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JIM BROCHU BIOGRAPHY
Recently, Jim Brochu’s caricature was hung on the wall of Sardi’s Restaurant in New York City, a singular tribute to a thirty-year show business career as an actor, writer, director and producer
In 2005, he and his partner Steve SchachlIn one the 2005 Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Award for the show The Big Voice: God or Merman? as Best Musical, presented by legendary Broadway composer, Jerry Herman.
In 2003, Jim picked up two Theatre L.A. Ovation Award nominations: Best Actor in a Musical for his performance in The Big Voice: God or Merman? - for playing himself, and with composer-partner Steve Schalchlin, for Best Musical. The Big Voice also won the 2003 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Score of a Musical and was included in the Top 10 Best Theatre Lists in both Los Angeles and Dallas that year. 
A native of Brooklyn, Jim produced his first show, a charity revue featuring the neighborhood kids, at the age of thirteen and four years later was working on Broadway – selling orange drink at the back of the St. James Theatre during intermissions of Hello, Dolly! After studying drama at Carnegie-Mellon University, where his classmate was Stephen Schwartz, he returned to New York,
got his BA in English from St. Francis College (Brooklyn) and made his Broadway debut (on stage) as Christopher Sly in a revival
of Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew. His off-Broadway credits include Robert Lowell’s Endicott And The Red Cross at the American Place Theatre, Ephraim Kishon’s Unfair To Goliath at the Cherry Lane Theatre, Avery Korman’s Skye at Lincoln Center and Frank Loesser’s Greenwillow for the Equity Library Theatre.
. While working as a stage actor, he appeared in two legendary television commercials: first as a Dancing Raisin for Post Raisin Bran and then as the "Lemon from Outer Space" with Madge the Manicurist for Palmolive. His television work includes regular stints as Father James on All My Children, Judge Julius Weyburn on The Young and The Restless, Officer Jerry Chandler on the cult-classic Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and the befuddled bailiff, Arthur Ainsley on NBC’s Sirota’s Court with Michael Constantine.He appeared opposite Bea Arthur in several episodes of Maude and with Telly Savalas on Kojak. Although the part was small, he can also boast that he made his motion picture debut in The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight opposite another newcomer, Robert DeNiro. After studying drama at Carnegie-Mellon University, he spent a season learning his craft at the Surflight Summer Theatre in Beach Haven, New Jersey and made his New York debut in Sid Slon’s production of The Taming Of The Shrew at Town Hall.
His off-Broadway credits include Robert Lowell’s Endicott And The Red Cross at the American Place Theatre, Ephraim Kishon’s Unfair To Goliath at the Cherry Lane, Avery Korman’s Skye at Lincoln Center, Don Pippin’s The Contrast at Theatre East and Frank Loesser’s Greenwillow for the Equity Library Theatre.His television work includes regular stints as Father James on All My Children, Judge Julius Weyburn on The Young And The Restless, Officer Jerry Chandler on the cult-classic Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and the befuddled bailiff on NBC’s Sirota’s Court with Michael Constantine. His acting career has taken him to regional stages all over the United States, including the Washington, D.C. Theatre Club, the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, S.T.A.G.E.S. Repertory Theatre in Houston, The Trinity River Arts Center in Dallas, The Shelterbelt Theatre in Omaha, Theatre Building Chicago, The Folly Theatre in Kansas City, two seasons at the Goodspeed Opera House where he originated the role of Flint in Something’s Afoot, and the DejaVu Theatre in Los Angeles where he won the Backstage West-DramaLogue Award as Best Actor for his performance as Marvin in Robert Patrick’s T-Shirts.
While playing Tevye at the Waldo Astoria Dinner Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri – he bet the producer that he could write a bad play in a week and won the bet. The play, Cookin’ With Gus, must not have been as bad as he thought since it was immediately published by Samuel French, has been performed all over the United States and has been translated into several languages for productions all over the world. A huge hit in Quebec, Canada; it was recently taped in French by HBO. One play led to another and soon Jim was writing full time. For the theatre, he has written and published (Sam French) the comedies The Lucky O’Learys with Helen Hunt and Kathleen Freeman, Fat Chance with Virginia Capers, The Lady Of The House with Rue McClanahan and the off-Broadway smash-hit musical, The Last Session, which he also directed.
