And We Said It Couldn't Be Done

My brother Michael is an eccentric. He's 48, a perpetual bachelor, a coffee drinker, a cigar smoker, slightly obsessive, and he rides a Harley through the streets of New York City. If he sleeps, it's an hour here and there. He eats one meal a day. His energy is off the charts and his charm is real. Women love him. He can piss people off, but he doesn't mean it. He's as smart as they come, but he's also an innocent with a heart of gold.

Michael is the founder and producer of the Michael Chekhov Theatre Company, operating from a Lower East Side space he created called The Big Little Theatre. A couple of months ago, I was downtown having dinner with David and a group of friends when Michael burst into the restaurant, sat down, ordered his meal and enthusiastically told us of his latest great idea. Now Michael had come up with countless ideas and plans in the past. A family boat business in Hawaii, all of us selling our homes, moving to San Francisco, investing in an old church where we would all live and build a theatre and nightclub. He’s also come up with premises for countless television shows, and you know what? Years later they actually end up on TV. "I knew it," he’d exclaim a million times. After September 11th, he sat us all down and discussed in detail his elaborate plan for our family to escape New York in life rafts if need be. So at the restaurant, when he announced his plan to produce all 45 of Sam Shepard's plays, we all looked at each other. Yeah, like he'll be able to pull that off, we were all thinking.

Well shame on us! Not only has he pulled it off, he did something absolutely unheard of for a tiny unknown off-off-Broadway theatre. He single-handedly managed to get the New York Times to come see a production of Shepard's "Buried Child," which they DID, and gave it a RAVE review!

But it doesn't end there. Brother Mike was seeing his friend Bernie White in the recent production of John Guare's, "Landscape of the Body," and who should be backstage, but Guare himself. When Bernie introduced Michael to Guare, the playwright told him he'd heard about Michael's theatre, was quite interested in it etc., etc. (JOHN GUARE FOR CHRIST’S SAKE!)


My brother Michael is flying around this earth like a hawk, and the only times I know for certain he'll come down is when someone is in need. He's always been there for me, and though he's pissed me off plenty, he has never once let me down.

Maybe I'll listen to him more closely next time he has a grandiose scheme. Maybe that nightclub in San Francisco isn't such a bad idea. Maybe, if my life is ever in danger, I will board that life raft with him.

(Photo of Michael taken a LONG time ago. Imagine the same face, but hair all over the place, a crooked cap and the eyes of a wild tiger. Please see links section of blog for the Times review.)