News on Zero Hour Plus Video

Jim's play, Zero Hour, has been extended for two weeks here in Los Angeles.

It's going to be featured soon on National Public Radio.

Many of the performances are selling out and he has received rave reviews from every critic, along with Critics Pick designations from the LA Times, LA Weekly and the Desert Sun.

The show has been praised on every level. The writing, his performance, the emotional impact. Everything. But I think the responses that have meant the most to him have come from Zero's friends and co-workers. All of them have either stayed afterwards to talk, or have written emails, gushing with Zero stories and thanking him for bringing Zero back to life.

Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara.

Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara came. Theodore Bikel, one of Zero's closest friends came. Theo wrote in an email, "Thank you for having brought back to us the memory of a volcano that was thought to be extinct."

Doris Roberts.

I also sat in the back last weekend and took some video. Zero was mainly known as a stage actor and as the original Max Bialystock in the Mel Brooks movie, The Producers. But Zero had a very tough life. In the play, which is structured like an interview with a reporter, the reporter has been trying to get Zero to talk about the most painful period of his life, the Hollywood Blacklist during the 50s where he was accused of being a communist. Zero holds back during the interview, but finally, goaded into cutting loose, he finally lets go in a rage of anger:





TAGS: zero mostel jim brochu jewish blacklist jerome robbins theatre musicals politics