TJ
04-07-2003, 07:14 AM
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/03/26/DD182437.DTL
Ted Lange has played Othello on stage and screen, written 17 plays and directed a slew of TV shows. But to people around the world, he's the "Love Boat" guy.
That's cool with Lange, the Oakland-bred actor who played Isaac Washington, the hep bartender on the hit TV series that aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986 and now cruises in reruns on cable's TV Land. He no longer feels obliged to reel off his resume as a serious actor when people bring up the show.
"My character was somebody they liked," said Lange (pronounced like "flange"). The '70s Afro and Fu Manchu mustache are gone, of course, and he now has a white beard. But wherever Lange goes, people recognize his broad, smiling face.
He was eating pancakes the other morning at Mel's on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco, where diners and waiters greeted him warmly. He shot the breeze and handed them flyers for "The Dance on Widow's Row," the comedy he's starring in at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (the handbill bears his picture and "Love Boat" bona fides). It's his first San Francisco gig since 1969, when he appeared in "Big Time Buck White" at the New Commit-
tee Theater before making his Broadway debut in
"Hair."
"Come see the play, man, it's very funny," the congenial actor told one guy.
"Come see the play, I promise you a good time," he told a woman. Lange turned to a reporter and said: "You see what we just did? That's black theater. You have to promote."
A lively cat with an easy laugh, Lange is a pro at promoting his own plays - - they range from a rock musical about the black Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge to a one-woman show about Lucretia Borgia -- and other projects he cares about.
He heard about "The Dance on Widow's Row" from his pal David Downing, a gifted actor who'd done the play in Atlanta and reprises the role of Deacon here. Like the show's director, Buddy Butler, Downing was an original member of New York's Negro Ensemble Company. He and Lange had never worked together and were itching to.
Written by Samm-Art Williams, who wrote the well-received play "Home" and scripts for "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and other sitcoms, "The Dance on Widow's Row" is about four well-off North Carolina widows looking to hook another man. But because they've buried nine husbands among them, some of whom died under mysterious circumstances, the gents they've zeroed in on are a little scared of these foxy older ladies.
"It's just an out-and-out comedic romp," says Lange, 55, who has done a lot of comedy on both sides of the camera. He wrote and directed "Love Boat" segments and in recent years has directed episodes of "Moesha" and "Dharma & Greg" and appeared on "Martin" and "Scrubs."
Here, he plays a retired soldier named Newly Benson who wears smart suede threads -- Lange bought the jacket and shoes himself because he thought they fit the character -- and gets most of the punch lines. Newly says he took a vow of celibacy, "but I'm coming out of retirement tonight."
The play, Lange said, "is idiosyncratic to the black culture, from the potato salad to talkin' about the pound cake at the funeral. Samm is from North Carolina. He knows those women. People are going to recognize the churchgoing woman who puts on a red dress and says, 'Come and get me.' He's worked in all those cultural things in a comedic way."
Lange thought of himself as a dramatic and Shakespearean actor until he moved from New York to Los Angeles and got pegged as a funny guy. He'd found his calling after playing Macbeth in the ninth grade at Oakland's Golden Gate Junior High.
He played the role of Banquo in "Macbeth" a few years later at Oakland Technical High (Anita Pointer of the singing Pointer Sisters was Lady Macbeth),
where drama teacher Tom Wayne and his wife nurtured his talent. Wayne, who took him to plays and operas, told him that things were opening up for African Americans and that Lange could make a living as an actor.
It was around 1964 "and Sidney Poitier was the only guy. Cosby wasn't even on 'I Spy' yet," said Lange, who later joined San Francisco's New Shakespeare Company, where he played Romeo to a white Juliet. He credits the company's director, the late Margaret Roma, with teaching him to act.
While "The Love Boat" was on hiatus in 1984, Lange studied at London's Royal College of Dramatic Art. Lynn Redgrave, who'd appeared on the show, wrote his letter of recommendation. He initially resisted when his teacher there, David Perry, asked him to do a scene from "Othello."
"Oh, a black guy shows up here in England and you want me to do the Moor?" he recalled saying. "I'm really more interested in Richard III." Lange imitates Perry's clipped British accent: "Afraid of the part? Let me see what you do with the Moor, and we'll do Richard later." Whenever he messed up, Perry would say, "This isn't 'Show Boat,' Theodore."
"One of the things we're taught as actors is restraint, don't jump off the cliff," Lange said. "David told me to jump off the cliff. So I did it, and there was an explosion in my brain as an artist. And I saw what he meant, and I saw who this guy Othello was." Perry and another noted English teacher, Ada Brown Mather, helped Lange shape the "Othello" he directed and starred in at Los Angeles' Inner City Cultural Center and made into a 1989 film.
For a while, Lange played down his "Love Boat" past. "I didn't want it to be the handle I was forever known for," said the actor, who has two sons, both visual artists in their 20s, and lives in Los Angeles with his second wife, Mary. Because the show was considered populist fluff, Lange said, he was pegged "as a comedic actor of a certain ilk" and couldn't get TV jobs.
"The good news was, in the theater world, I got all the roles I wanted," among them the lead in tours of "Driving Miss Daisy" with Vera Miles, Dorothy Loudon and others. Producers figured, "We got the 'Love Boat' guy. That's a name, that'll bring in audiences," Lange said. "I'd get backhanded reviews -- 'We didn't know he could act.' "
After so many years in theater, Lange still feels he has to prove himself. "That's the great thing," he said. "I haven't lost my edge. It's about art. It's about making it the best that it can be."
He hasn't seen "The Love Boat" in years but knows its appeal. "It's sex," he said. "It was innocent sex then. People used to go on cruises to die. After that show, they went on cruises to get laid!"
