[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 61 (Wednesday, April 20, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E548-E550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                IN HONOR AND MEMORY OF DAVID O. FRAZIER

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JARED POLIS

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 20, 2016

  Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the memory of legendary actor 
David O. Frazier whose extraordinary career in the theatre spanned a 
half century rousing and enchanting audiences around the world with an 
artistic repertoire which one critic described as bringing ``fire from 
the sky.''
  David O. Frazier appeared in more than 150 theatrical productions, 
many at the Cleveland Playhouse through four decades. He co-wrote 30 
original musicals with his life partner and husband, Joseph Garry. One 
revue, ``Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,'' received 
such rave notice that though booked for only a few weeks audience 
response kept it at Cleveland's State Theatre for two and a half years. 
Frazier's stellar performances in Jacques Brel helped spark a renewal 
of a performing arts complex at Playhouse Square which stands today as 
one of the largest in America.
  Frazier's memorable role as playwright Brendan Behan in 
``Conversations With an Irish Rascal,'' also directed by Joseph Garry, 
went from 90 performances at Playhouse Square to cheers at the 
Edinburgh Festival, to a rollicking reception off-Broadway and then to 
audiences worldwide. David Frazier infused his magic into every 
performance and added to his fame as a performer of great magnitude 
which ``grabbed the audience by the throat.''
  The native of Kankekee, Illinois journeyed to the Cleveland area as a 
young man where he met the love of his life, Joseph Garry, who was 
directing ``Carnival.'' Joe took on a new capacity, directing David to 
audition at the Cleveland Play House which led to him starring in 50 
theatrical productions and to nearly 50 years as a couple with Joe, in 
an eternal partnership of love which marked Joe and David as 
courageous, celebrated and beloved with great intensity by all who know 
them.
  Mr. Speaker, my colleagues in the House of Representatives, please 
join me in honor and recognition of the life and the memory of actor 
David O. Frazier and to celebrate a man, a

[[Page E549]]

couple and a career which has enriched the lives of people everywhere. 
I submit the following article.

 Legendary `Jacques Brel' Actor David O. Frazier Remembered as a Titan 
                 of the Cleveland Stage (Appreciation)

                   (Andrea Simakis, The Plain Dealer)

