Virtuosity and imagination combine in one utterly unique event, as Tony and Emmy Award winner John Lithgow creates a singularly intimate evening. With equal measures of humor and heart, he evokes memories of family, explores and expands the limits of the actor’s craft, and masterfully conjures a cast of indelible characters from classic short stories by Ring Lardner and PG Wodehouse. Lithgow elevates the magic of storytelling to masterful new heights, with a performance The New York Times calls “a tour de force.”

Just when you thought you couldn’t adore John Lithgow any more after his Emmy-winning performance as Winston Churchill in The Crown, well, now you can. Lithgow is currently playing to enraptured houses on Broadway in his disarmingly funny one-man show John Lithgow: Stories By Heart. It’s a cozy night of storytelling, produced by Roundabout Theatre Company at American Airlines Theatre, and on the night I attended, the entire audience was enthralled. By the way, if you are looking for a smarmy little tell-all full of gossip and snipe, move along, there’s no time for gawking here. No, indeed, Mr. Lithgow is performing two different selections from Somerset Maugham’s collection of stories entitled “Tellers of Tales.” These tasteful stories were once read to him by his mother and father at bedtime when he was a child. At play’s opening, Lithgow sets the stage, informing us that both his mother and father loved stories and in particular, stories read at bedtime. Lithgow’s father, Arthur Lithgow, was a champion of the arts, creating The Great Lakes Theatre Festival, still in operation today. And here is where John Lithgow’s charm really sparkles. He has the uncanny ability to remain the c …Read more