• 10/7/2003
  • New York
  • Robert Dominguez
  • New York Daily News


Playing Berra Off-B’way: Ben Gazzara Fifty years after dazzling Broadway audiences with a series of intense leading roles – he played Brick in the original production of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” in 1955 – Ben Gazzara is coming back to the stage this month.

It’s like dèjá vu all over again in more ways than one – he’s playing New York Yankees great Yogi Berra in a one-man show, “Nobody Don’t Like Yogi.”

Gazzara, four years removed from a bout with oral cancer, won his first Emmy last month for a supporting role in the HBO film “Hysterical Blindness.” After years of toiling in obscure foreign films and TV movies, the award capped a period of steady work as a character actor in which he was “rediscovered” by independent-film directors – including David Mamet, Vincent Gallo, Todd Solondz, Spike Lee and the Coen brothers – who were familiar with Gazzara’s collaborations with indie icon John Cassavetes in the 1970s.

“Yogi” is set on opening day at Yankee Stadium in 1999, when Berra ended his self-imposed exile following his dismissal as manager by team owner George Steinbrenner. “It’s a personal portrait of Berra that’s funny, but it’s also very touching,” says Gazzara. “It doesn’t depend on ‘Yogi-isms’ like ‘It ain’t over ’til it’s over’ or that kind of nonsense to fill an evening.”

Berra does not plan to see the show, a spokesman tells The News. Gazzara, who was a rabid Yankee fan while growing up on the lower East Side, says he understands Berra’s decision. “It shows the honorable quality of the man,” says Gazzara. “I think having made peace with Steinbrenner, he just doesn’t want to revisit it, and that speaks to what kind of a class act he is.”

“Yogi,” which had brief runs early this year in Sag Harbor and Syracuse, begins performances on Oct. 21 at OffBroadway’s Lamb’s Theatre.

While Gazzara says portraying such a beloved figure is a challenge, the real hurdle will be just getting through the hour-and-a-half performance every night. Radiation treatments for his cancer “cooked my saliva glands,” he says. “The lack of saliva makes me dry up. And I can’t drink water – it remains in my mouth because I can’t swallow fast enough. That’s another part of the damage that was done.” But the play’s trial runs proved to Gazzara that he was up to the task: “The theater is where I came in, and I feel very comfortable doing this.”