By Tom Nondorf
02 Jun 2009
SESSION WITH NEWMAN
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| Robert Newman |
Question: I spoke to you at the Broadway Flea Market last year, and you said doing work on stage helps keep you sane.
Robert Newman: More like it keeps me from blowing my brains out.
Q: Have you always made time from your daytime-TV career to do stage work?
Newman: For the most part, yes. I joined "Guiding Light" in October of 1981. I would go away every two years, and I did several shows with my wife at the Barn Theatre in Augusta, Michigan, where I got my Equity card back in 1981 along with Jonathan Larson, Marin Mazzie and Scott Burkell. A lot of us got our cards that same summer. And I would go back as their marquee person once I was on the soap opera. I did Picnic, Barefoot in the Park, a lot of good shows there. The last musical I had done was The Fantasticks in 1984 at a theatre in Illinois — then I stopped singing for about a decade. Somewhere around the mid-nineties, I started to miss it. I stepped back onstage as Guido in Nine at the North Shore Music Theatre about six years ago. Since then I've taken off one month every year to work on a musical, and it does keep me sane. I also do a lot of play readings.
Q: What is it about theatre that grounds you?
Newman: I so believe in theatre, and I'm concerned right now. I know a lot of theatres around the country are starting to shut down. I did a big fundraiser for North Shore, and I know they've been struggling, same thing with the Barn Theatre. I believe in the need and the value of good theatre. I had a great experience last August as Charlie Anderson in Shenandoah, a glorious role in a glorious show. Michigan is really struggling, economically, yet people still came, and there, more than any place I've worked in awhile, you could sense people's need to be entertained and to laugh and see dancing farmers, but also to weep and feel and be challenged. People want to come in for a couple hours and feel something because life is so out-of-control sometimes. Again, it shows the value of live theatre.
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| Robert Newman in Sessions |
| photo by Murray Head |
Newman: It's a great show, a good role for me. It revolves around a therapist and his patients. It reminds me a bit of Company. It's a very ensemble piece, but my character's journey is informed by his relationship with his patients. It's quite funny in many places, and quite tragic, like life. And God knows I've been through enough therapy in my life, so I've had plenty of research [laughs].
Q: How did you get involved with the show
Newman: It started with a phone call from Ron Raines, who works on our soap and is very active in theatre. He called me three weeks ago, and I was actually on a golf course. He said, "Listen, I saw a show last night. Good cast, good role. I'm not right for this role, but I know who is." The producers contacted me a few days later; I read for them, sang a bit, and they made me an offer. Then I went to see the show [laughs]. Then I just dove in. So, phone call on a golf course, and now I'm going into the show.
Q: Is it fun to be working on a newer, original piece?
Newman: It really is. And my mandate from the producers was not just to come in and cover or understudy. It was to come in and reinvent the role, and the cast has been extremely generous. The director's been fantastic. It's an exciting process, a great contrast to what I do for my day job.
Q: Have you had the dream of someday being on Broadway?
Newman: Oh sure. I grew up in L.A. and went to college at Cal State Northridge, and we would come to New York and see five shows in four days. I remember that first season it was stuff like Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin in Evita, and — oh my God — Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou in Sweeney Todd. I saw that and went right back the next day. I wasn't anticipating doing soap operas for 28 years; that's just the way it worked out. Broadway is something I definitely have on my agenda.
Q: I think one of the most fascinating things about theatre is you come together with a group of people for the purpose of a show, and then one day, it ends. You've been getting together for nigh 30 years to work on "Guiding Light," and now that is ending. Have you thought of how that will be?
Newman: What you bring up is by far the most difficult part. Obviously, soaps are a great paycheck for an actor. Everybody knows that, and I'll miss that, but that's just a thing. At the risk of sounding cliché, it's the people. I love these people, and I've been through decades of time with them. Off camera, we've been through births of children and graduations from high school, marriages and divorces. I have tremendous respect for the great actors I've worked with, technicians, directors…great people. "GL" has always been a lovely place to work. I'm going to miss it. I'm freakishly at peace though. I've felt that way since the announcement was made. I don't know what that's about, but I'm trying to just go with it. I'm choosing to view this as an opportunity to go out and do things I've never done as an actor and a vocalist.
