BWW Exclusive InDepth InterView Part 3: Raul Esparza Talks LEAP OF FAITH & More

In this exclusive interview with BroadwayWorld, Raul Esparza takes a comprehensive look back at his spectacular rise to fame from this time ten years ago in THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW on Broadway, his first New York stage role, to now, with career-defining reviews for the out-of-town tryout of the new Alan Menken musical LEAP OF FAITH - as well as his sold-out American Songbook concerts early next year in New York. What does the future hold for Raul Esparza onscreen and onstage? Will it be Shakespeare or Sondheim or something completely new? Mamet or MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG? You may very well find your answer here.

What can't Raul Esparza do? The answer reveals itself every time he graces the stage, as is amply revealed almost immediately in any of his performances - which is absolutely everything imaginable, in any role he chooses to take on, from musicals to plays to television and film roles. As he has proven, in playing everything from Che in EVITA to Ned Weeks in THE NORMAL HEART to, most recently, Hapgood in the Encores! ANYONE CAN WHISTLE. He even did the original Riff Raff and writer of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW one better, by the humbled creator's own admission, in his Broadway debut in 2000 at the Circle in the Square on Broadway. So, on this, the tenth anniversary of his blazing Broadway birth, we have Raul Esparza - in his most indepth discussion to date - detailing his drive, passion and undying devotion to not only the betterment of his own performances and the shows he stars in, but also the all-to-uncertain future of the theatre today. He is on Broadway to stay, and while Hollywood may come calling - as has happened quite frequently, particularly recently in his guest starring roles on TV's LAW & ORDER and MEDIUM, as well as his performances in Sidney Lumet's FIND ME GUILTY and Wes Craven's MY SOUL TO TAKE - Broadway is his first and only true love, and recent roles in Pinter's THE HOMECOMING, Mamet's SPEED-THE-PLOW and Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT - as well as the upcoming Alan Menken/Glenn Slater musical LEAP OF FAITH - further proves that point. This remarkably gifted and charismatic Broadway superstar is probably beloved most of all by Broadway babies for his incomparable portrayals of George, Bobby and Charley in the incredibly varied Sondheim musicals SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, COMPANY and MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, respectively, with all three being definitive. Hapgood in ANYONE CAN WHISTLE last year, too. Case A, B, C and D that he can, indeed, do it all. Always.

Taking us on the journey from Miami to Chicago to New York to Los Angeles to Cuba and beyond, Raul Esparza reveals all and spares none in his idiosyncratically, fiercely intellectual and compelling manner, in a candid conversation always overflowing with illumination, intrigue and humor, as is Esparza's chosen mode of discourse in relating the art of acting and why he does what he does - and, does it so well.

In a conversation encapsulating everything from Albee and WHO'S AFRAID OF Virginia Woolf to Aristophanes and Virginia Woolf herself - and even a little Stephen King - this concluding portion of this exclusive interview with this remarkably gifted actor ends with a look ahead to LEAP OF FAITH. Plus, what's on his iPod, what books he's reading, and a whole lot more!

Part III: By Leaps, Bounds & Faith

PC: Tell me about that moment where you move from the "Someone's" to "Somebody's" in "Being Alive" in COMPANY - that crack in your exterior; the character's real birth. Did you want that to be a visible break?

RE: Absolutely. That moment, I'm sure a lot of people have issues with it because there are ways of doing that song that everybody relates to. The song is a nervous breakdown. He's been so repressed and so stuck in his life for so long, and when that song finally happens - it comes right on the heels of "The Ladies Who Lunch", where he has just been told, "You know what we all know? That we are gonna die." What we all know, is that if we keep going like this, we are going to die - that's why those women are running so fast. And, he hears it. (Pause.) And, he also sees a future for himself that is not very attractive!

PC: Especially not now, after this realization.

RE: It's a future that's totally disconnected and totally repressed - just more babying. Jus walking in his friends' footsteps, being told what to be. And, maybe, even half a life with Joanne.

PC: Oh, yeah!

RE: It's such an interesting proposition, because he and Joanne are so similar. When he hears all that... he cracks. It's a breakdown. It's a total nervous breakdown - because he's been holding it in for thirty-five years.

PC: And, he also proposes to Amy, of course.

RE: Yeah, he proposes to Amy, but it's like a little boy playing house.

PC: It's not authentic.

RE: When he proposes to Amy, it's like, (Bobby Voice.) "Oh, I know! We'll do this! It'll be easy!"

PC: And, it's anything but.

RE: I'm often told by people that they love my version of "Marry Me A Little" so much.

PC: Me, too! It's marvelous.

RE: But, some people have said that they want "Marry Me A Little" to be the song at their wedding - (Pause.) and I say to myself, "Oh, boy! I don't really hold out a lot of hope for that relationship!" (Laughs.)

PC: Totally missing the point!

