• 3/2/2005
  • R. Scott Reedy
  • Pembroke Mariner on Townline.com

Red Sox Nation can relax. Yogi Berra may be a New York Yankees legend, but “Nobody Don’t Like Yogi” – the play about his life opening next week at Boston’s Wilbur Theatre after a successful off-Broadway run – covers more than just the time Berra spent in the dreaded pinstripes.

“The piece deals with Berra’s relationship with George Steinbrenner, of course, but it is also about Yogi’s relationship with his family and the deep love he feels for his wife, his children and his grandchildren,” explained Ben Gazzara, who portrays the basesball legend, recently from his Manhattan home. “It’s a personal portrait and it’s funny, of course, but also very touching. It doesn’t rely on ‘Yogisms’ like ‘You can observe a lot by watching,’ or ‘Ninety percent of the game is half mental,’ to fill the evening, although there are plenty of them in the script. It is really a play about the human condition”

Written by Thomas Lysaght and directed by Paul Linke, “Nobody Doesn’t Like Yogi” celebrates its namesake’s humor, loyalty and wisdom as the most quotable athlete of our time reflects on his life and extraordinary career. Gazzara, who originated the role of Brick in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” on Broadway 50 years ago this month and has been a high-profile working actor ever since, plays Berra in 1999 on the occasion of the Hall of Famer’s return to Yankee stadium after a 14-year self-imposed exile. Team owner George Steinbrenner had famously fired Berra as manager in 1985, opening wounds that never fully healed.

Gazzara, 74, also had his own healing to do. A 1999 battle with mouth cancer had left the actor uncertain about a return to the stage. “I thought I would never do a one-man show again,” says the Emmy Award-winning Gazzara, whose autobiography “In the Moment: My Life as an Actor” was published last fall. “The radiation treatments I had for the cancer really cooked my saliva glands. The lack of saliva makes me dry up. I can’t drink water – it just remains in my mouth, because I can’t swallow fast enough. It has gotten better over time, but my voice is not the same. Interestingly, I think the sound I have now is better for Yogi than my old voice.”

Gazzara may sound more like Berra these days, but audiences almost didn’t get to hear him give voice to the onetime Yankees catcher. The actor was in Sweden, filming “Dogville” with Nicole Kidman, when his wife, Elke, called from New York to discuss a certain piece of mail. ‘She said someone sent this script and it’s so funny and touching that you have to do this. I told her I didn’t want to do the play,” Gazzara recalls.” ‘You’ll do this play or I’ll divorce you. Don’t be afraid, just get a vocal coach,’ she told me. My wife is always right and she was right this time, too.”

Since first performing the show in 2003, Gazzara has seen first-hand that its appeal goes well beyond sports fans. “People who know nothing at all about baseball respond to this play. The piece makes people laugh, thanks to Yogi’s unique relationship with the English language, but when I see them crying it means the most.”