       Cleveland, Ohio.--There is a fine musical to be written 
     about the life and times of David O. Frazier, who died Sunday 
     at age 76.
       It would be filled with music both sad and joyous, and 
     feature lavish costumes and exotic locales to reflect his 
     love of travel, a passion he indulged with Joseph Garry Jr., 
     his collaborator in art and life for 49 years.
       The two spanned the globe like characters plucked from a 
     Jules Verne novel, Cleveland's version of Phileas Fogg and 
     his resourceful French valet, Passepartout.
       The tuner would be a resounding hit, one audiences would 
     want to return to again and again, a show as warm, witty and 
     wise as Frazier himself, as anyone lucky enough to spend even 
     minutes in his orbit can attest.
       During his tenure as one of Cleveland's most notable 
     artists, Frazier appeared in more than 150 productions--many 
     at the Cleveland Play House, where he acted for nearly four 
     decades--and co-wrote 30 original musicals with Garry. 
     Despite that resume, he is best known for his part in 
     ``Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,'' the 
     revue directed by Garry and performed in the lobby of the 
     dilapidated State Theatre in the pre-renovation 1970s.
       A showcase for the songs of Belgian composer and enigmatic 
     showman Jacques Brel, the cabaret opened in April of 1973.
       Though booked for a few weeks, it proved so popular it ran 
     for an astonishing two-and-a half-years, launching what 
     critics called ``the Brel era,'' the beginning of a 
     renaissance that not only saved Playhouse Square and its 
     grand, crumbling houses from the wrecking ball but led to its 
     becoming the second-largest performing-arts complex in 
     America.
       Gina Vernaci, architect of the KeyBank Broadway Series at 
     Playhouse Square, offered her sympathies by celebrating that 
     remarkable legacy.
       ``David and Joe Garry have been beloved fixtures at 
     Playhouse Square since the days of `Jacques Brel,' '' Vernaci 
     wrote.
       ``With his cast mates Cliff Bemis, Terry Piteo and Prov 
     Hollander, and under the direction of Joe and musical 
     director David Gooding, David gave his all in 522 
     performances of the show that was the catalyst for the saving 
     of our historic theaters. His passing leaves a hole in our 
     hearts that will not be filled. Our condolences go out to Joe 
     and to David's family, friends and all those who knew him.''
       And so many did.
       As news of his death spread, emails began arriving to 
     Garry's inbox--from Nepal, Rio, Paris and London. There was 
     even a note from the Princess of Kuwait, the result of 
     Frazier and Garry's performing on cruise ships, a run that 
     lasted 10 years, from 2000 to 2010.
       Their residencies aboard the Queen Mary and other storied 
     vessels took them from Tierra del Fuego to the North Pole, 
     Frazier mostly doing cabaret, Garry onstage also as narrator 
     and storyteller. Their shows weren't the usual ``Love Boat'' 
     cliche.
       ``For example,'' remembered Garry, ``we would perform a 
     musical piece on Gauguin and then take the audience to his 
     gravesite [next to Brel] in the South Pacific.''
       Though they stayed closer to home as Frazier's health 
     declined, they were never far from the Cleveland theater 
     scene they helped create, attending performances in and 
     around Playhouse Square, Frazier balancing on a cane and then 
     later, ferried along by Garry in a wheelchair.
       ``During David's long illness, Joe was the perfect 
     caretaker,'' said longtime Cleveland critic Roy Berko, 
     recalling how Garry carefully transferred Frazier to his seat 
     in the orchestra.
       Ever the performer, Frazier ``worked at an illusion of 
     wellness,'' said Garry. ``Even in the wheelchair.''
       Without Frazier, there might well have been no ``Brel era'' 
     and, consequently, no gala unveiling of the world's largest 
     outdoor chandelier, no home for touring Broadway, no downtown 
     arts mecca. There would only be more parking lots.
       ``As a matter of fact I didn't like `Jacques Brel' at all 
     when I first saw it in London,'' Garry explained to The Plain 
     Dealer's theater critic Peter Bellamy in 1977, ``and only 
     after hearing David play the recording for five years did I 
     consent to direct the musical. Then I grew to love it.''
       First staged by Garry for the Berea Summer Theatre before 
     taking up residence at the State, ``Jacques Brel's'' devotees 
     flocked to it with the zeal of ``Rocky Horror'' groupies. 
     Bill Rudman, founder and artistic director of the Musical 
     Theater Project, was among them.
       ``My girlfriend and I saw it six times--it was Our Show!'' 
     Rudman remembered in an email. ``And the same could be said 
     for hundreds of other couples in town.
       ``David was just plain riveting. Whatever he was doing on 
     stage--whatever he was saying--he was so present that you 
     felt you were right there with him.''
       ``Just ask Clevelanders who were here when `Brel' ran,'' 
     wrote John David Sidley in The Plain Dealer's magazine on the 
     occasion of a 10th anniversary revival in 1985. ``And if you 
     can find some who never attended, you will discover them 
     almost apologetic--as if they were bring forced to admit they 
     voted for Nixon.''
       In his rave, Bellamy explained the oddball allure of 
     ``Jacques Brel.''
       ``The production has no plot, consisting of a little 
