Richard Seff – författare

Characters: 13 male, 6 female. Various sets. Winner! 2010 New York Musical Theatre Festival Award for Excellence Winner! National Music Theatre Network Award! This charming rags to riches romp with a melodic score follows Ragged Dick, Horatio Alger's first best selling hero, from penniless bootblack to budding Wall Street entrepreneur. His adventures bring him face to face with scheming ex convicts, vicious comic villians, kind benefactors and a world of colorful street characters. Set in the New York Centennial summer of 1876, this full of hopes and dreams musical is perfect for the whole family. "A charming, feel-good musical. The work's tremendous heart and unabashed celebration of Alger's popular stories are in ample evidence in this appealing musical about the rise from rags to riches." - Meredith Lee, Theatermania "SHINE! is one of those wonderful musicals where an audience cares deeply for the hero. Richard Seff's book and Lee Goldsmith's lyrics perfectly capture the Horatio Alger spirit ...Composer Roger Anderson's ballads are strikingly beautiful. As for his up-tempo songs, to call each a toe-tapper would only be 10% accurate ..."- Peter Filichia, The Star-Ledger "Awfully close to the sort of musical that made the form nationally beloved in the Rodgers and Hammerstein era." - Marc Miller, Backstage "Highly tuneful...A friendly show of considerable good humor." - Playbill

Comedy / 6m, 5f / Interior Across the street from the 'mad men' of Madison Avenue live the Ten Percenters of the National Talent Agency. It's the same time, 1962, a secretary is still a toy, boys will still be boys, but the times they are a changin'. Audiences will love to hear what's happening on The Whole Ninth Floor "First impression is that it is a string of jokes tied together rather loosely. A moment's concentration brings home however the basic fact that Seff weaves a story based on the young man's intense and insistent desire to do the right thing. The laughs come fast, and they are plentiful." - The Patterson Call "The comedy construction of The Whole Ninth Floor is made up of wall-to-wall witticisms. Seff has a good ear and facile pen for manufacturing witty dialog. Also he obviously knows, from first hand experience, Madison Avenue and the talent agency area of show business, for his prototypes and inside trade references are accurate and appropriate." - The Scotch Plain Times "A sparkling new comedy, a tremendously funny play." - The Herald News

Richard Seff has spent 60 years in the theatrical jungle as actor, playwright, librettist, agent, investor and now memoirist. He first acted professionally in 1946 and his last engagement onstage was in 2006. 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 22 years he represented artists in the 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, for 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 over 50 television series, soap operas, TV films and mini-series. He is the author of Paris Is Out! which brightened Broadway in 1970 for 104 performances. 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. Hit the dressing rooms with him and discover what goes on backstage, in the wings, and behind closed doors. Learn about theatre investing in the Golden Age, when one could buy a piece of a show in the intermission on opening night. He’s got tales to tell! Join him on this fun filled odyssey through the decades in shows starring Alan Alda, Ethel Merman, Chita Rivera, Dick Van Dyke, William Hurt, Christopher Reeve, Richard Thomas, Judd Hirsch, Jason Robards, in others directed by Hal Prince and written by John Kander and Fred Ebb. Come on along and listen to — well, you know what.He’s Got Tales to Tell!“Richard Seff’s career in the theatre represents active participation as agent, producing associate, librettist, and, ultimately, as a skilled actor … In fact, he was responsible for recommending me to, among others, John Kander and James and William Goldman, to take over the direction of A Family Affair in Philadelphia on its way to Broadway … It turns out he’s a fine writer as well, and this chronicle of an unusual and varied life in the theatre makes excellent and valuable reading.”— Hal Prince“Oh, what a journey we’ve had. I thank Richard Seff for helping mold the life that I am still enjoying today. To live it again, through his own words, fills my heart.”— Chita Rivera“He is a clever old sausage. Far more interesting to see written from his perspective than from a grander vantage point. Far more revealing and very redolent of the profession and its various joys, tribulations, and humiliations. Well done!”— Emma Thompson“A very interesting look at our business from an angle most people never are aware of, including those who are most visibly involved.”— Alan Alda“For years Richard Seff has been one of the wittiest raconteurs on the Rialto, but a pleasure known only to the cognoscenti. Now he has gone public with a biographical reminiscence brimming with anecdota, insight and intelligence. Bravo!” — Stefan Kanfer author of Ball of Fire

RICHARD SEFF remembers the excitement of his early days in the radio industry, when 85 million radios were blaring away in American homes, while a mere 1.3 million TV sets were moving in. Everyone in the nation turned those AM dials seeking financial advice, weather reports, news of the world, news of the city, mood music, heavy and light drama; they could even have the comic strips read to them by the Mayor of New York. Many actors did their best acting only from the neck up, and some became well paid stars, who never needed to sign an autograph because no one had a clue what they looked like! Richard Seff was there, he was one of them, as Bruce Bigby, a young millionaire on the daytime serial "The Brighter Day" in which his nine month marriage to Althea Dennis ended abruptly when a slight cough developed into an unnamed terminal disease. All this and more is told in a comical voice that pokes fun at the absurdities and the power plays. Though everything in the book could have happened, a clerk in a hardware store may in fact have been an office boy in an under garment showroom, a pretentious understudy may actually have been a woman who had changed her family name to one of her own creation, a raffle ticket may have won its winner a toaster instead of a kayak. Come join Alice and Harold in the Wonderland of Radio.

DEAR JOHN; I WROTE THIS ARTICLE FIVE YEARS AGO AS YOU APPROACHED YOUR 90TH BIRTHDAY, BUT I DIDN’T KNOW WHERE TO PLACE IT, SO I PUT IT AWAY IN MY ‘UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS FILE’. I CAME ACROSS IT RECENTLY, AND I ENJOYED RELIVING ITS HAPPENINGS SO MUCH THAT I DECIDED IT WOULD BE A SWELL WAY TO SAY ‘CONGRATULATIONS” NOW, AS YOU APPROACH #95. IT COVERS YOUR 40 YEAR COLLABORATION WITH FRED, AND IT BROUGHT BACK TO ME MANY HAPPY MEMORIES OF THE TWENTY YEARS OF THEM WHEN I REPRESENTED YOU BOTH. AS TRAVEL MATES WE SHARED SOME VERY SPECIAL TIMES AS WELL. SO HERE IT IS, WITH LOVE AND ADMIRATION AS A BIRTHDAY GIFT FROM ONE OF OF YOUR FIRST FANS.R.S..