The Fat Man: An Audience with Sydney Greenstreet
Written and performed by Byron Nilsson
Directed by David Baecker
7:00 PM Saturday, November 11
Dee Sarno Theater at Saratoga Arts
320 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

He was Hollywood?s favorite villain during the 1940s, from the wily Fat Man in “The Maltese Falcon” to the scheming Signor Ferrari in “Casablanca” to the sadistic sheriff Titus Semple in “Flamingo Road.”

But now it?s 1949. We are in the home of Sydney Greenstreet, the outsized character actor who made his movie debut in “The Maltese Falcon” in 1941, winning him an Academy Award nomination. He would go on to appear in 23 more films, including “Three Strangers,” “Flamingo Road,” and “Christmas in Connecticut.”

But now, for the first time since he moved to Los Angeles, he doesn’t know what his next movie will be. His old friend John Huston has promised to stop by for supper, to offer him a role in “The African Queen,” but Greenstreet worries that Huston will find him too old and too weak.

“The Fat Man: An Audience with Sydney Greenstreet” will be performed at 7:00 PM Saturday, November 11 at the Dee Sarno Theater at Saratoga Arts on 320 Broadway in Saratoga Springs, NY.

It’s a highly enertaining 70-minute journey through Greenstreet’s life and career, replete with anecdotes about working with Humphrey Bogart, Olivia de Havilland, Peter Lorre, Hedy Lamarr, and many others. It’s a treasure-trove of good stories for lovers of classic Hollywood films.

It’s also an astonishing tour-de-force as Byron Nilsson, who also wrote the show, gives an uncanny impersonation not only of Greenstreet but also many of the people he worked with.

Tickets are $25 ($20 for members) through Saratoga Arts at saratoga-arts.org/event-5461887  by phone at 518-584-4132, and at the door.