Broadway Tails

July 9, 2012
Both animal and theater lovers are likely to be amused and moved by Berloni’s memoir of his work over three decades as the pre-eminent animal trainer for Broadway shows. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Berloni put his love of animals to professional use when he was asked to find the right dog to play Sandy in the original production of Annie. Establishing a pattern that has carried through to this day, Berloni visited animal shelters to rescue the right creature for the part. His experience encompassed both hits (such as Annie and Camelot) and flops (Frankenstein, Nick & Nora), but each production offered unique challenges, which Berloni mastered in a diligent and creative way. (For example, to get one dog to bark excitedly during a crucial scene in Annie 2, he had a production assistant wear a horse costume offstage.) There are occasional flashes of puffery (e.g., describing a scene in which the dog playing Sandy walks on stage, sits, and walks off as “one of the most moving moments in Broadway history” is a bit much), but overall Berloni does an excellent job of explaining how he did his job, even with animals as seemingly intractable as cats, pigs, and rats. His repeated rescues of abused animals are touching, and there’s no shortage of funny stories.

June 2, 2008
Animal stage trainer Berloni has been rescuing animals and putting them on the boards for more than 30 years, and his career memoir brings with it some expected charms-lovable, heartbreaking animal stories; giddy tales of Broadway success; and showbiz backbiting. His story begins compellingly when, as a 19-year-old intern on the set of the original 1975 production of Annie, he was charged with finding and coaching the dog that would play Sandy; miraculously, "the dog nobody wanted... that had been run over by a truck just twelve days earlier" played Sandy for seven years. Berloni's at his best when describing his methods or recounting theatre gossip; the chapter about the 1995 Annie revival, and the abrupt dismissal of 11-year-old star Joanna Pacitti (who won a contest), is related with real ire (Berloni was friends with Pacitti and her family). Unfortunately, much else is dully dutiful; neither Berloni nor his co-writer Hanrahan bring a particularly strong voice to the typical business of memoir. Since it focuses on his remarkable craft, it should interest animal lovers and fans of Broadway. B&w photos.