http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/19/theater/eddie-george-leaps-to-chicago-from-the-nfl.html
Eddie George Leaps to ‘Chicago’ From the N.F.L.
By RICHARD SANDOMIRJAN. 18, 2016
Photo
Eddie George, center, during a curtain call after a performance of “Chicago” at the Ambassador Theater.
...
“You hear jocks are supposed to stay in their sandbox,’’ said Lorenzo Neal, a former Titans teammate. “But he’s saying football’s not going to define him. And once he started doing Shakespeare, you saw his passion and his commitment.”
“Chicago” came through a bit of serendipity. After attending a 2014 performance of the touring version of the show at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville, Mr. George told its chief executive, Kathleen O’Brien, that he could play Flynn.
“She asked, ‘Can you sing?’ and I said, ‘Of course,’” Mr. George explained. “And she said she’d make a few calls.”
She subsequently told him that she had reached out to the Weisslers, who asked him to audition in New York at the Ambassador.
“I got up onstage, wore my best suit and a top hat,” he said. “I was nervous and tight and I said, ‘No way am I getting this gig but I’m going all out and have some fun.’ I was auditioning on a Broadway stage!”
About nine months later he got the call: The Weisslers wanted him.
“He knocked us out,” Mr. Weissler said. “He’s a very truthful actor, he has tremendous charisma and an ebullient personality. And he moves like an angel.”
At the end of his first performance, audience members chanted “Ed-die! Ed-die!,” which he first heard at college games. His co-stars Bianca Marroquin and Amra-Faye Wright handed him roses.
Afterward, his friend Jerome Bettis, the Hall of Fame running back, who had watched the musical from the seventh row, praised the effort. “I knew he had a passion for theater but I didn’t know how far he was willing to go for it,’’ Mr. Bettis said. “To commit himself to a true art form to this point — I’ve got to commend him.”
Looking slightly overwhelmed, Mr. George put it more simply: “I feel like I had sex,” he said from the stage. “I’m tired.”
Eddie George Leaps to ‘Chicago’ From the N.F.L.
By RICHARD SANDOMIRJAN. 18, 2016
Photo
Eddie George, center, during a curtain call after a performance of “Chicago” at the Ambassador Theater.
...
“You hear jocks are supposed to stay in their sandbox,’’ said Lorenzo Neal, a former Titans teammate. “But he’s saying football’s not going to define him. And once he started doing Shakespeare, you saw his passion and his commitment.”
“Chicago” came through a bit of serendipity. After attending a 2014 performance of the touring version of the show at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville, Mr. George told its chief executive, Kathleen O’Brien, that he could play Flynn.
“She asked, ‘Can you sing?’ and I said, ‘Of course,’” Mr. George explained. “And she said she’d make a few calls.”
She subsequently told him that she had reached out to the Weisslers, who asked him to audition in New York at the Ambassador.
“I got up onstage, wore my best suit and a top hat,” he said. “I was nervous and tight and I said, ‘No way am I getting this gig but I’m going all out and have some fun.’ I was auditioning on a Broadway stage!”
About nine months later he got the call: The Weisslers wanted him.
“He knocked us out,” Mr. Weissler said. “He’s a very truthful actor, he has tremendous charisma and an ebullient personality. And he moves like an angel.”
At the end of his first performance, audience members chanted “Ed-die! Ed-die!,” which he first heard at college games. His co-stars Bianca Marroquin and Amra-Faye Wright handed him roses.
Afterward, his friend Jerome Bettis, the Hall of Fame running back, who had watched the musical from the seventh row, praised the effort. “I knew he had a passion for theater but I didn’t know how far he was willing to go for it,’’ Mr. Bettis said. “To commit himself to a true art form to this point — I’ve got to commend him.”
Looking slightly overwhelmed, Mr. George put it more simply: “I feel like I had sex,” he said from the stage. “I’m tired.”
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