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It's Easy Being Green: Hal Linden has played `old' before, so taking over for Eli Wallach as the cranky octogenarian in `Visiting Mr. Green' is a natural.
CURT SCHLEIER
Special To The Jewish Week
He was just a high school senior driving back to the Bronx from a gig with his band in Lakewood, N.J., a mere youth, but wise beyond his years. As he recalls now, much, much later, "I knew that `swing and sway with Harold Lipshitz' just didn't party."
As luck would have it, he passed through the lovely community of Linden and saw a gas storage tank with the town's name emblazoned on it, the letters "big enough for a star." And that is the story of how Harold Lipshitz became Hal Linden, star of stage, screen and Barney Miller.
Linden, the actor, is back in his home town at least through the end of September for a run as the cranky, cantankerous Mr. Green in "Visiting Mr. Green" at the Union Square Theater. Taking over for Eli Wallach, he plays the title character, who is 86, almost two decades older than Linden himself. On the surface, that appears a difficult transition for an actor, but on the contrary, when Linden was approached about the role, the age difference was the least of his concerns.
For one thing, this is not the first time he's played older. "I seem to do that a lot -- in ["I'm Not] Rappaport" and in "The Rothchilds." In fact, Meyer Rothchild got older as the play progressed. In earlier versions of the play, he died a lot younger. But they had to keep him alive because they needed him in the second act."
On stage, Linden's transformation is so natural -- he becomes an 86-year-old -- the temptation is not to marvel at the make up (which is largely invisible), but to feel sorry for how poorly Linden has aged. When he first appears, you can almost hear the audience's collective gasp -- "Boy did he let himself go."
Backstage after a performance -- it is about 20 minutes before he...