tuesdays with morrie final essay

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The Final Lesson in Tuesdays with Morrie: a Reflection on Life and Death

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Published: Mar 6, 2024

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Morrie's final lesson, personal reflection, importance of relationships, relevance to college students, in conclusion.

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Tuesdays with Morrie

Mitch albom, everything you need for every book you read..

The primary story arc takes place over the course of 14 weeks in the late summer and fall of 1995, beginning when the narrator Mitch discovers that Morrie , his beloved sociology professor from college, is dying from ALS. When Mitch’s newspaper union strikes, putting him out of work for an extended period, Mitch travels each week on Tuesday from his home in Detroit to Morrie's home outside Boston for what he calls his final class with Morrie. His final thesis is the full, completed book.

Morrie grew up in New York and his family was very poor. When he was nine, his mother fell ill and died, which haunted Morrie throughout the rest of his life. His father, Charlie , was not an affectionate man, and Morrie struggled through the next two years until his father remarried. Eva , his stepmother, was kind and loving. She gave Morrie both the love he so desperately desired, and instilled in him a love for education. After a failed attempt by Morrie's father to get him a job in a fur factory, Morrie decided to become a teacher.

At the beginning of each chapter, Mitch shares the story of his relationship with Morrie during his college days. Mitch began college in 1976 at Brandeis University, and met Morrie in his first sociology class. Mitch was one of the youngest students, which he compensated for by acting very tough. Morrie, however, treated him with compassion and kindness, and the two developed a very trusting teacher/student relationship. Morrie convinced Mitch to write an honors thesis on football culture. At his graduation, Mitch promised he'd keep in touch with his professor, which he didn't follow through on.

After graduation, Mitch moved to New York to pursue his dream of being a professional piano player. He was not successful. He lived in an adjacent apartment to his favorite uncle, who died of pancreatic cancer while Mitch was living there. His uncle’s death shakes Mitch, who decides he can’t waste any more time and then earns a degree in journalism and finally settles in Detroit to work as a sports reporter. Mitch becomes very materially successful, although he isn’t all that happy.

Morrie's health begins to decline in his sixties, when asthma begins to make his life difficult. A lover of dance , he has to stop when breathing becomes hard and he begins to suffer falls. When he continues to decline, doctors run a variety of tests and in 1994 Morrie is diagnosed with ALS. He teaches his final class at Brandeis that fall, and in the spring he gives the first of three television interviews with Ted Koppel of Nightline . Koppel is friendly, yet not warm. In Detroit, Mitch catches the interview on TV and decides to visit Morrie.

Despite the fact that Morrie, now in a wheelchair, welcomes Mitch with open arms, Mitch finds their first visit awkward and uncomfortable as he realizes that he is no longer the kind and idealistic student Morrie knew in college. Morrie offers to tell Mitch what it's like to die, which makes Mitch even more uncomfortable. Mitch struggles to answer questions about how fulfilled he is in his life, realizing that he isn't. When he leaves, he again promises Morrie that he'll come back and visit.

Mitch travels to the UK to cover Wimbledon and finds himself thinking about Morrie the entire time. The day after he returns to Detroit, his newspaper union goes on strike. After sitting around for a week, he calls Morrie and asks to come visit again. At the beginning of this visit and every visit after, Mitch arrives bearing food after remembering how much Morrie loves food. When Morrie begins to cry talking about how he's so much more affected by death in the world now that he himself is dying, Mitch is again uncomfortable. Morrie promises that he will show Mitch that crying is okay.

Throughout the next several Tuesdays, Mitch begins to assist Morrie's nurse, Connie , with Morrie's care. The first time he lifts Morrie from his wheelchair to his armchair, he feels how the disease has made Morrie into dead weight, which he is disturbed by. After that, he begins to bring tape recorders and a list of topics for he and Morrie to discuss as a way of keeping Morrie alive in memory once he's gone. This is exactly what Morrie wants. After he found out he was dying, he began to write down tidbits of wisdom about living in the shadow of death. The consummate teacher, he wants to teach the world about life, death, and how to truly live.

