Crivello plays McGuire again in new Milwaukee show
After playing Valentin in “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and the masked one in “Phantom of the Opera,” actor Anthony Crivello is again taking on a character who really dominates the stage.
That would be the late Al McGuire, who coached the Marquette University men’s basketball team to a national championship in 1977, scattering colorful quotes in his wake.
In preparing to portray “McGuire” in a new production directed by Edward Morgan that begins July 14 at Next Act Theatre, Broadway veteran Crivello has another advantage: He spent a year as a Marquette University cheerleader with a close-up view of the coach’s histrionics and machinations.
Crivello plans to reflect McGuire as a showman, orchestrator and ringleader, the McGuire who made Marquette a hot ticket for the dazzling uniforms his athletes wore as well as the basketball they played while wearing them.
Broadcaster Dick Enberg wrote this one-actor play after speaking at the funeral of McGuire, his former TV partner, in 2001. Cotter Smith premiered the role in 2005 at Marquette University’s Helfaer Theatre.
Enberg’s celebratory original script hints at McGuire’s dark side, the actor said. When Crivello performed “McGuire” in 2017 at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Crivello said he and director Brent Hazelton worked with Enberg to bring more of McGuire’s shadow into this production of the play.
“We will still paint a picture that is absolutely reverent, that is still an endearing piece, but will show … that he’s a human being. What person is perfect?” Crivello said.