‘A Man and his Prostate’
Stage and screen legend Ed Anser, now 87, will bring his unique brand of acting to Woonsocket for a Saturday show.
WOONSOCKET — Like most practitioners of the dramatic arts, Ed Asner has had one career – a brilliant one at that – but the octogenarian legend of stage, screen and TV has reinvented himself so many times it just seems like more.
Of course, Asner may be best remembered as Lou Grant, the curmudgeonly TV news editor of the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” and its spinoff drama, the eponymously titled “Lou Grant Show.” The back-to-back hits ran from 1970-1982 and helped make Asner the most honored male performer in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards, with seven trophies, and the only male actor to be honored with Emmys for the same role in a comedy and a drama.
Now 87, Asner has multiple film and other projects in the works, but fans can see him live at the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket this Saturday, Aug. 19, in a oneman stage comedy that’s been keeping him busy since early 2016.
“A Man and His Prostate” is what Asner likes to call the male answer to “The Vagina Monologues.” It’s actually based on the true-life experience of Edwin Weinberger, an Emmy winning comedy writer and friend of Asner who’s worked for Bob Hope, "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" and another smash TV comedy series from the 70s, "Taxi."
When Weinberger was hospitalized with a bout of prostatitis while vacationing in Italy a while back, “A Man and His Prostate” is what grew out of it.
“Intriguing,” is how Asner described his reaction when Weinberger pitched him the script and suggested him as the star of the show. “Then when I read it I was delighted. I thought it was very funny and at the same time informative.”
With a track record for being funny and serious in the same role, Asner says he feels right at home taking a stab at the lighter side of what’s a major medical problem for many older men. In a way, he says, it almost feels like a public service to get the message out in a way that’s informative and entertaining.
“Aman dies in this country of prostate cancer every 16 minutes – I don’t think many people recognize that,” says Asner. “So it’s good to make people aware of it.”
Cathy Levesque, executive director of The Stadium, says she’s honored to have booked a living legend of stage and screen for local audiences with Asner’s latest dramatic invention.
“When the opportunity came to book Ed, I was so excited because it was like bringing a piece of my childhood back into my life, right here at the Stadium Theatre,” she says. “Ed is an icon of American television.”
After 12 years as one of America’s most endearing hardnoses, Asner’s unlikely to ever shake all the Lou Grant out of his system, but unless you’re of a certain age it’s easy to forget that by the time the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” came around Asner had already made a name for himself as a featured performer in a string of landmark TV serials, including “The Outer Limits,” “Gunsmoke,” “Ironside” and others.
Grant has fond memories of Moore, who left a legacy of her own as a comedic actress who pushed the boundaries what was possible for women do on television. Known for her flashy smile, she’d made public her struggles with alcoholism before she died earlier this year at the age of 80.
“She was heaven to work with,” says Asner. “To be honest with you as she began to suffer the ill effects of her disease, there was more bitterness to her, but when we worked together she was ideal.”
Asner says he’s been doing “A Man and His Prostate” on stages around the country for about a year now and the show has been getting good reviews. The former president of the Screen Actors Guild is undaunted by the prospect of having to hold down the show all by himself for roughly 90 minutes.
After all, he did it before with “FDR,” and this one is certainly easier to pull off than that was, says Asner.
“We did “FDR” for four years, but this one has so many props and additives it flies by,” he says. It’s not standup comedy, but the interplay with the audience still makes all the difference. “You bounce off what you can with them and every laugh is different and you sense how to extend it or shorten it.”
Asner says audiences will probably find him in much better shape than his friend Weinberger was when a hostile prostate interrupted his vacation in Florence. They meet him wearing a Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts when things suddenly go awry, and Asner takes them on an unexpectedly amusing journey through the nether regions of the male anatomy that are usually omitted from polite conversation.
A resident of Tarzana, California – outside Los Angeles – Asner lives with his daughter, Liza, who handles the promotional end of the actor’s business affairs.
Good luck to her keeping up with him. Asner has a dozen film projects scheduled to be in some phase of production through 2018. Also, the publishing house Simon and Schuster is getting ready to release “The Grouchy Historian,” a book he cowrote with Weinberger. And he’s begun working on his life story.
“We’ve been talking quite a bit and I find myself with a lot of words,” says Asner. “Sam Joseph, a playwright friend of mine, is going to write it with me.”
Asner figures he’s going to die before he retires from acting.
It’s what keeps him going, he says.
“A long time ago I found out I was only good for acting,” he says. “If I can’t act, then start digging.”
He can laugh about it, but there’s at least one malady that looks like a dim prospect for an early curtain call, and it’s a sick prostate.
“I’m delighted to say I’m not plagued by it. Yet,” says Asner. “Knock on wood.”
Asner performs “A Man and His Prostate” at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 19, at the Stadium Theatre, 28 Monument Square. Tickets are $36, $46 and $56 per person. For information contact the box office, 762-4545.