RE: Yeah, I mean, it's a song about lying to yourself. He's lying to himself in every syllable - he doesn't know it, of course. So, that's different. (Pause.) When "Being Alive" starts, he is so angry - and, he is raging. He is raging at them and he is raging at himself. And, he's pretty ready to lie to himself. He's pretty ready to say, "These are all the lousy things. This is why marriage sucks. This is why life brings you down. These are all the things I hate." He's ready to go down that road, but, he starts to hear the lie and he starts to hear himself - and he doesn't buy it anymore. And, then, he breaks. (Pause.) The song goes from being a raging tempest in him to him taking his first steps and he starts to grow up. It starts to become a prayer. It moves from being a breakdown to a prayer. And, he is praying at the end. He is really praying: "Somebody, somebody hold me." He's offering it up when he's standing there on the ledge at the last moment.

PC: The perfect final moment.

RE: It played a little bit on the video, but I don't know how much it played in the theatre, but: I have got a little bit of a smile on my face.

PC: What a great choice.

RE: At last, right? (Laughs.)

PC: (Laughs.) Bobby can be a bit dour.

RE: He's breathing at last. I don't know what happens next - I don't think he runs off and gets married!

PC: Me either!

RE: At least not immediately. But, he's finally an adult. (Pause.) He grew up.

PC: What do you think Bobby's sexuality is? Is he 100% heterosexual, in the middle, homosexual, or what?

RE: I think he's straight - but, maybe not one-hundred percent. After all, he does sort of dally. He does talk about that - that he's had experiences with men.

PC: And Peter's proposition to him.

RE: Yeah, but, for me, he has to be a heterosexual man because if it becomes about him being a gay man dealing with these things, then you are dealing with a play about sexual identity crisis. His inability to choose somebody could then be based entirely on the fact that he is not acknowledging who he fundamentally is - that is not what COMPANY is about.

PC: What is it about?

RE: COMPANY is about marriage and commitment and the connection to someone else. If you add that extra layer of something else - you know, "Well, he's gay and he's just looking for a man and he won't admit it," - then you're taking away the central argument of the play and complicated it.

PC: In an unnecessary way.

RE: Yeah, that's kind of a no-brainer, in a way. But, you could do a production where you explore that, but then you are not doing COMPANY - you are doing TORCH SONG TRILOGY or something.

PC: I've heard of a production with Billy Porter as Martin instead of Mara.

RE: Hmmm. (Pause.) It's fine. I don't really go for that kind of theatre, honestly.

PC: What do you think of a switch like that, to any play?

RE: I just feel like you can do that for certain plays because it might illuminate some things.

PC: But, not COMPANY.

RE: In COMPANY's case, it's not a play about sexual crisis. This play is about a person's inability: to be an adult; to grow up; and, to own our own lives. If you add all that extra stuff into it, it lets him off the hook.

PC: An easy out.

RE: Yeah, it's "Oh, he's not afraid of commitment, it's just that he hasn't figured out that he wants to commit to a man." Or, "He's not afraid of marriage, he's just...". But, they wrote something else. And, you have to honor what they wrote.

 

PC: And Richard III would be a whole different thing, then - since he was actually gay but it's not totally explicit in the text, necessarily.

RE: Yeah, that's a whole other thing! But, that's a secret you can hold on to an actor, and, maybe you can play it that way if you feel like it. I mean, many of the great figures of history and art have been homosexual and how much it influences their position in history sometimes is very incidental and is sometimes very important.

PC: Indeed.

RE: Virginia Woolf is a great writer. Virginia Woolf is not a lesbian writer. She is a great writer of human stories. The fact that she had these connections with these women, as well as her marriage, probably had a huge impact on what she wrote.

PC: Undoubtedly.

RE: Whitman, however - this great American poet - his sexuality defines what he writes. So, he writes with a gay voice when there was no gay voice. That's extraordinary.

PC: A pioneer.

RE: I think Sondheim is a great example of a writer who is not concerned with sexual politics in his writing - he is just writing about human nature. And, I think it is interesting that he is one of the best observers of relationships between and woman that we have ever had onstage. Anything else about him, personally, is incidental to the incredible ability that he has to write about humanity and people's honest experiences in life.

PC: I completely agree.

RE: You know, Terrance McNally is another one. I've never seen a better example of a couple coming together the way we really do in life than they do in FRANKIE & JOHNNY. FRANKIE & JOHNNY just breaks my heart. I feel like, "Who cares if he's straight or he's gay when he wrote it?" Here, this artist has tapped into something that is totally universal about the way people come together.

PC: Speaking of Virginia Woolf - what about ORLANDO and the great gender-switch of literature? In Julie Taymor's new THE TEMPEST, Helen Mirren plays Prospera [Prospero in the play]. Would you be open to accepting that sort of role, perhaps in Shakespeare?

RE: I think that can sometimes be very, very interesting. It might illuminate the play, but I haven't seen the film yet. You know, Helen Mirren can pretty much mow the lawn and she'll be great. (Laughs.)

PC: Is Virginia Woolf one of your favorite authors?

RE: Oh, yeah. She is. I am a big reader of Virginia Woolf - she is probably one of my all-time favorites.

PC: What's your favorite of hers? TO THE LIGHTHOUSE?