Morrie's second interview with Ted Koppel shows Koppel as significantly warmer, and Morrie's celebrity spreads even further after it airs. On the fourth Tuesday, Mitch and Morrie talk about death, and Morrie shares some of his wisdom about creating personal culture by borrowing from different religions. He says he's especially drawn to nature now that the end is drawing near, as though it's the first time he's noticing it.

By the next visit, Mitch begins to realize that Morrie craves human contact more and more as the disease takes over. He needs to be constantly adjusted in his armchair to stay comfortable, and needs his microphone for the tape recorder adjusted regularly as well. This leads into a discussion on the importance of family, and Mitch shares with the reader that his own brother, Peter , is living in Spain, battling the same form of pancreatic cancer that killed his uncle.

The next several Tuesdays, Morrie's health declines further. He becomes unable to use the toilet unassisted, and he is no longer capable of eating solid food. Despite not sleeping well due to coughing, he still insists on seeing visitors. Charlotte , his wife, insists to Mitch that their visits give Morrie purpose in light of his disease. Morrie and Mitch discuss how Morrie is dealing with his growing dependence on others by detaching from fear and other negative emotions, and he still manages to maintain perspective about aging thanks to his belief that aging is growth rather than decay. By the eighth Tuesday, Morrie is having good days and many bad days, but still believes that it is important to pursue making people happy rather than making money.

On the tenth Tuesday, Mitch's wife, Janine , accompanies him to visit Morrie. She is a professional singer and agrees to sing for Morrie when he asks, which surprises Mitch. Morrie shows his ability to connect with anyone, and he and Janine get along as though it wasn't the first time they'd met. Morrie then reveals his thoughts on marriage and why Mitch's generation experiences so much divorce. His ideas center on his guiding beliefs of having compassion and understanding for one's partner, and the importance of love.

The following week, Mitch has become even more involved in Morrie's care, and helps loosen the mucus in his lungs by pounding on his back. By this time, Morrie has been slowly breaking down Mitch's walls, and Mitch is becoming more sensitive and compassionate, and less focused on work. Morrie encourages Mitch to create his own personal culture, as Morrie did, that borrows the parts of cultures and religions that Mitch finds useful and helpful. Morrie's culture allows him to focus on his relationships with friends and family, which he believes is even more important given his impending death. When Morrie gives his final interview for Nightline the next week, he and Koppel speak like friends, and more than an interview, it is a "sad farewell." A few days later when Mitch is visiting, Morrie recounts the story of one of his good friends who wasn't there for Morrie when Charlotte got sick, after which they lost contact. The friend died of cancer a few years before the present day, and Morrie regrets deeply not reconnecting with him. He also tells Mitch that if he were to have another son, he'd like that child to be Mitch.

The next week, Mitch asks Morrie what the perfect day would be, and what Morrie describes is shockingly ordinary. He encourages Mitch to try to patch things up with his brother, who is still struggling with cancer and not accepting calls from his family. When Mitch returns on the fourteenth week, Morrie is in bed and doing poorly. Mitch cries as he says goodbye, as does Morrie.

Morrie dies the following Saturday, and Mitch attends the funeral. It is a small affair in a beautiful park, and Mitch thinks it's fitting that the funeral takes place on a Tuesday. Not long after, Mitch is able to make contact with his brother, and their future relationship seems hopeful.

Tuesdays With Morrie

By mitch albom.

• Tuesdays With Morrie Summary

Tuesdays with Morrie is the final lesson between a college professor, Morrie, and one of his long lost students and the author of the book, Mitch Albom . After seeing his professor in an interview on the show "Nightline," the author is reminded of a promise he made sixteen years ago to keep in touch with him. Now stricken with ALS, Morrie does not have much time left, and Mitch recognizes this fact. He travels from Michigan to Massachusetts to meet with him. This meeting goes well and affects Mitch and Morrie so much that they meet for the next fourteen consecutive Tuesdays, up until Morrie passes away. During each of these meetings, they discuss a different topic about life. These topics make up the content of the book and include death, love, culture, marriage, regret and the world we live in, among many others. The reader feels many emotions while reading this book, ranging from happiness to sadness, and more than likely, will be wiping away tears at the end. It makes the reader think about their own life and ponder aging, forgiveness, family, compassion, and mentors in life, just as Mitch Albom does during the course of the book.