Q: Any roles you'd love to play?
Newman: Having done Charlie Anderson in Shenandoah, I tell you, I would do that again anytime, anyplace, anywhere. I did Carl Magnus in A Little Night Music at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, and now I'm chomping at the bit to do Frederik. And for every man, Sweeney is in there somewhere.
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| Maya Days and Robert Newman in Sessions |
| photo by Murray Head |
Newman: I'm very concerned about the future of soap operas. I'm saddened by it. Not just our show. I think our show is particularly tragic because it is the longest-running show in the history of broadcast. It started on radio in 1937. But CBS feels it's time to put on another talk show or game show…My fear is that one day we'll turn around, and there will be no daytime drama, and it will be all talk shows and game shows and we'll be scratching our heads and thinking, "Why did we think this was a good idea?" I'm concerned that at least three or four other shows are going off, and we might end up with a couple when it's all over. We'll see. I think soaps are a valuable medium. They employ a lot of people on both coasts: all kinds of recurring actors and day players and extras. On any given day "Guiding Light" employs 300 people, and that's going to go away.
Q: I always wanted to ask someone in soaps if you ever see old scenes you did years ago and have absolutely no memory of doing them.
Newman: Oh yeah! Maybe ten years ago, they came out with a DVD of scenes with Josh and [longtime paramour] Reva, and they brought me in to do the commentary, set me down in a chair and asked me what I was thinking in this scene or that, and there were a couple times when I said, "I have no memory of this scene or this story line." These days I get calls from soap magazines wanting to know details about scenes I shot six weeks ago, and I can't even remember those!
[Sessions is playing the Algonquin Theater, located at 123 East 24th Street, between Park Avenue South and Lexington Ave. Check out sessionsthemusical.com for info.]
HITHER AND YON
News for "Nudie Musical" fans in Los Angeles: A new musical based on the 1975 cult film and staple of late night '80s cable will have a two-night run June 15 and 16 as part of the LA Festival of New American Musicals. Bruce Kimmel's The First Nudie Musical will be presented at the NoHo Arts Center at 11136 Magnolia Blvd. in North Hollywood. Tickets are free. Call (323) 599-7343 for reservations or email nudiemusical@gmail.com. Also check out the festival website for further info: www.lafestival.org . . . . Michael Feinstein and Cheyenne Jackson's show is the big news at Feinstein's June 2-12, but also note Jack Noseworthy will be at the venue on June 29. For ticket reservations and information, call (212) 339-4095 or hit the website at feinsteinsatloewsregency.com . . . . Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch lend their (and Johnny Mercer's) talents to a good cause, the Annual Benefit for Greenwich House Music School on June 15 at the Cherry Lane. Christine Ebersole and Klea Blackhurst will also join in the fun. You'll want to go to www.greenwichhouse.org/rainorshine for details. . . . Michael Barr has passed away. The composer wrote a couple songs ("Try Your Wings" and "Hello Love") on the Blossom Dearie albums I talked about a couple months back. "Where Is The Wonder" from Barbra Streisand's fifth LP is also a Barr composition, as are some songs Joel Grey recorded. You can listen to the Dearie performances as well as Barr himself singing the lovely "Ev'rytime You Smile At Me" at www.myspace.com/michaelprestonbarr. . . . My LP finds of the month: Anyone else have Colpix Records' Bye Bye Birdie album that celebrates the movie yet features the songs as performed by Shelley Fabares, Paul Petersen, James Darren and The Marcels? Rad stuff. And how 'bout this find, from the crates on the floor of my local pawn shop? Original cast album of 110 in the Shade signed by Robert Horton Inga Swenson and Stephen Douglass. All three sigs made out to someone named Harry. Let me know what cool signed cast albums you folks have out there. Happy Tony-ing!
Tom Nondorf can be reached at tnondorf@playbill.com.
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