     dialogue and many songs. They treat of angels and devils, of 
     dreams and hope, of despair and the hell of war. They also 
     deal with youth, old age, drunks, prostitutes, dogs, 
     rainbows, cotton candy, carousels and calliopes.
       ``Brel is a poet and philosopher as well as a composer. He 
     is concerned not only with man's atrocities, but his 
     nobility. He comments, but does not preach. He mentions 
     Vietnam and Hiroshima, but is not bitter. He has compassion 
     for the human condition.
       ``. . . Frazier, remembered for his many fine roles at the 
     [Cleveland] Play House, has a voice of great power and 
     provides many moments of hilarity with his clowning and 
     pantomime.''
       Fans so identified Frazier with the project they often 
     thought he was the Belgian songwriter himself, remembered 
     friend Frank Dutton in a Facebook tribute to Frazier. Dutton 
     was a self-described ``mangy teenager'' in the 1970s, working 
     coat check during the initial run of ``Brel.''
       ``For some reason some people thought David was Brel!'' 
     Dutton wrote. ``They would usually say things like `I just 
     love that Jacks Brel (sic), you tell Mr. Brel how much we 
     enjoyed his show.' We always wondered why no one thought 
     Cliff was Brel. In actuality, neither of them looked like 
     Brel, but maybe David is what people thought Brel would look 
     like.''
       Frazier followed that success with his turn as playwright 
     and personality Brendan Behan in ``Conversations With an 
     Irish Rascal'' in 1975, a musical biography filled Irish 
     songs and ballads that Frazier wrote with the late publicist 
     Kathleen Kennedy.
       Bellamy dubbed Frazier, who learned to play the harmonica 
     for the role, ``magnificent.'' After clocking a healthy 90 
     performances at Playhouse Square, ``Rascal,'' also directed 
     by Garry, went on to a celebrated stand at the Edinburgh 
     Festival and an off-Broadway premiere at the Top of the Gate 
     Theater, later known as the Village Gate, a famous Greenwich 
     Village spot that once hosted jazz greats John Coltrane and 
     Dizzy Gillespie, rockers Patti Smith and Jimi Hendrix, and 
     Broadway darling Tommy Tune.
       Frazier tore his pants the night of the opening, sending 
     Garry running to find a costumer at a show that was playing 
     downstairs. No luck, quipped Garry, as ``Let My People Come'' 
     was an explicit musical about sex that featured a nude cast.
       Though The New York Times' Clive Barnes dismissed 
     ``Rascal,'' it won fans on tour.
       ``We performed `Rascal' all over the world,'' Garry wrote 
     in a guest column for The Plain Dealer in 1976, ``everywhere 
     from the National Theatre of Scotland to a brothel in the 
     Caribbean. We have performed it before 50 people and 1000 
     people and its ability to leave an imprint on your soul never 
     dies. There is that kind of nakedness to it.''
       Certainly, that had something to do with the man himself. 
     Despite his celebrity, Frazier threw himself into parts with 
     the eagerness of a novice, no matter the size of the stage.
       As the star in a production of ``The King and I'' for Berea 
     Summer Theatre in 1977, Frazier shaved his head, pierced his 
     ear (``at a Miss Bojangles' establishment,'' Frazier 
     reported), grew a ``Fu Manchu mustache'' and lost 40 pounds. 
     (``I did not wish the show to be known as `Anna and the Fat 
     of Siam.' '')
       He also nearly severed a middle toe colliding with a metal 
     coat rack racing to the dressing room for a quick change on 
     the second night of the show. He wrapped the injured digit in 
     masking tape and made it through the polka in ``Shall We 
     Dance.''
       Inspired by pain, his death scene that night ``was the best 
     . . . of my career.'' He was admitted to the hospital as 
     ``King of Siam.''
       The only member of Actors' Equity, the professional actors' 
     union, in the production. Frazier, in order to defray costs, 
     helped sew his own costumes and styled the hair of his 12 
     stage wives.
       In an especially delicious anecdote, the Kankakee, 
     Illinois, native dropped out of hairdressing school to join 
     the resident company of the Cleveland Play House in 1966.
       (He also picked cotton in Texas; worked as an Air Force 
     supply clerk in Missouri; sold stationery in Kansas City, 
     Missouri, where he once moonlighted as a female impersonator; 
     and hawked men's sportswear at Higbee's in Cleveland, among 
     other pursuits.)
       The versatile song-and-dance man who could also rivet in 
     straight plays became an elite member of the Tony Award-
     winning theater's Hall of Fame in July of 2001.
       Frazier ``sings with zest and acts with gusto,'' Bellamy 
     wrote in his review of the ``King and I,'' another Garry 
     production, and those who knew and loved him best say he 
     approached his days the same way.
       ``David Frazier had a raucous, ebullient love of life, on 
     stage and off,'' said Cleveland Scene theater critic and 
     performer Christine Howey.
       ``His performances in `Jacques Brel' as well as many other 
     productions were always fiery, intense and memorable. But 
     more than that, he was a loving and compassionate friend. I 
     can still hear his booming laughter that punctuated most 
     conversations, and I trust I always will.''
       But no one knew him better than Garry. In truth, there is 
     no way to celebrate one without speaking of the other.

