I had the great pleasure of seeing Christopher Reeve on Broadway in 1986 at Circle in the Square, in a production of Beaumarchais’ “The Marriage of Figaro” — the play which Mozart used as the basis for his opera of the same name. Reeve played the Count and did it admirably. He was a much better actor than the “Superman” movie and its sequels ever let him show.
A few years later, I briefly worked at the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival while Reeve was rehearsing a production of “Undiscovered Country”. I never crossed paths with him, to my great disappointment, but word of mouth was that he was a cool guy.
It’s sad that a man who took a shattering personal tragedy and turned it into something positive did not live to see significant progress made towards a cure for spinal cord injuries. I hope something good comes from his passing.