Harold Gould

When actor Harold Gould was approached last year to do a Broadway tour of the stage play version of author Mitch Albom's best-seller "Tuesdays with Morrie," he debated about going out on the road.

"Doing a tour that takes you city to city around the country for months at a time isn't always easy," said Gould, who turns 83 this year.
"But this is the kind of play that's hard to pass up. It has a powerful message and it's delivered with humor and entertainment that audiences connect with."

Directed by Michael Montel, "Tuesdays with Morrie" plays through March 12 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre.

The book "Tuesdays With Morrie" became a major hit when it was first published in 1997 and was on The New York Times Best Seller list for 205 weeks. Now, it's published in 31 languages in 36 countries.

The cross-cultural appeal is simple to identify. The story tackles death, a subject everyone must face.

"Tuesday's with Morrie" is the conversational telling of the relationship between award-winning sportswriter Mitch Albom and his former sociology professor Morrie Schwartz who has been stricken with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). After years without contact, Albom recalled a forgotten promise to stay in touch, as he once did as a student, so hearing that his mentor was ill, he began to renew visits with Morrie every Tuesday until he died. The book and play share this time spent together and the lessons learned.

Because there are only two primary characters in the play who appear onstage most of the time, the roles are challenging and require stage stamina.

Gould, who has toured in other successful stage roles like "I Never Sang For My Father," is most often recognized for his television roles, usually famous television sitcom fathers.

In fact, he originated the role of "Howard Cunningham" in the pilot for "Happy Days," which began as an episode of "Love, American Style." However, when ABC decided to make it a series, the role was re-cast and given to Tom Bosley. The same thing happened when he played Marlo Thomas' father in the pilot for her series "That Girl."

Today, he gets noticed because of the intense popularity of "The Golden Girls" now that it's in syndication. Gould got to romance Betty White while playing sweet but spacey Rose's boyfriend Miles Webber on the show. He also played Valerie Harper's dad on the sitcom "Rhoda."

But the stage still is his real love. He even played opposite Katharine Hepburn in "Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry."

In this role, all of his scenes are with actor Dominic Fumusa, who plays journalist Mitch Albom, who played in the off-Broadway production of Joe Montello's baseball play "Take Me Out."

Gould said "Tuesdays with Morrie" really unfolds a philosophy of handling some of life's most challenging questions.

"The audience comes away with experiencing everything from comedy to tears as these scenes deliver the story of two very different people who learn they also have a lot in common," Gould said.