Hey, this musical theater stuff is getting respectable!

Harvard University's 354th commencement will feature actor John Lithgow (a Harvard graduate himself) who currently stars in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on Broadway.

An article in the Chicago Tribune ("Let The Speeches Begin" by Bettijane Levine, Chicago Tribune, Monday May 2, 2005), says:

Most Harvard speakers have been world leaders, including UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who gave last year's address. In fact, Lithgow is the first professional artist to be Harvard's main commencement speaker since novelist Carolos Fuentes in 1984". Reached by phone, the actor says he's "in the process of writing the speech," and a theme is "evolving." But he'll keep it under wraps until the day before commencement, when he must submit it to school authoritities for their perusal.

Gosh, it's going to be hard to rhyme that whole speech! Maybe something from the 2002 musical he starred in, Sweet Smell of Success, would be appropriate for the graduates...

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