In Memoriam: Patty Noonan

Posted by Bruce Miller
I was heartsick to read this weekend in the Times-Dispatch of the death of Patty Noonan, pictured to the right and below in recent photos from her work in NYC. Twenty-six years ago, Patty played Isabel, one of the Major General’s daughters, in Barksdale’s 1982 production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance. She also returned to Hanover Tavern the following year to appear as a Rapturous Maiden in Patience, the next production in our ‘80s string of Gilbert and Sullivan hits.
The photo shown above is from that 1982 production of Pirates. The actresses, from left to right, are Bridget Gethins, Patty Noonan, Lauren Leinhaas-Cook, Dianne Graham, Betsy Paugh, Nancy McMahon and Ruth Travis.

Patty was a student at Marymount High School during those two Barksdale productions, which made her the youngest member of our cast. She was wildly enthusiastic about theatre—particularly musical theatre. When she died of non-smoking related lung cancer last month in New York City, Patty was only 41. She is survived by her husband and 15-month old daughter, Chris and Lily Malone, both of Verona NJ; her mother, Beth Noonan of Bloomfield NJ; her father, Jack Noonan of NYC; and her sister, Kathleen Farrow of Highland Mills NY.

Prior to her death, Patty worked as the Senior Vice President of Policy and Economic Development at Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit membership organization comprised of CEOs from NYC’s top corporate, investment and entrepreneurial firms. This was a very important and prestigious position. The Partnership works closely with government, labor and the nonprofit sector to enhance the economy and maintain New York City’s position as the global center of commerce, culture and innovation.

A loving tribute to Patty has been written by her friends and colleagues in NYC, and can be found at http://www.nylcv.org/newsletter/2007/dec/articles/remembering_patty_noonan.

In 1981, Patty was in the first class at SPARC, back in the days when SPARC worked mostly with high school students. In numerous ways and without charge, Theatre IV assisted SPARC administratively for its first three years. In 1984, Jeri Cutler, SPARC’s founder, felt she had enough students to make it worth her while to incorporate SPARC independently as its own nonprofit company.

The “stars” of those first few years were Ruth Heltzer, Patty Noonan and Emily Skinner (although I’m sure there were also others). Because of the close association at that time between SPARC and Theatre IV, we got to know all three of those vibrant and talented young women pretty well. Of the three, Emily was the showbiz wonder, as one might imagine, and Ruth and Patty made up the bright and energetic supporting cast. Always smiling, always thinking, always ready to go to work, Patty seemed almost omnipresent in those days. Her well trained, surprisingly mature singing voice won her the roles at Barksdale, and she embraced the experience.

I confess I’d not kept up with Patty over the years, but I wasn’t surprised to read in the paper of her tremendous professional success. Even as a teenager, her intelligence and drive—her clear determination to make a difference—always made her stand out as someone to watch. It’s heartbreaking that someone so genuine and accomplished left us so soon.

SPARC is accepting contributions to a scholarship fund they have established in Patty’s name. To help Patty's daughter understand the important contributions she made to NYC, her family is helping to establish a fellowship in Patty's name for young women pursuing a degree in public policy at her alma mater, the Wagner School at NYU. Contributions may be sent to NYU Wagner Noonan Fund, attn Lisa Taylor, Puck Building, 295 Lafayette St., New York 10012.

In keeping with our longstanding custom, we at Barksdale will be dedicating our upcoming production of The Little Dog Laughed to Patty’s memory.

With her many friends and family, we cherish that memory and mourn her passing.

--Bruce Miller

Hail and Farewell to Betty Ann Grove

Posted by Bruce Miller
On Friday at noon, a small group of us met for lunch to toast our lovely, charming and funny friend, Betty Ann Grove, who moves this week to the Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey. Going left to right, that's me, Robyn O'Neill, Lauren Leinhaas-Cook, Janine Serresseque, Eric Williams, Larry Cook and Betty Ann. Phil's the one taking the picture.

