Broadway veteran Michael McGrath, a Bloomfield resident and Tony award winner, died suddenly at his Laurel Avenue home Thursday, Sept. 14. No cause was given.
He was 65 and is survived by his wife, Toni Di Buono, and daughter, Katie Claire McGrath.
Born in Worcester, Mass., Sept. 25, 1957, McGrath, pronounced McGraw, made his Broadway debut in 1992 in “My Favorite Year.”
He subsequently appeared on Broadway in “Monty Python’s Spamalot” (2005), “Is He Dead?” (2007), “Memphis” (2009), “Born Yesterday” (2011) and, in 2012, “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” with Matthew Broderick and Kelli O’Hara, for which he won his Tony as a featured actor.
Also on Broadway, he appeared in “She Loves Me” (2016) and “Tootsie” (2019).
He was seen in regional theater, too. Closer to home, he played Ralph Kramden in the Paper Mill Playhouse’s 2017 production of “The Honeymooners.”
Always a big fan of the TV show and Jackie Gleason, who played the TV Kramden, McGrath said that as an actor it was difficult for him to deal with either Kramden or Gleason.
“Both are icons and it would have been very easy to imitate either one of them,” he told The Independent Press at the time. “I wanted to develop Ralph Kramden fully, but I understood that he had to be portrayed in the way people expected Ralph to behave. But to fashion the predictable, I still had to find out what made Ralph tick.”
Mark Hoebee, the producing artistic director of the Paper Mill Playhouse, said McGrath was one of the most talented performers with whom he worked.
“He perfectly captured the humor and boisterous, blowhard personality of Kramden, but absolutely made it his own,” Hoebee said. “But offstage, he was the nicest, kindest guy you’d ever want to meet and his work ethic was unquestionable.”
One time, McGrath hurt his foot during a last studio rehearsal, Hoebee said, but refused to step out of the show.
“He worked through our tech and preview period wearing a soft cast boot while still dancing and running around when needed,” Hoebee said. “I doubt any audience member even noticed that he was injured. You don’t see that type of dedication very often.”
Gary Lynch, an actor and co-executor director of the New Jersey School of Dramatic Arts, in Montclair, said he and McGrath were like brothers.
“We were best friends for 42 years and shared everything,” Lynch said. “We met in summer stock and it never stopped. His death has been devastating to me. There are so many memories, I don’t know where to begin. We spoke every day.”
People may not realize how big a personality McGrath was, he said, but the Broadway community was “gutted” by news of his death.
“Whatever happened to him, in a sudden way, I don’t know exactly what the cause was, but it was very quick. He wasn’t sick at all. We were on vacation 10 days ago and he was preparing to do a show with Matthew Broderick and had things to look forward to.”
Lynch said McGrath was prepping his daughter for an audition the night before he died.
“The next day, he was gone,” he said. “He had a very bright flame. The heat is gone, but the flame goes on. That’s how I have to look at it. I hope his legacy will endure.”
Former Bloomfield resident Stephen Perrotta said he and McGrath were friends for 34 years.
In the summer of ’89, Perrotta said he was cast in several musicals at Theatre-by-the-Sea, in Matunuck, R.I., where McGrath and Lynch had been regulars for more than 10 years.
“When the curtain came down each evening, many in the audience would walk over to the restaurant next to the theater where cast members would sing in an informal and often raucous cabaret,” Perrotta said. “A big part of my job was being the emcee, a position long-held by Gary Lynch.”
Perrotta said one night, as an actor was singing on the cabaret stage, he and McGrath were watching from the wing. McGrath turned to him and said, “You see that guy in the front row in the Hawaiian shirt? There’s five minutes.”
Perrotta said when the singer finished, he walked onstage and said something about the man’s shirt and the audience ate it up.
“One of the loudest laughs came from Michael,” Perrotta recalled. “He loved to make people
laugh, but when others made him laugh, he loved it just as much.”
Another actor and former Bloomfield resident, Cleve Asbury, now residing in Las Vegas, said he and McGrath worked together only a few weeks, but as fathers of daughters who were good friends, their relationship was unique.
“There wasn’t anyone else in our circle that had this relationship,” Asbury said. “He and I were always together because of our daughters. His death hits a little too close to home.”
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