Tuesdays With Morrie Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Tuesdays With Morrie is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

How does mitch struggle as an adult after college graduation

Mitch loses contact with the people he knows from school. He moves to New York City with aspirations of becoming a musician. After his first encounter with death, he becomes disillusioned with his dreams and goes back to school.

Explain the irony in the following passage: “But it was also becoming clear to me—through his courage, his humor, his patience, and his openness—that Morrie was looking at life from some very different place than anyone else I knew. A healthier place.

Maurie is physically dying but sees life in a much healthier way than most people.

How has Morries childhood affected his behavior as an adult?

Morrie's childhood was filled with difficult life lessons. His family was poor, his brother was afflicted with polio, and his mother died when he was only eight years old. The family received the news of his mother's death in a telegram sent by...

Study Guide for Tuesdays With Morrie

Tuesdays With Morrie study guide contains a biography of Mitch Albom, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Tuesdays With Morrie
• Character List

Essays for Tuesdays With Morrie

Tuesdays With Morrie essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom.

• Learning Perspective: The Memoir Genre in "Tuesdays with Morrie"
• Tuesdays With Morrie Life Lesson

Lesson Plan for Tuesdays With Morrie

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Introduction to Tuesdays With Morrie
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Tuesdays With Morrie Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Tuesdays With Morrie

• Introduction
• Main characters
• The Boston Globe and Nightline antecedents

Home Essay Examples Literature Tuesdays With Morrie

Tuesdays With Morrie As A Reflection About Life

• Category Literature
• Subcategory Book
• Topic Tuesdays With Morrie

Too often, people get caught up chasing the wrong things in life or focusing on things which they soon found pointless and feeling regret. “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom, a book that not only focus on an old man’s last words but also talk about his experiences in life and how to live one’s life to the fullest.

Tuesdays with Morrie is a 1997 non-fiction novel by an American writer Mitch Albom. He was a successful sports journalist for The Detroit Free Press, he had a daily radio show in Detroit, a wife, a large house and friends, he thought he had it all. Many years after his college graduation, Mitch learns that one of his favorite professors, Morrie Schwartz, has ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) where he will soon be unable to move or do anything. Mitch began visiting Morrie every Tuesday. Their discussions were different each week; things like regrets, death, love, money; and most importantly was to discuss Morrie’s view on the meaning of life. “I buried myself in accomplishments, because with accomplishments, I believed I could control things, I could squeeze in every last piece of happiness before I got sick and died…” Mitch said. Was he really happy all this time? It is only after Morrie’s lessons that Mitch realizes that in all these years, the time where he immersed on work now seems meaningless.

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One of his most important lessons to Mitch is the absence of love, and that emptiness can be filled only by loving human relationships. “As our great poet Auden said, ‘Love each other or perish.’” Morrie quoted. When there is love, a person can experience no higher sense of fulfillment. “This is part of what a family is about, not just love, but letting others know there’s someone who is watching out for them. It’s what I missed so much when my mother died—what I call your ‘spiritual security’—knowing that your family will be there watching out for you. Nothing else will give you that. Not money. Not fame.” Morrie said. (in the fifth Tuesday).

During their eleventh Tuesday together, they talked about culture. As Morrie sees it, popular culture is a dictator under which people and their community must suffer. Morrie teaches Mitch about how we, not only Mitch but also the rest of the world, should not believe what they say. In rejecting the values of the popular culture, Mitch should create his own set of customs, only when he does that, he begins to rediscover what he is missing in life.

It’s not just Mitch, but most of us is mistakenly of what is real happiness and what is it that makes us happy? And how to live life to the fullest? Tuesdays with Morrie is reminding us to slow down and give ourselves a few minutes to reflect on our life and finding what we had been missing.  

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Tuesdays with Morrie

80 pages • 2 hours read

Tuesday’s with Morrie: An Old Man, A Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-21

Chapter 22-Afterword

Key Figures

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

On learning he will die slowly of Lou Gehrig’s disease , Morrie suffers painful emotions; mornings, he feels sorry for himself. How does he deal with these feelings? Give examples.

