A memorial service was held yesterday for the late Joel Siegel at New York’s New Amsterdam Theater. Siegel died in June, of colon cancer, at age 63.
The New York Post reports that Charlie Gibson spoke at the service, joking that Siegel “sent the best Christmas cards, and for a Jew that’s not bad.”
WABC-TV reports that on a more serious note, Gibson remembered that Siegel “told me in reviewing movies, you couldn’t hurt anyone. A bad review might have some negative effect on the box office receipts, but the actors, the crew, the directors had already been paid and gone home. But you give a bad review to a play, and you could contribute to an early closing, directly affecting the pocketbooks of those involved.”
Siegel’s widow, Ena Swansea, spoke yesterday as well, saying, “Joel, I will always hold you next to me.”