THE NEW YORK TIMES
May 26, 2000
On Stage and Off: A Star Rebuked by Equity
By JESSE MCKINLEY
< snip >
Kevin Spacey Steps Up
As far as pinch hitters go, there are not many people you'd rather have in your dugout than Kevin Spacey.
Just ask the current cast and crew of "Cobb," the 1989 drama by Lee Blessing about the irascible baseball legend Ty Cobb who starred for the Detroit Tigers in the early years of the century. The show, which received good reviews but has had only decent audiences, was to have closed its run at Theater 3 on West 43rd Street last Sunday.
But then Mr. Spacey entered the game.
Last Thursday night, Mr. Spacey, a recent Oscar winner for "American Beauty," saw "Cobb" during a sweep through New York between films. The draw, he said, was Matthew Mabe, who plays the title role and was an understudy last year in "The Iceman Cometh," in which Mr. Spacey starred.
"I figured I should go to support Matthew," said Mr. Spacey. "Plus, I never knew anything about Cobb."
What he found so impressed him that when he heard about the imminent closing, he pulled out the theatrical equivalent of a Louisville Slugger: his checkbook.
Neither Mr. Spacey nor officials at the Melting Pot Theater Company, the producers, are saying how much money Mr. Spacey gave, but it was enough
to extend the run at least two weeks. Mr. Spacey has been phoning "anybody who'll take my call" to get producers to see the show.
"It's the kind of theater I like to encourage," Mr. Spacey said. "I don't mind kicking up a little dust to get people to pay attention to something like this."<snip>
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Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/00/05/26/news/arts/onstage-offstage.html
Driving Mr. Spacey!: The positively untrue life and times of Kevin Spacey,
with a few real facts thrown in for fun.
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