SPENCER'S GIFTS
When J. Robert Spencer's father, a man with 42 years in retail, said to him, "Bobby, to do what you've done in your business, two hits in a row? It's absolutely incredible!," it really hit Spencer how much he has bucked the odds, being a part of two consecutive critical hits. He followed his work as Nick Massi in the Tony-winning Jersey Boys with a 2009 Tony nomination for his performance as a trying-to-cope father in Next to Normal. And, in the future, if you hear Spencer say he feels in his gut a show is going to succeed, you just might want to invest!

Q: Congratulations on your Tony nomination. Is that pretty exciting for you?
Spencer: Thank you, Tom. It is incredibly exciting — such an honor and a blessing. It's been an incredible year for me, so this has been an added smile.

Q: Next to Normal is so emotionally raw in parts, I wonder if you feel like you are acting in it or putting yourself through it.
Spencer: That's why we want to be actors in the first place. I love to take challenges with my emotional journey. Dan is an amazing man to portray. It gives me the depth I've been looking for forever as an artist. The entire cast feels the same way about their characters. Jennifer Damiano [Natalie] said the other day, "I like going there." When you're an actor, it's all about not having inhibitions, and to be that vulnerable and honest onstage, it's the most thrilling thing ever.

Q: Does that take anything out of you?
Spencer: [Laughs.] All six of us, the moment the show starts, we're just in the zone. And the moment the show stops, we all are back to laughing and being goofs. Until this point in my life as an actor, I've never been able to shut the valve on and off, but now I'm at a point in my career where it's working like that. By the end of the night, I've gone through an emotional ringer, but I'm exhilarated. When I get home, that's when the exhaustion kicks in and I collapse!

	J. Robert Spencer in Next to Normal
	photo by Joan Marcus

Q: How has it been working with Aaron Tveit, such an amazing presence in this show.
Spencer: He's great. We connect very well on and off the stage. When we were rehearsing, technically everyone has been with the show longer than I have. Since they did it at Second Stage through to now, they've been with it for a year. I've been with it since the middle of last October. I had a lot more to do and a lot less time to do it in. Aaron has always been so supportive. When we got done with the final rehearsal before we moved to the Arena Stage, Aaron came over to me — we'd just gotten through with a very emotional and very successful run-through — and he was wiping tears from his eyes, as I was, and he said, "Bobby, I don't know how you pulled this off in two-and-a-half weeks. I could not do what you've done." He's a beautiful friend, and I love him dearly.

Q: Do you watch your co-star, Alice Ripley, with awe?
Spencer: I do. When I did Side Show with her, I was a swing, so I would watch her from the sidelines, and I was mesmerized by her. The fact that we are working together again is a full-circle kind of thing, and it's so much fun every night. We really have love for each other and trust for each other. Like the other night, she hit me with a fist, not her open hand, but her closed fist, she went, "Bam!" into my chest, really wailed on me, and I grabbed her, but that was Diana and Dan, not Alice and Bobby. That's the trust we have, we can beat each other up onstage.

Q: It's a fact that one of your two children is named for Geddy Lee of the rock band Rush. Was Rush instrumental in getting you to the stage?
Spencer: Their song "Tom Sawyer" really started it for me. I was in fourth grade living in Texas, my mom was driving me to the swimming pool, and I heard that song on the radio. I was just like, "What is this?" We heard the drum solo, and I pretty much said to my mom, "Mom, I want to play drums." I mowed a hell of a lot of lawns, and had a garage sale and sold all my "Star Wars" stuff and bought a drum set, and I see that moment as the beginning of the artistic journey for me. There's no way I would have gotten the shows I've done if I hadn't gotten my start in music at such a young age.

Q: Most drummers often hide behind the kit. You flipped that and became a leading man.
Spencer: Yeah. I played in a rock band, I was always singing and drumming like Phil Collins. In college, I went to Shenandoah Conservatory and met these amazing musicians. We started a band, but the drummer was better than me, so I became the front man. I just always knew I was going to be in some form of entertainment. I didn't know if it was going to be music or acting.

	J. Robert Spencer with Aaron Tveit in Next to Normal
	photo by Joan Marcus

Q: I read another interview you did, and it seemed like you had almost a premonition about Normal coming to Broadway. Did you sense the quality or just feel it in your gut?
Spencer: Exactly what you said. It was a gut instinct and knowing that this is a magical piece. I've done a lot of workshops and a lot of readings of new musicals and plays, and a lot of them had out-of-town tryouts. Every single one of them said, "We're coming back to Broadway!" And they never did for various reasons. When you've been in the game as long as my wife and I have, you know what is special. She came to a rehearsal and she [said], "This is amazing." I said, "It is, isn't it?" And then when they took it to Arena Stage for one final tweak, I knew that [director] Michael Greif was on board with this thing. I knew how passionate David Stone and the rest of the producers were. I knew how amazing Tom Kitt [music] and Brian Yorkey [book and lyrics]'s piece was. I knew it was the right team, and if I didn't jump on board, I would never live it down. I felt, "I have to make the call. I have to get this audition, and I have to land this role because this piece is going to come to Broadway." The first day of rehearsal Alice and I were in a corner talking, and I said, "We're coming to Broadway." And she was like, "Mmm, yeah." And I said, "Listen to me. We. Are. Coming. Back. To. Broadway. I know it." Thank God I was right.

Q: How did your gut do regarding Jersey Boys?
Spencer: Same feeling. That's why I knew I wasn't wrong about Normal. I was in L.A., and I got a script for a show called Jersey Boys. I read it, and I called my wife and said, "I am coming back to New York with a lead in a Broadway show." This was before auditions. But I read it, and I said, "This is what I've been waiting for!" I just knew it. And the moment we started rehearsals in La Jolla, I think we all knew it. The same gut feeling as with Next to Normal. So, two in a row, baby!

Q: You need to get your gut to pick stocks or something…
Spencer: [Laughs.] My gut is not good with the lottery, that's for sure.

[Next to Normal is now playing the Booth Theatre, 222 West 45th Street. For more information, go to www.nexttonormal.com.]  Continued...