What Were They Thinking: Larry In The First Row Bob Abelman Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal Member, International Association of Theatre Critics When we theatergoers take our seats, lost in the anticipation of an evening of live entertainment, so much around us goes unnoticed or underappreciated. The ornamental rosettes, acanthus leaves, and assorted curlicues that decorate crown molding. The meticulous notes from the dramaturg buried in the middle of the playbill. Larry in the first row. If you’ve ever attended the repertory performances of The Great Lakes Theater, subscribed to Ensemble or Dobama, or visited Mercury Theatre, the CVLT or Rabbit Run… there, overlooked and innocuous, is Larry – the patron saint of local theater – always in the first row. To say that Larry loves theater is an understatement. It is his primary passion and his most fulfilling pleasure. It does not define him, but theater most certainly completes him. Larry is an arts advocate. He is an adoring admirer and voracious promoter with the discerning eye of a professional critic. He is equally appreciative of equity performers and earnest amateurs, is unabashedly open to theater in all its many manifestations, and greets every production as if it was his first and has the potential to be the best. Larry is an innocent. He is astoundingly unaware or unconcerned that he is the only man at “Menopause: The Musical,” the only straight man in the audience of an all-gay revue, and the only octogenarian attending children’s theater without a child in tow. Larry is a Caucasian Jew at a Karamu House production of “Black Nativity.” There he is in the first row. For the rest of this article, which was written on Father’s Day in 2009 for the Chagrin Valley Times, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/. Larry passed away on Saturday, Sept. 12, at the age of 88.