The Cincinnati Enquirer
© May 9, 1997


LOCALS MAKE GOOD
BY Jim Knippenberg

(excerpt)

Gracious hello, and aren’t there one heck of a lot of local names making national news this week? We count four without even trying.



ON STAGE

That would be former Cincinnatian Michael Gruber. The 1982 Indian Hill High School grad and member of New York’s Cats cast has left the show for a month to dress up in aluminum foil and look for a heart.

Specifically, he’s playing the Tin Man opposite Roseanne’s Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, which opened Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.

It’s a four-week run, says mom Barb Gruber of Indian Hill. Playing the role, she says, is the easy part. The hard part was the buildup: For several weeks before the Oz opening, Michael was doing double duty, rehearsing Oz by day, doing Cats by night and sleeping when he could find time.


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