Stage and screen peers laud Orbach

More people knew him as Lennie Briscoe, the tough-talking, soft-hearted detective on 13 years -- and infinite reruns -- of “Law & Order.” But to the theater community, Jerry Orbach, who died at age 69 on Dec. 28 of prostate cancer, will be first and always musical-comedy royalty.

So it seemed right that this quintessential New York actor was celebrated Thursday at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York, on the stage where Orbach created the first irresistibly sleazy Billy Flynn in “Chicago” in 1975 and, not incidentally, where he met his wife, Elaine -- a standby for Chita Rivera as Roxie Hart.

Sam Waterston, Angela Lansbury and Jane Alexander were among the celebrities who paid tribute. Dick Wolf, creator of the omnipresent “Law & Order” industry, called Orbach the “ultimate trouper and the ultimate team player.” Wolf and NBC Universal President Jeff Zucker presented the actor’s widow with a $1-million donation to Sloan-Kettering hospital for prostate-cancer research.