Merwin Foard, R.I.P.

So sorry to hear of the passing at the way-too-young age of 59 of actor Merwin Foard, who I only knew from (a) seeing him on the Broadway stage and (b) a short e-mail correspondence. For a while there, every time I went to New York and made my customary trips to shows I wanted to see, Merwin Foard would be in one of them, twice as a standby who happened to go on a night I was there. He was really terrific.

The first time (I think) I saw him filling in for another actor, he was Fred Graham (i.e., the male lead) in the 1999 revival of Kiss Me, Kate, filling in for the regular star, Brian Stokes Mitchell. I'd seen Mitchell on a previous visit and liked the show so much that a few months later when I went back with my lovely friend Carolyn, I took her because I knew she'd love it. too. I was stunned by how good Mr. Foard was in the part and when I said so in an Internet forum, I got a nice thank-you e-mail from him and we wrote back and forth for a few months.

Later, I saw him fill in for Michael Cerveris in the title role for a revival of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. As with Kiss Me, Kate, he faced the problem that most of the folks out there who'd bought tickets bought them expecting to see the usual star and felt disappointed or baited-and-switched. All standbys and understudies for stars face that but, again, Merwin was so good that everyone forgot he wasn't the person they'd paid to see. And Sweeney is one of the most difficult parts an actor can tackle.

And I saw him in other shows but missed him in some. I didn't get to see him in Show Boat, Mame, Les Miserables, Beauty and the Beast, Jekyll & Hyde, Assassins, La Cage Aux Folles, The Little Mermaid, The Addams Family, Annie or his last role, Aladdin. That's what the still of him above right is from. He also did voices for Disney features including Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Mulan. Pretty impressive career there.

And the first show I saw him in might have been the 1997 revival of 1776, which was easily one of the five-or-so best Broadway productions I've ever seen. He wasn't a standby here. Night after night, he stopped the show with his performance as Richard Henry Lee. Here he is, along with David Huddleston and Michael McCormick performing his big number on (I think) Rosie O'Donnell's talk show. It was even better on the stage with the encore that got cut out for this appearance…