[[Page E550]]

       They met at Berea Summer Theatre, where Garry was helming 
     ``Carnival.'' With a keen eye for talent, Garry advised him. 
     ``to give up all this other nonsense,'' including those 
     barbershop dreams, and audition for K. Elmo Lowe, then 
     artistic director of the Play House.
       Frazier did, appearing in some 50 productions, everything 
     from Garry's rocked-out version of Aristophanes' ``The 
     Birds'' to the Sam Shepard modern masterpiece ``Buried 
     Child.'' He was known, said managing director Kevin Moore, 
     for his immense talent to create a wide variety of characters 
     and as ``a gregarious and loving gentleman.''
       In a short, poignant video shot during the 100th 
     anniversary celebrations at Cleveland Play House in October 
     2015, Frazier recollected his almost 40 years as an actor 
     there, holding the theater's Tony.
       ``I had great moments here,'' he said, surrounded by Garry 
     and artistic director Laura Kepley, ``too many to mention, so 
     I just think this is the best moment of all,'' he said, 
     spinning the little silver disc on the statuette.
       After the first rehearsal of ``Carnival,'' he asked to 
     store some of his things at Garry's place for a weekend 
     during a move. The stuff--and Frazier--stayed. ``His 
     timing,'' said Garry, ``was always perfect.''
       Their sultanate of a condo in Bratenahl is legendary, a 
     museum of artifacts from their voyages--elaborate masks and 
     statuary and rainbows of wall hangings--and framed photos of 
     the couple with friends they'd met: Patricia Neal, Rue 
     McClanahan, Elaine Stritch, Tony Walton and Cliff Robertson. 
     They threw Kitty Carlisle a birthday party when she turned 92 
     and swam laps with her in the pool. (``She won,'' Garry 
     said.)
       ``He lived his life in Capital Letters . . .'' Garry wrote 
     in an email addressed to ``Dear Family and Precious Friends'' 
     the morning of Frazier's death.
       ``. . . as Peter Bellamy, the PD Drama Critic said `He 
     brought fire from the sky.' I witnessed his life for 49 
     glorious years and I cherish every golden moment. David had 
     an intensity and energy that infused everything he ever did. 
     When he performed `Irish Rascal' at The National Theatre of 
     Scotland a critic said `his towering performance grabbed the 
     audience by the throat.' He grabbed my heart in the same 
     way.''
       Though the pair married two years ago on March 18, they 
     would have celebrated 50 years together on Aug. 1.
       ``David kept pushing to make plans but I knew we would 
     never reach the date,'' Garry wrote.
       ``We lived our lives as one . . . we were singular. The 
     first gift I gave David included a card which read `You are 
     the We of Me' and so he will remain.''
       ``Brel, above all, is concerned with the power of love,'' 
     wrote Bellamy of their most famous collaboration. ``One of 
     his lines is: `Without having anything else but the strength 
     of loving, you have in your hands the whole world.' ''
       That they did.
       ``Celebrating A Rascal,'' a memorial to David O. Frazier, 
     will be held in the State Theatre on Monday, April 25 at 5 
     p.m. The public is invited to attend.

                          ____________________