Ted Lange has played Othello on stage and screen, written 17 plays and directed a slew of TV shows. But to people around the world, he's the "Love Boat" guy.
That's cool with Lange, the Oakland-bred actor who played Isaac Washington, the hep bartender on the hit TV series that aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986 and now cruises in reruns on cable's TV Land. He no longer feels obliged to reel off his resume as a serious actor when people bring up the show.
"My character was somebody they liked," said Lange (pronounced like "flange"). The '70s Afro and Fu Manchu mustache are gone, of course, and he now has a white beard. But wherever Lange goes, people recognize his broad, smiling face.
He was eating pancakes the other morning at Mel's on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco, where diners and waiters greeted him warmly. He shot the breeze and handed them flyers for "The Dance on Widow's Row," the comedy he's starring in at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (the handbill bears his picture and "Love Boat" bona fides). It's his first San Francisco gig since 1969, when he appeared in "Big Time Buck White" at the New Commit-
tee Theater before making his Broadway debut in
"Hair."
"Come see the play, man, it's very funny," the congenial actor told one guy.
"Come see the play, I promise you a good time," he told a woman. Lange turned to a reporter and said: "You see what we just did? That's black theater. You have to promote."
A lively cat with an easy laugh, Lange is a pro at promoting his own plays - - they range from a rock musical about the black Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge to a one-woman show about Lucretia Borgia -- and other projects he cares about.
He heard about "The Dance on Widow's Row" from his pal David Downing, a gifted actor who'd done the play in Atlanta and reprises the role of Deacon here. Like the show's director, Buddy Butler, Downing was an original member of New York's Negro Ensemble Company. He and Lange had never worked together and were itching to.
Written by Samm-Art Williams, who wrote the well-received play "Home" and scripts for "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and other sitcoms, "The Dance on Widow's Row" is about four well-off North Carolina widows looking to hook another man. But because they've buried nine husbands among them, some of whom died under mysterious circumstances, the gents they've zeroed in on are a little scared of these foxy older ladies.
"It's just an out-and-out comedic romp," says Lange, 55, who has done a lot of comedy on both sides of the camera. He wrote and directed "Love Boat" segments and in recent years has directed episodes of "Moesha" and "Dharma & Greg" and appeared on "Martin" and "Scrubs."
Here, he plays a retired soldier named Newly Benson who wears smart suede threads -- Lange bought the jacket and shoes himself because he thought they fit the character -- and gets most of the punch lines. Newly says he took a vow of celibacy, "but I'm coming out of retirement tonight."
The play, Lange said, "is idiosyncratic to the black culture, from the potato salad to talkin' about the pound cake at the funeral. Samm is from North Carolina. He knows those women. People are going to recognize the churchgoing woman who puts on a red dress and says, 'Come and get me.' He's worked in all those cultural things in a comedic way."
Lange thought of himself as a dramatic and Shakespearean actor until he moved from New York to Los Angeles and got pegged as a funny guy. He'd found his calling after playing Macbeth in the ninth grade at Oakland's Golden Gate Junior High.
He played the role of Banquo in "Macbeth" a few years later at Oakland Technical High (Anita Pointer of the singing Pointer Sisters was Lady Macbeth),
where drama teacher Tom Wayne and his wife nurtured his talent. Wayne, who took him to plays and operas, told him that things were opening up for African Americans and that Lange could make a living as an actor.
It was around 1964 "and Sidney Poitier was the only guy. Cosby wasn't even on 'I Spy' yet," said Lange, who later joined San Francisco's New Shakespeare Company, where he played Romeo to a white Juliet. He credits the company's director, the late Margaret Roma, with teaching him to act.
While "The Love Boat" was on hiatus in 1984, Lange studied at London's Royal College of Dramatic Art. Lynn Redgrave, who'd appeared on the show, wrote his letter of recommendation. He initially resisted when his teacher there, David Perry, asked him to do a scene from "Othello."
"Oh, a black guy shows up here in England and you want me to do the Moor?" he recalled saying. "I'm really more interested in Richard III." Lange imitates Perry's clipped British accent: "Afraid of the part? Let me see what you do with the Moor, and we'll do Richard later." Whenever he messed up, Perry would say, "This isn't 'Show Boat,' Theodore."
"One of the things we're taught as actors is restraint, don't jump off the cliff," Lange said. "David told me to jump off the cliff. So I did it, and there was an explosion in my brain as an artist. And I saw what he meant, and I saw who this guy Othello was." Perry and another noted English teacher, Ada Brown Mather, helped Lange shape the "Othello" he directed and starred in at Los Angeles' Inner City Cultural Center and made into a 1989 film.
For a while, Lange played down his "Love Boat" past. "I didn't want it to be the handle I was forever known for," said the actor, who has two sons, both visual artists in their 20s, and lives in Los Angeles with his second wife, Mary. Because the show was considered populist fluff, Lange said, he was pegged "as a comedic actor of a certain ilk" and couldn't get TV jobs.
"The good news was, in the theater world, I got all the roles I wanted," among them the lead in tours of "Driving Miss Daisy" with Vera Miles, Dorothy Loudon and others. Producers figured, "We got the 'Love Boat' guy. That's a name, that'll bring in audiences," Lange said. "I'd get backhanded reviews -- 'We didn't know he could act.' "
After so many years in theater, Lange still feels he has to prove himself. "That's the great thing," he said. "I haven't lost my edge. It's about art. It's about making it the best that it can be."
He hasn't seen "The Love Boat" in years but knows its appeal. "It's sex," he said. "It was innocent sex then. People used to go on cruises to die. After that show, they went on cruises to get laid!"