Crazy Crap Item #48: The part where I interact with Broadway history -- kind of

As I mentioned before, I'm putting together nominee profiles for the newly launched website for the Kevin Kline Awards. My friend Nicole, through her soon-to-be-launched venture, 3rdRowCenter, is providing content for the Kevin Kline site, and I'm playing girl reporter.

Anyhoo, so far I've completed five of my 10 profiles, but there's one name I've been putting off calling. Granted, that first step in cold-calling strangers is always hard, but when your stranger is an icon and a Drama Desk Award winner, multiply that by, oh, 100.

So who am I putting off? His name is Ken Page. Unless you're a Broadway geek, you've probably not heard of him. He made a huge hit in the original Broadway production of Ain't Misbehavin', and originated the role of Old Deuteronomy on Broadway in Cats. Let me say that again. I'm going to interview Old Deuteronomy. That's just too ... well ... crazy.

For the Broadway-impaired, he was also the voice of Ooogie Boogie in Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Okay, so I interview everyone I possibly can before I get to him, just to ensure that I have my confidence up. And I dial. And thankfully, I get an answering machine. I hate the cold call, and much prefer starting with an email inquiry to schedule a time. When no email is available, as in this case, leaving a message is the next best thing.

So, anyhoo, I start in on my message, and a few seconds ... HE PICKS UP. And I'm talking to a rather cheerful and chatty Oogie Boogie man, who tells me that he just woke up! At 11:45! That he was so happy that he'd actually awakened earlier at 8am, and thought he'd just lay in bed a bit, and he fell back to sleep! So could I call back in 30 minutes? I told him I'd be happy to call either then, or any other time that would be convenient to him. A half-hour is all he needs, he assures me, with an ingratiating Deuteronomy purr, all he needed was to get a cup of coffee.

I promise to call him back in a half hour, and sit back and giggle myself silly about waking up Old Deuteronomy.