Up in the Cheap Seats

In this touching and often hilarious theatrical memoir, Ron Fassler tells the stories of how over a four-year span,

between the ages of 12-16, he saw 200 Broadway plays and musicals for as little as $1.50 a ticket—and all from UP IN THE CHEAP SEATS.


Such landmarks as Company, 1776, The Great White Hope, Hair, Follies and Pippin are but a small sampling of the original productions Fassler saw, funded entirely from the money earned as a Long Island paper boy. His eyewitness account to some of the greatest shows and stars of the 1960s and 70s (with visits backstage to a number of them), is furthered by conversing over the past four years with 100 men and women who were part of this remarkable time. Threading his own stories with theirs, the book features memories and insights from the likes of Harold Prince, Stephen Sondheim, Bette Midler, Sheldon Harnick, James Earl Jones, Austin Pendleton, Ken Howard, Hal Linden, Stacy Keach, Jane Alexander and Mike Nichols among many others.


With a half-century of theatregoing behind him, and dozens of credits over a long career as an actor and writer,

Ron Fassler invites us to revisit the plays that impacted him as a young teenager and future artist. Included are indepth studies of the lives and careers of some of Broadway’s finest actors: Julie Harris, Joseph Maher,

Maureen Stapleton and John McMartin—all brought to life in vivid detail and sharp observation.


UP IN THE CHEAP SEATS: A HISTORICAL MEMOIR OF BROADWAY is a first-of-its-kind hybrid that mixes the

personal and the professional; a delightful and intimate portrait of a time in the theatre that once was … and will

never be again.