Q&A by Brad Balfour
From modeling for Clairol in the late 1970s and appearing in one of their first Cable TV commercials to a leading public relations firm and radio/TV producing, Kate McGrath has had a great run so far.
This native New Yorker has worked in the communications field as an executive producer for radio and television, a fashion and beauty industry spokesperson and as a public relations, sales and marketing executive.
In 1976, McGrath’s career began as secretary to the fashion director at Women’s Wear Daily, a Fairchild publication. From there, she became promotion director and national spokesperson for All In Style, a Sunday lifestyle magazine supplement to major out-of-town newspapers. She has produced a number of entertainment, health and fashion segments for television and radio in the New York area, including WABC, WOR and WPAT radio and TV channels 2,4,5,7 and 11. From ’83 to ’85, she produced and appeared on-camera as a fashion trend reporter on “Good Morning New York” on WABC-TV.
In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, she developed and produced The Broadway Hour — a syndicated radio show all about the theater. Some of the shows reside in the permanent collection of the Paley Center for Media in New York and Los Angeles.
The archive of interviews with Broadway celebs is being digitized for a partial launch, hopefully this summer, to raise funds for The Actors Fund.
Over the years, she did media and marketing consulting to non-profits, community groups and corporate image accounts including Clairol, The Irish Tourist Board, Tourism for Puglia, Italy, Simon and Schuster, leading New York city hotels and the New York Press Club among others.
But where the redhead really made her mark was when, “I was attending a meeting at the Marriott Marquis hotel in the heart of the theater district. A solution was needed to fill up the dining room at the hotel’s revolving rooftop restaurant. Because it was competing with dozens of nearby restaurants for the pre-theater dinner crowd, it was only busy when it was raining.
“So why not tape a ‘live’ show with veteran stars and up-and-coming Broadway performers at The View Restaurant and Lounge on the 8th floor of the hotel overlooking Broadway, produce it weekly and syndicate it around the country?”
“The Broadway Hour was popular from the start. You could enjoy a late afternoon cocktail, meet and greet Broadway personalities, get the latest West Side and West End gossip, enter a trivia contest with a chance to win two complimentary tickets to a Broadway show, listen to “live” musical performances and hear what’s coming to ‘The Great White Way’ next season. Getting to know the actors, musicians, choreographers, producers and directors and song writers before a show and staying around for dinner then going to a Broadway show was a win-win for everyone. The guests over the years were happy to promote their shows and The Broadway Hour to their friends.”
Added McGrath, “Earlier in my career I thought I might have a calling for the stage, but after a disastrous performance in a college production of The Bad Seed it was time to think otherwise.
“Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn was an all girls school at the time and someone had to play Colonel Kenneth Penmark. I volunteered because I could wear my father’s WWII uniform.
“In the school production when I was supposed to be shot by my daughter, before the scene started she accidentally knocked off my army hat and down came my long red hair. Then the gun didn’t go off so she had to say lie down, pretend you’ve been shot! That’s when I knew I should start exploring other areas in the theater.
“We had many wonderful and talented guests over the years. The shows were taped in the lobby of famous hotels such as the Algonquin, the Marriott Marquis Hotel and the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers. We even did a few shows at Mama Leone’s, now the popular La Masseria restaurant, and the World Trade Center. The interviews with Frank and Malachy McCort, Milo O’Shea (the international Irish tenor), Frank Patterson, Tony Randall, Jackie Mason, Carol Channing and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. are just pure gold.
“I remember when Jackie Mason was appearing on Broadway and stopped by a show we were taping at The Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers. He went right to the first mirror in the lobby, combed his hair and started a friendly chat with a pretty waitress. I loved when he said he went to Washington D.C. and dined with the politicians to get a lot of his material. They all laughed and they told him great stories.
“Fortunately, Chris Breetveld — the original engineer and audio editor for The Broadway Hour — is transferring over three and a half years of programs from cassettes to become podcasts that contain well over 500 memorable interviews. We tested out some of the shows on different platforms such as Buzzsprout and Spotify [see the link at the end of the interview] recently and they have been gaining new international audiences alongside longtime Broadway groupies.
“The goal is to start offering these programs to the Actors Fund to help raise money for the unemployed theater community this summer. We are reaching out to the Broadway League now for guidance and sponsorship leads to pay for the production costs and creative marketing for a July, August and September subscription release.”
Q: What made you such a Broadway fan to begin with?
KM: Broadway was in my artistic DNA from an early age. The romance, the humor and all the ups and downs of the story-lines appealed to me.
After seeing excerpts from Carousel and Oklahoma on The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday nights as a young girl, I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to see a “live” Broadway show. Because I lived close enough to Broadway, I knew I would see a show every chance I had.
Q: What was the first Broadway show you saw and how did it hit you?
KM: The Subject Was Roses. I was nearing 17 when our H.S. English teacher ordered class tickets. I was overtaken with joy with the acting, the staging and dialogue. Holding my very first Playbill in my hands made me feel like I was now part of the artistic world. Seeing Jack Albertson and Martin Sheen on stage was mesmerizing, something I’ll always remember. How did they remember all their lines each night?
Q: What was the last show you saw and what was its impact on you?
