him
as possible as he comes to terms with his (and the family’s) enormous loss. His
care for Nancy was beyond belief in its devotion, compassion, and concern, reflecting
how their 37 years together before and after marriage bound them together, as
when trees growing alongside one another gradually intertwine so to become inseparable.
My other recent writing
interests, as many of you know, have been focused, not on Japanese theatre, but
on the history of theatre in Brooklyn, the subject of a book I published early
in 2024. That work covered the story through the last day of 1897, ending when
the independent city of Brooklyn—American’s fourth largest—was consolidated
into Greater New York on January 1, becoming one of five boroughs. Eventually,
I began telling the story of what happened afterward in several blogs that
eventually became one called Theatre in Brooklyn from 1898: An Illustrated
Chronology. It gradually developed into a month-by-month report on old-time
Brooklyn theatre; it has thus far covered everything through mid-1906. When I
complete all of 1908, I will consider adapting it into a book.
Unfortunately,
another book I wrote, about the last four months of Brooklyn theatre before
consolidation, as it might have been experienced daily by an actual theatergoer
of 1897, has struggled all year to find a publisher. Its working title is Stagestruck in Brooklyn: Curtain Calls for a
Great Theatre City (as described by Gabriel Harrison). The unusual concept of history being told in “You Are There” fashion
by a “fictional” narrator, even if the details are historically accurate, seems
to be its big stumbling block. If it’s rejected again, I may consider self-publishing.
One unexpected
offshoot of all this Brooklyn research was the discovery of material related to
the borough’s involvement in 1904 and earlier in Wagner’s “sacred” opera, Parsifal, especially the production of the work as a straight play by a local
stock company with a top price policy of 50 cents. This story, to my surprise,
turned out to be of great fascination to the world of zealous Wagner fans and
specialists, and I was asked to develop it into an article for the prestigious
British publication, the Wagner
Journal. It will soon be published
under the title: “Brooklyn and the Great Parsifal Craze of 1904: Or,
How a 50-Cent Stock Company Turned Wagner’s Music Drama into a Drama with
Music.”
Another Brooklyn
benefit was an invitation from the Society of Old Brooklynites to give a talk about
the borough’s 19th-century theatres at Borough Hall in June. But I didn’t
ignore Japanese theatre entirely. In addition to the book review I wrote for Impressions, and a Yukio Mishima play (Kinkakuji) I reviewed at the Japan Society, I was commissioned
to write an essay to be used for promotion of the new Japanese film, Kokuho (National Treasure), which is based in the world of kabuki and will be Japan’s entry in this year’s Academy Awards competition. I also
was invited to give a guest lecture on “The Onnagata in Kabuki” at the
Brooklyn Museum in January.
As for the family, my
wife of 63 years, Marcia, despite some health issues, still projects a powerful
mater familias presence, which everyone in the family
respects. Although disillusioned with the theatre, she did see a couple of
shows with me this year. My daughter, Bambi, a retired schoolteacher, keeps busy
as a grandmother, a businesswoman selling vintage clothing online, and a competitive
pickleball player. My older granddaughter, Briar, mother of Brooklyn and
Skylar, returned from maternity leave in September to teaching high school English
in East Rockaway. Her sister, Paisley, received her license as a mental health therapist,
which she has been practicing for several years, and has been hired for a
prestigious new job in the field. Justin continues working as a product
designer for a home goods company that allows him to work from home, which was
of incredible value during Nancy’s illness.
Throughout the
year, I appreciated immeasurably the phone companionship of my dear friend,
Larry Loonin, with whom I chatted five or six times a week, and from whom I
often was enlightened—when we agreed—about our current political maelstrom.
Then there were the regular get-togethers with my wonderful theatre plus-ones, Tom Bullard, Elyse Orecchio, Mike Cesarano, Rory Schwartz, John K. Gillespie, Richard Fuhrman,
Mimi Turque, and Penny Bergman (when she wasn’t in Shangri-la or somewhere
similar). I enjoyed the light bantering and sharing of theatrical and other views
on social media with critics Joe Clarke, David Barbour, Brian Lipton, Ron Fassler,
David Sheward, Mark Rifkin, Raven Snook, and others, from whose commentary I
always learned something. And it was a pleasure to spend some time with Carol
Fisher Sorgenfrei, visiting from California, Dr. Jonathan Tuman, visiting from Florida, and my New Jersey cousins, Carole
and Cliff Fishman.
I thank you for your
friendship and support in 2025, and look forward to happiness, good health, and
success for you all in 2026. Just be sure to vote blue in November!