On the Richmond theatre scene, Betty Ann has been the cream in our coffee for just over 16 years now. We celebrate with her during this transition, and we look forward to hearing all the news about her new New Jersey adventure. We especially look forward to bringing Betty Ann back home to Richmond for an upcoming production or special appearance.

Betty Ann was a cultural treasure in our very midst, and thankfully we had the good sense to appreciate her. She appeared at Swift Creek Mill in Driving Miss Daisy, Something’s Afoot and Smoke on the Mountain. She joined us at Theatre IV in Da and The Music Man. Most recently, Betty Ann dazzled our Bifocals’ audience with her one-woman presentation, My Life on the Great White Way.

So what was Betty Ann’s showbiz life like before she and her late, beloved husband Roger Hunting brought their good will to Richmond? Well, I wouldn’t be telling a lie to say that for about five years in mid-century, Betty Ann Grove was America’s sweetheart. The photos of Betty Ann scattered throughout this post are merely what I could find in one evening on eBay.

She graduated with stars in her eyes from Cambridge Public Schools in Massachusetts just at the end of WWII. To tell the truth, there must be something in the water up there. Other Cambridge graduates include Walter Brynnan of The Real McCoys, the great American poet e e cummings, Peggy Cass of all those game shows we used to watch in the 60s, Donald Regan (Chief of Staff for President Ronald Reagan), Olympic Gold Medalist and NY Knicks superstar Patrick Ewing, Orson Bean (I seem to remember him with Peggy Cass on those game shows and also in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman), and a couple of mugs named Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

Within three years after graduation, Betty Ann found herself starring on the hit TV variety show, Stop the Music. Cole Porter saw her, loved her, and selected her to replace Lisa Kirk in the major role of Bianca in Broadway's original Kiss Me, Kate (see photo to the left), a gig that she continued until 51.

For a while, she was starring on TV (Stop the Music, The Bert Parks Show [see photo to the right]) at the same time she was starring on Broadway, dashing from TV studio to Broadway playhouse and often just making it in time for curtain. One day when her TV broadcast ran late, she had to start changing into her Broadway costume as she was running down the New York streets.

After Kiss Me, Kate closed, it was back to the small screen for Betty Ann. She starred in The Big Payoff (51), The Red Buttons Show (52 – 54), Summer Holiday (with co-star Merv Griffin in 54), and the Jane Froman Show (she shared guest host honors with John Raitt while Jane was on vacation). For a while, she and Merv Griffin co-starred again in the Merv Griffin / Betty Ann Grove Show (see photo above to the left).

In 1953 she made the cover of TV Digest. Shortly thereafter, she was on the cover of Look Magazine as one of “America’s Most Televised Women.” Her recording of Waltzing Down the Aisle was a chart-topping hit.

In the late 50s, she co-starred on radio with Jim Backus in The Jim Backus Show. In the early 60s she moved on to regional theatres and the straw hat circuit, starring in stock productions of The Sound of Music, Hit the Deck and many others.

In the late 60s, it was back to Broadway, where she created the role of George M. Cohan’s mother in the hit Broadway musical George M!, starring with Joel Grey and Bernadette Peters. Shortly after George M! closed, Betty Ann married the love of her life, Roger Hunting, a successful trial lawyer and, eventually, New York City Civil Court Judge.

Betty Ann returned to Broadway in 1979 with I Remember Mama, opposite Liv Ullman, and again in a revival of Rodgers and Hart's On Your Toes in 83 and 84, appearing with Natalia Makarova and Dina Merrill.

In the early 90s, Betty Ann and Roger moved to Richmond, and we fell in love with the both of them.

Betty Ann, please know how much we’ll miss you, and how much more we’ll be thrilled to see you again when you return to us down here and/or we visit you up there. You’ve earned your way into our hearts, and no matter how famous you are on the national stage, all of us in the Richmond theatre community will always claim you as one of our own.

--Bruce Miller