Tony nominee Stephen Mo Hanan, who originated the roles of Bustopher Jones, Asparagus, and Growltiger in the long-running musical Cats on Broadway, has died of a heart attack. He was 78 years old. .
Mr. Hanan was a performer from a different era, steeped in the sounds of operetta and vaudeville with attention-grabbing techniques he developed as a busker in San Francisco. In the late 1970s, he crossed coasts to work with the New York Shakespeare Festival, leading him to star opposite Kevin Kline in the 1981 Broadway revival of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, serving as Samuel, the Pirate King's bookish second in command.
Thoroughly bitten by the Broadway bug, Mr. Hanan next auditioned for Cats, where his memorably self-accompanied concertina variation of "Funicul矛, Funicul谩" led to his being cast as the portly Bustopher Jones, the aging theatre cat Asparagus, and the tour pirate Growltiger, complete with a parody of Puccini鈥檚 Turandot.
For his efforts, Mr. Hanan received a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. During Cats rehearsals, Mr. Hanan kept a detailed journal documenting every step of shows evolution. He published an edited version of the archive, A Cat's Diary, in 2002.
Capping off his Broadway experiences, Mr. Hanan stood-by as Fagin in the 1984 Broadway revival of Oliver!, and portrayed Mr. Darling and Captain Hook in the 1990 revival of Peter Pan, and its subsequent tour. Following his return from tour, he and Jay Berkow wrote Jolson & Co., a solo piece for Mr. Hanan about Al Jolson, a role he portrayed to great acclaim.
Mr. Hanan is survived by his husband, Widlund. Information on a public memorial is forthcoming.
