The author and creative director of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation David Leopold discusses the new collection of Hirschfeld’s work that he edited, The American Theatre As Seen By Hirschfeld, 1962-2002 (2022), with Joseph Planta.

The American Theatre As Seen By Hirschfeld, 1962-2002 edited by David Leopold (2022). Click to buy this book from the Al Hirschfeld Foundation: The American Theatre As Seen By Hirschfeld, 1962-2002

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

If you’re in New York City anytime between now and mid-March 2023, check out the Al Hirschfeld installation, the inaugural exhibition at the new Museum of Broadway, there on 45^th Street & 7^th Avenue, not too far Times Square. Hirschfeld, the timeless and talented chronicler of the Great White Way, through his legendary cartoons, was a prodigious, prolific artist who appeared in the New York Times chronicling most of the Twentieth Century of Broadway and beyond. If you’re nowhere near Manhattan, then there’s the new book, The American Theatre As Seen By Hirschfeld, 1962-2002. It’s a remarkable, outstanding book featuring some of Hirschfeld’s art for the last half of his life, a remarkable fifty years until his death at 99, in 2003. He’d published a similar book in 1961, so this follow-up has been awaited for more than sixty years. And what a second half. There are recognisable depictions of Zero Mostel, Carol Channing, Liza Minnelli, Elaine Stritch, and Ben Vereen, to all the beloved characters in shows from Funny Girl, Cabaret, Annie, Sweeney Todd, Les Misérables, Fences, Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, Rent, Angels in America, and Hairspray. They are wrongly described as caricatures, as they’re more than simply that. They’re also editorial cartoons, they’re depictions by a real master, an equally creative force in the theatre capturing the personality of these theatrical figures as they were on or off the stage. Hirschfeld is somebody who has shaped popular culture, and I’ll talk now to David Leopold, creative director of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation, who edited this very fine book, about the Hirschfeld he knew. He was archivist for Hirschfeld, and a close colleague for many years. Visit www.alhirschfeldfoundationshop.org for information on the book and more. The website also has a place where you can search Hirschfeld’s work from 1914 to 2003. I’ll ask Mr. Leopold, who joined me from Bucks County, Pennsylvania one week ago, about what Hirschfeld was like, how he worked, and those famous Ninas, the name of his daughter, who he’d incorporate in his work. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, David Leopold; Mr. Leopold, good morning.

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