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Henry Winkler has seen enormous onscreen success over the years, from his iconic role as The Fonz in Happy Days to his acclaimed performance as acting coach Gene Cousineau in Barry. But his first Broadway outing was far from pleasant.
“I was fresh out of drama school. I had no idea that I would be on Broadway,” Winkler remembered on Late Night with Seth Meyers. It was 1973, and he was making his Broadway debut in the play 42 Seconds From Broadway. But, after receiving a pan from The New York Times, the production ended as soon as it began.
“We opened and closed the same night. I was taking off my makeup, they were ripping out the sink. They couldn’t get rid of me fast enough,” said Winkler. “It was devastating. Because you think, ‘Who is going to hire you when your Broadway play closes?’ I was at the Arena Stage in Washington, and three weeks into rehearsal, I was fired. I cried all the way back to New York.”
27 years after that experience, Winkler returned to the Broadway stage in The Dinner Party, a Neil Simon play in which he starred alongside John Ritter and Len Cariou. His most recent Broadway credit was in 2012’s The Performers, which saw an early closure following the effects of Hurricane Sandy.