KM: Every June for the past 13 years, I’ve had the honor of lecturing at Sardi‘s Restaurant upstairs on the second floor to a group of 30 students from UCLA coming to see their first Broadway show. I talk about how Broadway started with a collection of theaters downtown many years ago before it came to Times Square and how shows are marketed today, using my radio show as an example. Sadly, my last show with the students was Come From Away in June of 2019. Its theme was of strangers stranded for a night in an obscure part of Canada when 911 happened, not knowing how and when they would get back home to their loved ones. The songs and the actors gave a heartfelt performance on universal understanding and compassion. It has been a big hit.
Q: Of the many performers you’ve interviewed who did you get to know best?
KM: I’d have to say Anne Meara, Phyllis Diller and Eli Wallach. After each of their interviews they stayed to chat before returning to the theater. They were most gracious for the opportunity to promote their latest work on a radio show that was dedicated to Broadway and the workings of the theater.
After one show, I had the pleasure of joining Anne for dinner up at Kennedy’s Restaurant up on West 57th Street. We talked about marriage, raising kids and how they grow up so fast. She mentioned that blending an Irish and Jewish family was challenging and how psychotherapy was helpful but took time. I suggested why not have the kids go to a Jewish therapist one week and an Irish therapist the next week and then everything should work out. She laughed and said, that’s a great idea!
Another time, Diller was appearing in a cabaret production at Rainbow and Stars high atop Rockefeller Center and asked me if I’d join her for dinner after a taping. I was delighted to have some girl talk time with her. One of the memorable moments was when she said, “Kate, I should have only dated the ones I married and married the ones I dated.”
Q: What is the status of your efforts to digitize the audio?
KM: Currently, we have over 25 shows now in Podcast format and will have another 25 ready by July to share with the public. My longtime engineer/audio editor Chris Breetveld is doing the audio podcasts.
Q: You’ve made visits to Ireland?
KM: My Irish relatives came from Roscommon, Leitrim and Sligo. My first time in Ireland was in March of 1978. Looking out the window and just before we landed at Shannon Airport and seeing the many patches of green brought a thump to my throat! Traveling with a small group of Irish-American friends that were connected to the Irish Tourist Board helped me experience Ireland in a special way. Although it was cold, I can remember sipping hot cocoa and getting into some warm woolen slippers sent up to my room at the Lake hotel in County Clare. The generous portion of salmon the next night was just delicious and hard to match back here in New York.
My next visit was both a pleasant leisure and business trip. I was commissioned by Irish designer Mary O’Donnell to help bring her theatrical costumes back to be exhibited on the main floor of Bloomingdale’s paying homage to the movie Tristan and Isolt starring Richard Burton and Kate Mulgrew. I got to meet Eileen O’Casey and visit the home she shared with Sean O’Casey. She was quite a character and told me stories about some of her old boyfriends when she acted on the Broadway stage in New York.
Q: Did you visit the counties your family’s from?
KM: I plan to visit the counties of my grandparents when my grandchildren are a little older. They are starting to play golf so I think they’ll enjoy seeing the many golf courses in Roscommon and the lustre of the mountains, valleys and lakes that surround county Leitrim.
Q: What Irish actors have you interviewed?
KM: It was a pleasure to interview the likes of Malachy and Frank McCort, Milo O’Shea and the acting ensembles at the Irish Repertory Theater. They all said that they owed a great deal of gratitude to their time performing or watching Irish plays at the Abbey Theater. I myself went with Eileen to see her husband Sean‘s powerful play, The Plough And The Stars, which was her favorite.
Q: Did you talk about their transition from Ireland to here?
KM: It was a nice history lesson to hear from the actors how they started at an early age learning and studying the Irish playwrights in school and how the Abbey Theatre was their ticket to get to the American stage. Frank Patterson — the international Irish tenor who acted as well as had a successful career as an international tenor and recording star, and often referred to as the closest you can get to John McCormack — said I am fortunate to be born Irish, with a good voice, a gift for gab and a good ear.
Q: What were your favorite shows and why?
KM: Going back to my early days watching Broadway clips from Carousel, South Pacific and Oklahoma on the Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday nights at 8 a.m. I’m a sucker for the music of Rogers and Hammerstein and a good love story that sometimes has a happy ending!
Q: What’s the future for you once this show gets a new audience?
KM: Once The Broadway Hour podcast programs are up and running and people are enjoying some vintage radio shows I plan to get back to Broadway and see as many musicals and plays as I can and continue to lecture at Sardi‘s every June to UCLA students coming to see their first Broadway show.
Q: Do you have new interviews in mind and who would they be?
KM: I plan to work with Chris Breetveld and schedule a digital reunion show with former guests and new actors to Broadway at one of the hotels where we tape “live” interviews and performances in the past.
Q: Who would you like to talk with among the current stars?
KM: The current stars planning to make comebacks and those who have been on the road of The Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, Hamilton, plus meet up with talented new playwrights and musical composers that have had to put their talent on hold for during Covid-19. On the top of my list are, Tony Winners and Playwrights, Joe Di Pietro and David Bryan, preparing to bring Diana The Musical to Broadway soon and the music and lyricist team of Wayne and Karen Kirkpatrick and veteran director Jerry Zaks for the upcoming debut of Mrs. Doubtfire.
Q: Do you have any up and comers you’d like to interview and why?
KM: I think a podcast audience can learn a lot from listening to the cast and crew of long running shows such as The Phantom of the Opera and Chicago. They like to share behind the scenes stories you might not always hear about.