When I first heard about "Save It For The Stage", Charles Nelson Reilly’s one man show, about five years ago, I thought it sounded like good campy fun and I called to get tickets; but I soon found out that Charles had left Los Angeles and the show was on the road. I was intrigued enough to set up a Google alert and then never expected to think of it again.

But over the subsequent years I began to receive infrequent but intriguing Google dispatches from all over America: From New York to Boca Raton, and San Francisco to Kansas City. The reviews were always amazing. Was this the same Charles Nelson Reilly who I watched as a kid on “Lidsville” and “Match Game"?

Director Frank Anderson

I am TV child of the seventies and by no means a theater buff, but I became more and more fascinated with this show I had never seen.  Late in 2004 we decided to get in touch with Mr. Reilly, who no longer had an agent and who was in ill health and living in semi-retirement in Beverly Hills.

After tracking him down, he kindly invited me over for lunch and screened for me several hours of amateur videotape of his stage show – a big, rambling, casual, chatty piece that Charles had long since retired.

I was blown away. The show was nothing that I expected. And most intriguing to me was that, despite its length (over three hours), you could clearly see the spine of a sharp little movie about an artist’s life – a story both unique and universal.  I immediately called my good friend Frank Anderson and asked if he would like to help me bring this story to the screen.

Frank and I then went to visit Charles one more time and, over a dozen or so mid-afternoon Manhattan's, convinced him to bring the show out of retirement so we could film it for posterity. The result is The Life of Reilly.

We attempted to bring the same sort of irreverence and energy to the film style and editorial techniques that Charles brings to his performance. We did so in order to create a film that is, we hope, a bit difficult to define.

Frank and I believe that audiences will embrace this unusual yet universal film about an artist’s life -- somewhat documentary, somewhat performance film, but never what you would expect.  Just like Mr. Reilly himself. 

--Barry Poltermann, Director    

Barry  Poltermann and Charles.