A child war refugee, Nichols, who was born Michael Peshkowsky, emigrated with his family to the United States to escape the Nazis. He worked his way through college at the University of Chicago, where he decided to become an actor. After studying with Lee Strasberg in New York, he returned to Chicago, where with Elaine May, Alan Arkin, Barbara Harris, Paul Sills, and others, he formed the groundbreaking comedy troupe Second City. Soon after, Nichols and May broke from the group and their meteoric rise as a comedy team began in 1957, when they first performed in New York at the Village Vanguard and the Blue Angel. They revolutionized the landscape of American comedy through their appearances in clubs, television, radio, and in their legendary 1960 Broadway production An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Combining dry wit and wry satire, "the world's fastest humans" lampooned faceless bureaucracy and such previously sacrosanct institutions as hospitals, politics, funeral homes, and even motherhood. Journalist Peter Marks wrote, "For sheer urbanity, there was nothing quite like a Nichols and May routine. Their material could be as accessible as a skit about two teen-agers parked for a passionate interlude or as lofty as a parody of William Faulkner."

The fabled partnership only lasted four years, though, and following the breakup, Nichols turned to directing and in quick succession staged Barefoot in the Park, Luv, The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, and The Prisoner of Second Avenue from 1963 to 1972. Five huge hits and four Tony Awards later, Nichols had redefined the Broadway comedy for a new generation. "Mike takes you so into the play," says Neil Simon, "you forget you're in the theater."....

Itzhak Perlman:

The world falls in love with music when Itzhak Perlman takes up his violin. A superstar by any standard and a rarity in the classical field, Perlman has taken hold of the public imagination as few violin virtuosos ever have, bringing joy to millions with his playing. Having lost the use of his legs after falling victim to polio at the age of four, Perlman always sits as he plays. But he never fails to bring audiences to their feet. Perlman's tone has been described as aristocratic, but his playing is decidedly populist: from the most jaded music lovers to the youngest initiates whose love of music Perlman loves to encourage, it is all but impossible to remain unmoved by the musician and his music. His adventurous repertory encompasses virtually the entire classical repertory for the violin as well as some of the most challenging and exciting music of today. A master of baroque, classical, romantic and modern music, he also has lavished his intensely joyful string sounds on everything from the brave old world of klezmer to the limitless frontiers of jazz. His own arrangements of Scott Joplin's ragtime classics have added immeasurably to performance tradition of the American repertory. His heartrending violin solos in the John Williams soundtrack score for Steve Spielberg's Oscar-winning picture Schindler's List proved to be one of Perlman's own proudest achievements. His most surprising, so far, has been his operatic debut, as a bass, singing the small role of the Jailer in James Levine's recording of Puccini's Tosca starring Renata Scotto and Placido Domingo.
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