Morrie says, “Giving is living.” What does he mean by this, and how might people go about achieving it?

Morrie urges people to love each other, and he offers advice about how best to do so. Describe two of these ways and explain how each improves a person’s interactions with others.

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73 Tuesdays With Morrie Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best tuesdays with morrie topic ideas & essay examples.

• 📌 Most Interesting Tuesdays with Morrie Topics to Write about

👍 Good Research Topics about Tuesdays with Morrie

❓ tuesdays with morrie essay questions.

• “Tuesdays With Morrie” Film by Mick Jackson Nature, loved and praised by Morrie, is used in the film to show the end of his life. The conversations with Morrie help him to remember who he actually is, reconsider his life, and focus […]
• Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom The analysis of the plot, characters, and themes of Tuesdays with Morrie leads to the understanding that today’s society prevents younger adults from learning from the elderly. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
• Death and Grief in “Tuesdays With Morrie” and “Dakota 38” Therefore, this essay offers a sociological perspective of Morrie’s interview and the Dakota documentary with a view-enhancing the understating of the process of death and grief.
• “Tuesdays With Morrie”, M. Albom’s True Narrative The certainty of the mystery of this life is properly fathomed in one realizing that this life is short-lived. Tuesday’s with Morrie is a lesson for us all that illustrates the beauty of living a […]
• Tuesdays With Morrie – The Needs of Many Nurses and Elderly Patients The novel “Tuesdays with Morrie” gives the story of Schwartz and Mitch. The elderly can also encourage me to embrace new values such as empathy and compassion.
• Life Meaning in “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom Morrie questions the importance of spirituality and the ability of a person to love and be loved. The virtue is ridiculed by society and is considered to be a manifestation of the softness of the […]
• Lessons on Death and Life in “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom The book “Tuesdays with Morrie” is about the lessons the author learnt from a former College teacher, coach and friend-Morrie Schwartz on death and life.
• Comparison of “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom and “King Lear” by William Shakespeare He is viewed as a man of wisdom, owing to the lessons he has learned from his sufferings since childhood, which he, in turn, teaches Albom.
• What Makes a Real Hero: Ideas by Bolt, Douglas, and Albom A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave, and Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom are the three works from different times, which help me […]

