"Tuesdays With Morrie" Staged in Malvern, PA

Mitch Albom's best-selling book, "Tuesdays With Morrie", will be presented in a stage adaption at the People's Light & Theatre Company, 39 Conestoga Road, in Malvern, PA, from February 7th through March 4th, 2007. The drama, promoted online by the Company here, chronicles the author's time spent with a beloved college professor dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (better known as "Lou Gehrig's disease").

An old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson. Everyone has somebody who made a difference, somebody who launched them on their way. Someone they haven’t thought of in years. What if you had a second chance to connect? For Mitch Albom, that person was his former professor Morrie Schwartz. But when Mitch reconnects with a dying Morrie, their "classes" teach Mitch how to laugh, cry and truly live.

The script was written by Mitch Albom, with Jeffrey Hatcher; and the production in Pennsylvania is directed by Stephen Novelli.

Mitchell David Albom is an award-winning American sportswriter, novelist, philosopher, newspaper columnist for the Detroit Free Press, syndicated radio host, and TV commentator. Before becoming a journalist, Albom was briefly an amateur boxer, nightclub singer, and pianist. He graduated from Akiba Hebrew Academy, Brandeis University, and Columbia University. With that range of life experiences, his views on life, sickness, and death are fresh, although labeled by some as overly sentimental.

According to his biography posted on his website, he is the author of nine books, including his newest, “For One More Day”, published September 26, 2006. That book tells the story of a son who gets to spend "one more day" with his mother, who died eight years earlier.

His first novel, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven", (9/03) is the most successful U.S. hardback first novel ever and has to date sold over 8 million copies worldwide.

"Tuesdays With Morrie," (1997) his chronicle of time spent with a beloved but dying college professor, spent four years on the NY Times bestsellers list and is now the most successful memoir ever published. Both books were eventually turned into celebrated TV films.

The critically acclaimed “Five People You Meet in Heaven” aired on ABC in winter, 2004. Oprah Winfrey produced the film version of "Tuesdays With Morrie" in December 1999, starring Jack Lemmon and Hank Azaria. The film garnered four Emmy awards, including best TV film, director, actor and supporting actor.

The Company's production was favorably reviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer on February 13, 2007, in "'Morrie,' from the page to the stage", by Wendy Rosenfield.

By now, just about anyone who can read a book cover is familiar with the Mitch Albom mortality juggernaut.

Albom, a sportswriter and columnist for the Detroit Free Press, penned Tuesdays With Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven and For One More Day, all works that dig deep into the big questions and try to unearth some practical answers.

But it was Tuesdays With Morrie, Albom's memoir of his former college professor's battle with Lou Gehrig's disease, and the wisdom he imparted before his death, that really tapped into the national chicken-soup-for-the-human-condition zeitgeist.

In this People's Light & Theatre production, Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation stays true to its roots. The script is lively, characters accessible, themes as unambiguous as the dividing line between life and death.

If you cannot see this "Tuesdays With Morrie" production, you could read the book (1997), or perhaps view the movie (1999), instead.

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Update: 03/05/07:

Author Mitch Albom will visit Central Pennsylvania on Saturday evening, April 14, 2007.

See: PA EE&F Law Blog posting on March 5, 2007, Author Albom to Speak at Hospice Event April 14th.