Four-time Emmy winner David Hyde Pierce will always be a small-screen star due to his 11-season stint as Frasier's neurotic brother. But these days he's just a Broadway baby hoping for his first Tony nod for his work in the tuner Curtains. Although Pierce began his career on stage, he made his musical debut in the Broadway blockbuster Monty Python's Spamalot in 2005 and fell in love with the genre. Soon he signed up for Curtains, the final musical by John Kander and the late Fred Ebb, the team responsible for Cabaret and Chicago. A
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Question: While thinking of the sad and sudden death of John Spencer and what the producers of The West Wing will do to alter their story line, I came upon a repeat airing of Aaron Sorkin's The American President, starring Michael Douglas. In that movie, actor John Mahoney (of Frasier fame) has a small but key role as head of an environmental lobby. While watching his performance, I was struck by his fine acting but more by his physical similarity to the late Mr. Spencer. Perhaps the West Wing producers, rather than "kill off" Leo McGarry's character, which has been important to the most recent story arc, could see if Mr. Mahoney is available to assume the role, just to finish out the series and give the McGarry character a proper send-off. Fans of both The American President and The West Wing, I feel, would not be too bothered by the change, and Mr. Mahoney is a fine actor and could bring dignity to the role. What do you think?
Answer: I agree that John Mahoney is a terrific,
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