Over a hundred other opportunities to conduct would come along before the show closed its four-year run on Broadway. But that night was memorable. It was the first. Eight shows a week is hardly glamorous. It's more or less a job for the musicians, so you can pace yourself.
Actors face the grind.
Not everyone has the stamina for a long run. Freeman's run started the first day he walked into UVM's Royall Tyler Theatre in 1974, a few months before the theatre opened. That first show, the rehearsals and the performance, convinced Freeman that this was something he was destined to do. Last summer Freeman worked on a revival of Irving Berlin's Easter Parade with Tommy Tune and Sandy Duncan. He continues to perform regularly with Duncan, her husband Don Correia, and Guy Stroman in a Broadway review with symphony orchestras around the country.