THE LAST SESSION (l. to r.) Tony nominee Bob Stillman, Grace Garland, Steven Bienskie, Amy ColemanAfter The Last Session’s New York run (for which he received Drama League and Outer Critics Circle Nominations), the show was named by the Los Angeles Times as one of the ten best plays of the 1998-1999 Los Angeles season, garnering him the Oscar Wilde Award and the GLAAD Media Award. Brochu won another Backstage West Award for his direction of the show, along with the Los Angeles Drama Critic’s Circle Award as Best Playwright.
In Hollywood, his comic writing ability came to the attention of Sid and Marty Krofft who hired him to write their ABC Saturday morning kid’s show Wonderbug and the primetime NBC variety show Pink Lady and Jeff, which TV Guide recently named as one of the worst TV shows of all time. “It killed the variety form as we know it,” says Brochu, “but it was hard to write sketch comedy for two Japanese girl singers who spoke no English. Everything had to be written in stone - phonetically.”
He vowed not to write for TV until he got an offer he couldn’t refuse - a call from his idol, Lucille Ball, who had read his play The Lucky O’Learys and thought it would be a perfect vehicle for herself and Audrey Meadows. By the time he finished writing the pilot for 20th Century Fox, Miss Ball was not up to doing the project and it never developed. However, what did develop was a deep friendship between Ball and Brochu that resulted in them spending every afternoon together until she died in 1989. Jim chronicled Lucy’s life as she told it to him over the backgammon table in his book, Lucy In The Afternoon, published by William Morrow and named as an alternate selection by The Literary Guild Book Club. He branched into directing with a production of Cole Porter’s Can Can starring Yvonne DeCarlo at the Tropicana Hotel in Atlantic City and has gone on to helm over 35 productions, working with stars such as John Travolta, Carol Channing, Donald O’Connor, Garry Marshall, Sid Caesar, Red Buttons, Jerry Lewis, Florence Henderson, Donny Osmond, Larry Hagman, Rip Taylor, Carol Lawrence, Betty Garrett, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Edie Adams, Fayard Nicolas, Penny Singleton, JoAnne Worley, Perry King, Robert Morse, Peter Allen and Christopher Reeve.
Here's Jim with some of the greats he's known and worked with....
Carol Channing
Katharine Hepburn
John Travolta
Ruth Warrick Sheila McRae
Christopher Reeve
Fayard Nicolas
Tommy Tune
Jean Stapleton
Peter Allen
Stevie Wonder
Eddie & Edward Albert
Betty Garrett Kevin McCarthyAs a producer, he has presented sixteen shows including the World Premiere of Tom Dulack’s Shooting Craps with Harold Gould; the American premiere of Ben Elton’s Popcorn with Maxwell Caulfield and David Faustino; the Los Angeles premiere of Over The River And Through The Woods with Joseph Campenella and Carol Lawrence, Ray Cooney’s Out Of Order starring Mr. Cooney, Anne Rogers, Robert Mandan and Ian Abercrombie, The Play’s The Thing starring Hal Linden, Save It For The Stage starring Charles Nelson Reilly and James Prideaux’s The Last of Mrs. Lincoln with Marcia Rodd, both winners of the 2001 Artistic Director Achievement Award as Best Comedy and Drama Productions.
Jim and Los Angeles Mayor Richard J. RiordanOn November 6, 2000 Jim and his partner of twenty years, Steve Schalchlin, were presented a plaque from Mayor Richard Riordan on behalf of the City of Los Angeles for their contribution to the Arts and for improving the quality of life to the city.
In May of 2002, he was chosen by John Kander and Fred Ebb to direct the 30th anniversary production of their 70, Girls, 70 starring Charlotte Rae, Marni Nixon, Jane Kean and William Schallert at the El Portal Center for The Arts.
Jim with Marni Nixon, Jane Kean, Charlotte Rae, Robert Mandan, William Schallert
and the cast of 70, Girls, 70Jim currently lives in New York after 22 years in Los Angeles where, between theatrical assignments, he travels all over the world lecturing about Broadway, Hollywood and the legendary stars with whom he has worked. He is an active member of the Dramatists Guild, Actors Equity Association, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and remains, as the New York Times called him, a true “Man Of The Theatre. “
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