Aaron Lazar, the SAG Award-winning Broadway actor, has been diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease Ameotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (A.L.S.), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“I was diagnosed almost two years ago,” the Light in the Piazza star said on the most recent episode of the Carefully Taught: Teaching Musical Theatre with Matty and Kikau podcast. “It’s a terminal disease that kills your nerves and takes your freedom before it takes your life. I’ve been dealing with the symptoms for even longer.”
Early symptoms of A.L.S. include weakness in the arms or legs, cramping or twitching of the feet and hands and slurred speech. Later symptoms include severe muscle weakness, fatigue and breathing difficulty, with death generally resulting from atrophy or paralysis of the respiratory muscles.
“I’ve seen it from the beginning as a divine opportunity disguised as an impossible situation,” said Lazar. “Doctors and medicine don’t know what causes non-genetic A.L.S. There’s literally no reason for its development if there’s no gene associated with it. So I’ve just been on a journey to try and understand how I got it and how I can fix myself. It’s my body. It’s my nervous system. What did I do with it? And how do I fix it?”
In the episode, Lazar also talked about the “constant chronic stress” involved in a Broadway career. Lazar’s extensive Broadway resume includes roles in The Phantom of the Opera, A Tale of Two Cities, Impressionism, The Last Ship, A Little Night Music and Les Misérables. As a singer, he has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center and more.
On his website, Lazar shares that the song “The Impossible Dream,” written by Mitch Leigh and Joe Darion for the musical Man of La Mancha, has taken on special meaning for him in recent months, with its lyrics about hope in the face of adversity:
“To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
And to run where the brave dare not go.”
“I don’t believe it’s terminal,” Lazar said of the illness. “I believe I’m going to beat it … I’m going to heal.”
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