The Broadway revival of 'The House of Blue Leaves' by John Guare opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theater on April 29, 1986, ran for 398 performances and was nominated for the 1986 Tony Award for the Best Play. Swoosie Kurtz, John Mahoney, Julie Hagerty, Ben Stiller, Patricia Falkenhain, Jane Cecil and Ian Blackman recreated their stage roles in the television production. Swoosie Kurtz won the 1986 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play and John Mahoney won the 1986 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
John Guare's 'The House of Blue Leaves' was originally staged in 1966 by the 'Eugene O'Neill' Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut.
It was John Mahoney's performance in this play that got him the similar role of Sy Flenbeck two years later on Cheers in Do Not Forsake Me, O' My Postman (1992), wherein he played a piano man stealing jingles. Thanks to his Cheers performance, Mahoney was used as a casting template when Frasier and its ensemble were pitched to NBC.
This lead to Ken Levine casting him as Marty Crane in Frasier (1993).
This lead to Ken Levine casting him as Marty Crane in Frasier (1993).