📌 Most Interesting Tuesdays With Morrie Topics to Write about

• Unique Philosophy of Morrie in “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom
• The True Value of Life in “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom
• Suffering and Pain in Mitch Albom’s “Tuesdays With Morrie”
• Insight Gained From Mitch Albom’s Memoir “Tuesdays With Morrie”
• Comparing Mitch Albom’s “Tuesdays With Morrie” and Leo Tolstoy’s “The Deat”
• Quest for Career and Vocation: “Tuesdays With Morrie”
• The Difficulties of Living With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Als) in “Tuesdays With Morrie”
• An Old Man’s Battle With Death in “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom
• What Readers Learn From the Memoir of “Tuesdays With Morrie”
• The Use of Professor Morrie Shwartz’s Aphorisms as Teaching Tools in Mitch Albom’s Memoir “Tuesdays With Morrie”
• Living and Dying in the Interesting Book “Tuesdays With Morrie”
• An Inspiration Recount of a Mans Life in the Story “Tuesdays With Morrie”
• The Lessons on Life in “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom
• The Theme of Mitch’s Relationship With His Former College Professor in “Tuesdays With Morrie”
• Literary Analysis of the Story “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom
• The Meaning of Life in “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom
• Dealing With Death Inspired by Mitch Albom’s “Tuesdays With Morrie”
• Love and Death in “Tuesdays With Morrie”
• The Unique Philosophy of Morrie in “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom
• Personal Reflection on “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom
• Learning Life Lessons Through the Book “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom
• The Acquisition of Wisdom in “King Lear” and “Tuesdays With Morrie”
• Comparing Mitch Albom’s “Tuesdays With Morrie” and Leo Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilych”
• Learning to Die is Learning to Live: “Tuesdays With Morrie” and Sacred Art of Dying
• The Challenges of Mitch Albom in Writing “Tuesdays With Morrie”
• Humanistic Analysis of “Tuesdays With Morrie”: An Old Man and a Young Man and Life’s Greatest Lessons by Mitch Albom
• The Deterioration of Morrie’s Body and How the Disease Evolves in “Tuesdays With Morrie”
• The Final Teachings of Morrie to Mitch in “Tuesdays With Morrie”, a Film by Mick Jackson
• “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom: The Path to Making the Most Out of Life
• The Inevitable Death in “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom
• The Path to Using the Most Out of Life in “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom
• “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom and Perspectives Gained
• The Main Ideas of the Book “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom
• Old Professor-New Lessons “Tuesdays With Morrie”
• How Does Morrie View Society in ‘’Tuesdays With Morrie’’?
• What Criticisms Did Morrie Give Mitch in ‘’Tuesdays With Morrie’’?
• What Disease Did Morrie Have in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• Did David Die in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• What College Subject Did Morrie Teach in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• Is Freedom Mentioned in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• What Is the Significance of the Little Bird on Your Shoulder in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• What Is the Main Conflict in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• What Is the Relationship Between Mitch and Morrie in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• What Is the Theme of “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• What Does the Briefcase Symbolize in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• What Are the Symbols in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• Who Is Mitch Girlfriend in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• How Did Mitch Change Throughout “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• What Is the Most Important Message in the Book “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• Who Is Charlotte in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• Why Did Mitch Albom Wrote “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• Is “Tuesdays With Morrie” a Real Story?
• What Type of Literature Is the Book “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• What Is the Significance of the Title “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• Who Is the Narrator of “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• What Does the Pink Hibiscus Plant Symbolize in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• What College Did Morrie Teach at in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• What Is the Main Message of “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• Where Did the Story Happen in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• Who Is «Tuesdays With Morrie» Dedicated To?
• What Readers Learn From “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• What Is Mitch Albom Writing Style in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• What Is the Setting of “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• What Type of Character Is Morrie in “Tuesdays With Morrie”?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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IvyPanda . 2023. "73 Tuesdays With Morrie Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." December 15, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/tuesdays-with-morrie-essay-examples/.

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For Len Cariou, Dying Onstage Each Night Has Been ‘Invigorating’

In “Tuesdays With Morrie,” the 84-year-old actor was eager to tackle “a rich role in a show that asks, ‘What if despair and death are not the end?’”

• Share full article

By Sarah Bahr

Chris Domig was ready to throw in the towel.

After a year-and-a-half-long search, a church chapel in Gramercy Park was the only affordable space Domig, the artistic director of the Off Off Broadway company Sea Dog Theater , had been able to find to mount a production of “ Tuesdays With Morrie .” Chairs would have to be arranged on a set of risers on the altar. The props would be a piano, a couple of chairs, a walker and a wheelchair.

The company also had almost no advertising budget.

But it did have Len Cariou, an elder statesman of the theater who in 1979 won a Tony Award for originating the role of Sweeney Todd on Broadway. He would play Morrie, a former sociology professor who, after receiving a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S., reconnects with one of his students in what becomes a series of weekly meetings.

Cariou, also known for his turns in musicals like “A Little Night Music” and “Applause,” had been taken with the character of Morrie ever since he read the 1997 memoir by Mitch Albom on which the 2002 play is based.

“I said, ‘One day, I’d love to play that part,’” Cariou, 84, said last month during a joint interview with Domig at St. George’s Episcopal Church, where the recently extended “Tuesdays With Morrie” is set to run through April 20. “It’s such a rich role in a show that asks, ‘What if despair and death are not the end? What if there’s something more?’”

But one major hurdle remained, Domig said: How were they going to pull off the play with only a handful of props?

Cariou didn’t miss a beat.

“Len was just like, ‘You know what, we don’t need any of this,’” Domig said. “‘We can do it as a memory play that takes place in Morrie’s head.’”

That attitude is typical of Cariou, said Erwin Maas, the director of “Tuesdays With Morrie” and Cariou’s longtime friend and neighbor in West New York, N.J. “He doesn’t need a big theater or feel like anything is beneath him,” Maas said in a recent phone conversation. “What drives him is a passion for the work.”

