The Six Degrees of Sondheim

[MartinG]

Spike Milligan played the Gryphon in the 1972 film of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland alongside...
Michael Crawford, Michael Hordern & Roy Kinnear, who all appeared in the Forum film.


Fidel Castro

[KathyB]

Fidel Castro was involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis with John F. Kennedy,
Who was one of the subjects of "Bobby and Jackie and Jack."


Don Ho

[MartinG]

Don Ho's big hit Tiny Bubbles was briefly heard sung by...
Carol White in the film The Fabulous Baker Boys, which starred...
Michelle Pfeiffer, who appeared in the 2017 Murder On The Orient Express with...
Johnny Depp, who won a Golden Globe for his Sweeney and had fun with his Wolf in ITW.



Beryl Bainbridge

[KathyB]

Beryl Bainbridge wrote the novel Sweet William, the movie of which starred Sam Waterston.

We can go at least two ways from here:
(A) Sam Waterston appeared in September with Elaine Stritch
(B) Sam Waterston starred in a 1973 television production of The Glass Menagerie with Katharine Hepburn.


Oh, what the heck--how about Kevin Bacon?

[MartinG]

In the spirit of the original game I tried to find a path using all six degrees, but it proved pretty difficult as I kept stumbling across connections in unexpected places, so I'll just offer:

Kevin's appearance in She's Having a Baby with...
Elizabeth McGovern, who appeared as...
Evelyn Nesbit in the 1981 film of Ragtime, the musical of which has featured...
Marin Mazzie, Maria Friedman and Rosalie Craig in the role of Mother.


Seamus Heaney

[KathyB]

My problem with this game is that I get distracted when I go off on tangents on Wikipedia, and it takes me forever to get back to where I was originally.

Seamus Heaney established the Field Day Theatre Company with, among other people, Stephen Rea,
Who was in Interview with the Vampire with Antonio Banderas,
Who starred in the 2003 revival of Nine with Chita Rivera,
Who was the original Anita in West Side Story



OK--one of those tangents that I found myself on:
Sylvia Plath

[scenicdesign71]

Ha!  I got onto a Plath tangent a few weeks ago, too.

Sylvia Plath was portrayed, in the 2003 biopic Sylvia, by Gwyneth Paltrow,
the daughter of Blythe Banner who, two years previously,
had played Phyllis in the Roundabout revival of Follies.


Mohandas Gandhi

[MartinG]

Gandhi's life inspired the opera Satyagraha by...
Philip Glass, who composed the score for the film of Bent, starring...
Clive Owen, who had a cameo role in the awful remake of The Pink Panther with...
Kristin Chenoweth, who (apart from an early appearance as June in Gypsy), played Cunegonde in the New York Phil revival of Candide, directed by...
Lonny Price, the protokringas.



William Randolph Hearst

[scenicdesign71]

The protokringas -- I love that!!
It sounds like some obscure mythological monster -- "release The Protokringas!"
Like Stranger Things's demogorgon, but much, much geekier.



Hearst's castle at San Simeon inspired
John Napier's design for
Norma Desmond's mansion in Sunset Boulevard (the
Andrew Lloyd Webber musical), based on
Billy Wilder's film of the same name,
which Wilder had discouraged SJS from musicalizing thirty years prior when they met by chance at a cocktail party.


(Or you could reroute this chain from Desmond through Gloria Swanson to the photo that inspired The Girls Upstairs's metamorphosis into Follies).
(Or get from Sir Andrew to SJS by way of Cameron Mackintosh instead of Billy Wilder).



Buzz Aldrin

[KathyB]

Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon during the presidency of Richard Nixon.
When Nixon resigned the presidency, Gerald R. Ford became president.
Two of Ford's would-be assassins are featured in Assassins.


Because she was in a crossword puzzle I worked on today:
Aimee Mann

[Leighton]

Aimee Mann scored parts of the soundtrack to the film Magnolia
Which featured Alfred Molina
Who was in Fiddler on Broadway with Randy Graff
Who has played Charlotte in A Little Night Music 

Triple H

[MartinG]

Paul Michael "Triple H" Levesque appeared in The Chaperone with voice-of-Lisa...
Yeardley Smith, who was in over 600 episodes of The Simpsons, including S18E14 "Yokel Chords" which featured...
Stephen J Sondheim as himself.



Robert Mapplethorpe

[KathyB]

Robert Mapplethorpe is an alum of Pratt Institute.
Among other Pratt alums is Harvey Fierstein.
Anne Bancroft appeared with Fierstein in the movie version of Torch Song Trilogy.
Patty Duke starred with Bancroft in both the stage and film versions of The Miracle Worker.
Patty Duke was also in the 1992 film version of Prelude to a Kiss, along with...
Annie Golden, who was the original Squeaky Fromme in Assassins.


Justin Trudeau

[scenicdesign71]

I've been thinking of Ms. Golden lately because her new Off-B'way campfest, penned by Joe Iconis, closed recently.  Judging by the reviews, I think I made the right choice in staying away.  But even executed poorly, there might have been a certain kick to Golden playing a 70s B-movie fantasy version of herself.

And speaking of Off-Broadway curiosities starring formidable women of a certain age:  just a few weeks from now,
Trudeau's mother
Margaret is slated to bring her one-woman show to the Minetta Lane.  It's being directed by
Kimberly Senior, best known for her work on
Ayad Akhtar's Disgraced several years ago.  Akhtar's most recent work on Broadway, Junk, starred
Stephen Pasquale, fresh from playing Booth in the Encores! staging of Assassins a few months prior.


Awkwafina

[MartinG]

Awkwafina appeared in Ocean's 8 with...
Helena Bonham Carter, who, believe it or not, received a Golden Globe Best Actress nomination for giving her Nellie in the Sweeney film.



Les Dawson