TONYS 2008 Q&A: Cubby Bernstein

There's a dynamo taking over this Tony season, and No, I'm not talking about Patti LuPone's Mama Rose, I'm talking about that most influential of theatre folk, teenage Tony Campaign manager Cubby Bernstein! With 63 Tony wins under his belt there is no denying the kid knows his stuff, but far from flaunting it, this mysterious theatrical phenom doesn't like the spotlight, but he knows what he likes, and what he likes is Xanadu. Every Tony season he turns his considerable might towards the show he believes he can lead to Tony victory, did I mention he has 63 wins to his name? So with Xanadu as his chosen production the tiny titan of Tony 2008 has come out of the shadows, or at least pulled himself away long enough from the Go Diego Go aisle at Toy "R" Us to answer a few questions for us here at BroadwayWorld.com.

Eddie Varley: Cubby, you've burst on the theater scene with a bang, it's obvious you know the history of the biz, who would you say has been the biggest influence on you so far? Diamond Jim Brady, David Merrick or Hannah Montana.  

Cubby Bernstein: Liz McCann says that I'm the illegitimate son of David Merrick and Carol Channing. Nathan Lane says that I'm the love child he had with Faith Prince. Some people say I'm a character written by Douglas Carter Beane. But the kids on "All that Chat" say that Beane only writes gay men and glamorous women and they're always right. Well I'm neither a gay man nor a fancy woman -- so Beane didn't write me and I must be real. Because everything on All that Chat is always right.

EV: Your track record in picking Tony winners is second to none, what's the Cubby secret?

CB:Like everyone else in the theater I rely on Instincts. Instincts. I find someone with instincts and I follow them. 

EV: What's your favorite theater district hang out, Angus McIndoe, Bar Centrale or Ben & Jerry's?

CB: Sardi's, baby, all the way. That cannelloni is the stuff that made Alex Cohen go go go.

EV:Xanadu is the show you've given your impressive nod to, give your emotions on your first time seeing it, and how that inspired you to give it the "Bernstein Blessing".

CB: The whole gonza mashpucha over that at the 'du. They dragged me kicking and screaming. Did I know it was going to bowl me over? A score by John Farrar and Jeff Lynne? A book by Douglas Carter Beane that doesn't have gay men or glamorous women in it -- hey wait a minute. Direction by Christopher Ashley? The most intimate Broadway theater of them all? Come on, I'm not made of stone, unless Mary Testa looks at me in that snaky hair costume.

EV: Those suits, that style. Who dresses you?