During his more than six-decade stage and screen career, Cariou has also played the disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law in the 2015 film “Spotlight,” and, for 14 seasons and counting, starred as a former New York City Police commissioner on CBS’s “Blue Bloods.”

But the challenge of playing Morrie is that it isn’t a role that’s easy to leave at the stage door each night. Many older actors, Domig said, might be reluctant to grapple with a subject — facing the end of life with grace — that might hit a little too close to home.

But for Cariou? “It was easy,” he said.

“It’s kind of like what Morrie says in the play when he gets the news that he has A.L.S.,” he continued. “He says, ‘I asked myself, am I going to withdraw from the world, like so many people do, or am I going to live?’ And he decides, ‘I’m going to live as long as I have left.’ And that’s pretty much what I’m doing.”

Domig, who plays Morrie’s former student, Mitch, opposite Cariou each night, just shook his head.

“It’s such a courageous performance,” he said. “Len has no fear about saying, ‘Let’s see where this lives in me.’”

After rereading the play during the pandemic, Domig said, he had been struck by its rawness and candor. He enlisted Cariou and Maas in 2022 for what was initially a one-night reading of the play in the basement of the church.

Around 60 people sat in folding chairs in the church basement, with Cariou and his wife supplying wine for the reception afterward. “Everyone was in tears at the end,” Domig said. “I had person after person tell me, ‘You guys should do this play as a production.’”

Asking Cariou — who was shooting scenes for “Blue Bloods” during the day — to do a one-night reading was one matter, but enlisting him for a full run was another. (Domig knew, he said, that whatever he could manage to pay Cariou for an Off Off Broadway production could in no way compare with a TV contract — but that didn’t seem to matter. “We wrote him a check for $100 for doing the reading,” Domig said. “But in the end, he didn’t cash it.”)

Plus, Domig knew he had something special on his hands — and hoped Cariou thought so, too. He made the ask.

And Cariou said: Yes.

He was not, it turned out, dissuaded by the play’s frank discussions about dying — even as someone who was himself in his twilight years.

“You’re fighting the age question,” he said. “Morrie’s in his 70s when this happens, so I said, ‘Well, then I’ll be in my 70s.’ That’s what you have to tell yourself.”

Neither was he fazed by the demands of remaining onstage for the entirety of a 90-minute show, six times a week, while raging, screaming, sobbing, falling out his wheelchair and inhabiting the body of a man suffering from progressive respiratory failure.

“I’ve found it invigorating,” Cariou said. “The muscles you need to do a play are ones you must use. It’s like when Morrie talks about having A.L.S.: When your muscles no longer get the message, they wither and die. I’m making sure the message does get through to mine.”

Domig interjected: “There have been multiple days he’s on set for ‘Blue Bloods,’ and then he comes and does this show. He has incredible energy and stamina — he’s concerned about my energy and whether I’m getting enough sleep!”

Cariou’s commitment to his craft is no surprise to his former “Sweeney Todd” castmate Victor Garber, who, along with Angela Lansbury , appeared with Cariou in the original Broadway production.

“Being in the rehearsal room with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury; I couldn’t imagine anything greater,” Garber, 75, said in a phone conversation. “Watching Len and Angela do “A Little Priest” at the end of Act I will never be equaled.”

“Len is a consummate actor; he lives and eats and breathes it,” he added. “It’s lucky for New York he’s doing it.”

“Tuesdays With Morrie” sold out the final 11 performances of its original three-week run, and the first show of its extension.

“We’ve had quite a few young people in the audience, and I think they’re surprised how much it resonates with them,” Cariou said. “And the same goes for their parents, the adults. They’re reminded of a mentor or a teacher they had growing up who influenced or inspired them, and who, like Mitch, they may never have seen again.”

Others, though, who have read the book, Domig said, have told him they are apprehensive about seeing the show, either because they have recently lost a loved one or because someone close to them is going through a similar struggle.

“Yes, the man dies at the end every night,” Domig said he tells them. “But the way he goes on that journey — the resilience and joy and encouragement and hope along the way — it doesn’t get more essential than that.”

