How Playhouse Square and my father made me a theater critic

At 95 years old, my father Ralph has taken his final bow. I don’t have to look far to understand where I gained my love for theater, a passion I later harnessed to launch 1 Minute Critic.

The first professional production my parents ever took me to was the second national tour of Annie starring Marisa Morell in the title role. Years after pouring over the souvenir program, I still remember her name.

We lived in a split-level house in the Cleveland suburbs. I was old enough to stay home for short periods while my parents ran errands, and as soon as they walked out the door I’d wrap a towel around my head, stand in the small stairway, which had terrific acoustics, and belt out, “Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya, Tomorrow! You’re only a day … A … way!”

Several years later, they took me to see La Cage aux Folles. I don’t think they had any idea we were walking into a gay love story and sequined drag spectacle when we took our seats in Cleveland’s then-called Palace Theatre. I was in heaven.

The same two questions, every single time

After I moved to New York City, my parents would make the long drive across Pennsylvania on I-80 and through the Lincoln Tunnel, arriving at my tiny Hell’s Kitchen walk-up before the neighborhood’s revitalization. They didn’t bat an eye. There were always two questions:

What show are we going to see? Where are we going to eat?

Of the dozens of shows we saw together, two stand out as his favorites: Jersey Boys, the bio-musical about The Four Seasons, and Thoroughly Modern Millie starring Sutton Foster, who would become one of my dad’s favorite performers.

My dad was a man of few words. His observations typically fell into two categories. “It was good but a little long” and “how do they remember all those lines?”

I didn’t realize it at the time, but, in many ways, I founded 1 Minute Critic in my father’s honor. Sure, our writing has more analogies, metaphors, and quips that he’d likely never consider. But he was the first to teach me in his own way that everyone’s a critic.