Jim enjoyed live theater and took advantage of opportunities to see a show when he was in New York and London. He had spent many years exploring ideas for a Broadway show featuring his own characters and was interested in how others stretched the possibilities of the stage. Jim attended shows with puppets, like American Hurrah off-Broadway around 1966, and shows with extravagant musical numbers. Nicholas Nickleby, based on the Dickens novel, was, perhaps, Jim’s most ambitious as an audience member – the show ran eight and a half hours over two evenings – quite a commitment from even the most ardent and experienced theater-goer.
Learn more about Jim’s efforts to create a Broadway Show.
Michael Frith’s sketch from The Muppet Christmas Carol, also from Dickens.
Not the audience for Nickolas Nickleby! Photo by John E. Barrett.
Jim’s program from the 1966 show America Hurrah. The “Motel” segment included giant puppet heads.