The show is slated to run a few more weeks, though Domig hopes that may not be the end of its life.

“We’re happy to do it as long as people show up,” he said. “And if I could somehow conceive of a Broadway transfer …”

Well, that’d be just fine with Cariou.

“I’m going to play whatever I can, for as long as I can,” he said.

Sarah Bahr writes about culture and style for The Times. More about Sarah Bahr

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Tuesdays With Morrie

Final performance: April 20, 2024

Review: Len Cariou Gives a Strong Performance in an Uneven Tuesdays With Morrie

Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher’s play runs at the Sea Dog Theater.

At first glance, St. George’s Episcopal Church seems like a stunning venue for a play. Certainly, an arresting tableau greets the audience that arrives for Sea Dog Theater’s revival of Tuesdays With Morrie : one lonely piano centered in the vast, empty chapel, with performer Chris Domig (also Sea Dog’s artistic director) playing soft jazz. The image is both striking and serene, and this holy space feels apt for paying tribute to Domig’s co-star, theater legend Len Cariou, who soon joins him at the piano.

Then the two begin speaking. As the venue’s acoustic challenges become evident, the initial thrill fades. Good chunks of director Erwin Maas’s bare-bones production are difficult to hear, with the two performers’ voices swallowed up by echoes. This proves a particular challenge in the opening scenes, which establish cocky Brandeis student Mitch (Domig) finding an unlikely mentor in kindly sociology professor Morrie Schwartz (Cariou).

But Cariou will not be defeated. A Tony Award winner for originating the title role of Sweeney Todd in 1979, Cariou’s baritone still booms. When Morrie is diagnosed with ALS, Cariou lets that kind smile flicker as the news sinks in. The warm demeanor dims.

Then suddenly, startlingly, he bellows into the overwhelming abyss of the chapel: “Make the sun die, make the sky black! No more laughter, no more singing! I’m gonna die!”

Morrie’s explosion of fear, confusion, and rage jolts the play awake. Cariou overcomes the venue’s acoustic limitation. And from that point, he makes the evening his own, lending the sentimental twee of Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Albom’s play — adapted from Albom’s 1997 best-selling memoir of the same name — greater dramatic weight than it really deserves.

Cariou puts a rueful, almost sardonic spin on Morrie’s life lessons. The pearls of wisdom come thick and fast after Mitch sees Morrie’s end-of-life journey featured by Ted Koppel on Nightline . Guilt-ridden at failing to keep up with his college mentor, he pays Morrie an obligatory visit. But one visit quickly turns into weekly sessions, as Morrie seeks to remind the successful yet spiritually unfulfilled Mitch of the truly valuable things in life.

Cariou lends an easy, unforced air to even Morrie’s most painfully clichéd pearls of wisdom, from “Life is not a competition” to “Love is the only rational act.” More than that, he finds depth beyond what the text offers by playing Morrie as an almost embittered figure, his life lessons part of a character designed to make up for a more disappointing life.

The text itself is not nearly so dark. Hatcher and Albom’s adaptation shies away from the ugliest indignities of an end-of-life journey. Cariou spins their reticence to his advantage, suggesting that Morrie’s wise grandad persona is a fiction crafted for Mitch’s benefit. There is a tougher pain underneath it. But that’s not what Mitch needs to hear — or, for that matter, what audiences want to hear.

Domig holds his own opposite Cariou, but Mitch offers comparatively little depth. His career obsession feels superficial; his guilt at once fleeing the bedside of a beloved uncle is intriguing, but underexplored.

Maas’s staging finds its footing in the play’s later scenes, as Mitch and Morrie edge closer to the audience and become easier to hear. And despite the venue’s challenges, staging Morrie with few props and simple transitions does prove elegant and effective.

But ultimately, it is Cariou who makes the evening shine. Late in the play, when Morrie is barely mobile, he persuades Mitch’s wife to sing for him. (Sally Shaw provides the vocals.) Cariou lights up at the beauty of her voice, grinning with childlike wonder. Somehow, he gives deeply felt, palpable life to another tired cliché: inside, he is dancing.

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