RE: Oh, I go all over the place with the books that I like. But, she's one of the ones that really stays with me because, you know, very much like Sondheim and very much like Chekov and very much like Shakespeare - and I say that very consciously about Sondheim, or Stoppard, say, or Pinter - but, particularly, say, someone like Sondheim: when you come across something in Virginia Woolf's writing - as you do in Steve's - that stops you completely in the middle of the page, or in the middle of the performance and it makes you think, "How did he write that down? How did she write that down? How is it possible that any human being could name that thing that I have experienced in my life so completely - name it; put it into words; and, then, put it up there for me to see myself. It all just takes my breath away.

PC: "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."

RE: Exactly.

PC: What do you think of THE HOURS by Michael Cunningham? Would you consider a stage adaptation of that?

RE: Oh, Michael Cunningham's THE HOURS? Yes, I liked that novel very much. Onstage, I would love to see... of hers?

PC: I've heard they are doing a stage version of THE HOURS at some point - potentially a musical.

RE: Yeah, but that's really the womens' story. But, MRS. DALLOWAY is not a bad idea for a musical! Not at all.

PC: That's why I brought it up! ORLANDO, too.

RE: Oh, yeah. ORLANDO, I think, could be quite gorgeous if you get a kind of Julie Taymor take on it. It has to have some major fantasy to it, obviously.

PC: Of course.

RE: A friend of mine did an adaptation of THE WAVES many years ago. That piece works very well onstage. (Pause.) Some of those things play very well - I think ORLANDO would be great. THE HOURS? I enjoyed the book and the film. But, MRS. DALLOWAY is one of my favorite novels.

PC: You'd be an incredible Septimus. He becomes you.

RE: Yeah, Septimus is one of those characters that has always stayed with me. I directed a project at NYU my last year there where we did a musical adaptation of the first thirty pages of MRS. DALLOWAY.

PC: No way! What was that like?

RE: It was great! The music was really, really beautiful. My friend David did the music and he just did this little adaptation. It opened with this little monologue by Clarissa describing how she is going to buy the flowers and then you went into the park - it had a sort of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE feel to it, actually, because it was people in a park looking up at an airplane and, then, it ends when the airplane comes back and they all figure out what it is. The center of the piece is Septimus and his wife when he is hearing voices in the shrubbery and his friend - his dead friend - is talking to him. He wrote this beautiful ballad for Septimus called "Beauty". At the time, I was directing the project so I couldn't play it - but, I kept wishing I could have!

PC: I bet!

RE: I think it's a gorgeous role. And, it's such an interesting piece because it's a two-character piece where you would have a musical with Clarissa and Septimus always circling each other, musically.

PC: How illusory to the story.

RE: In this case, Clarissa Dalloway didn't sing. But, it was one of my most favorite projects at school.

PC: What about audio books? I loved all 200 hours of you reading Stephen King's UNDER THE DOME!

RE: (Laughs.)

PC: 40 discs and worth every moment! And, every penny@

RE: That was hard to do. It was so exhausting.

PC: Did you get the script before everyone else? Did you get a secret Stephen King manuscript couriered to you months before it came out?

RE: (Laughs.) Yeah, I got a proof of it a full six, seven months before I ended up doing it.

PC: Oh, wow! So, you got to read the long version? The 1200 page version? They cut a couple hundred pages.

RE: I just loved it. It was so huge. (Laughs.) I know it was close to what we ended up actually reading, though.

PC: As a horror fan, that must have been such a thrill to be one of the first on the planet to read one of his manuscripts - particularly this one, since he's been working on it for thirty years.

RE: Oh, it was incredible to be reading one of his books like that. And, THE SHINING is really my favorite book of his. I really love the film, too. And, I SALEM'S LOT is an incredible piece. SALEM'S LOT would make an interesting opera.

PC: With vampires all the rage, now is the time!

RE: (Laughs.)

PC: MISERY would make a great musical.

RE: Oh, that's a great idea! Wow!

PC: It's been attempted.

RE: Yeah, you've gotta be careful with a lot of those characters. When people ending up killing each other, though, I can't imagine those people would sing about it, because then you are talking about, you know, serial killers. If they can sing about it, then you would be talking about complete lunatics like Sweeney Todd.

PC: Exactly.

RE: But, in a lot of Stephen King stories the evil just sort of creeps in without anybody knowing it's happening. That's the trick, I think, with putting Stephen King into a musical idiom - these people can't really know what's happening. If they do, then the horror doesn't work. You can't know yourself that well, and you have to know yourself pretty well in order to be able to sing [as a character].

PC: The hardest part of writing a musical.

RE: That was the real trick with COMPANY when we were working on it, Steve kept saying, "The point here is that we have a hero who never really sings about what he is truly feeling because he has no idea what he is truly feeling." So, he was trying to write a musical where, in a way, the lead character doesn't sing - not really.

PC: ROSE MADDER is my favorite King novel.

RE: Oh, that's a great one!

PC: You've read that? You must really be a fan.

RE: Yeah, yeah, I read that! I read that. I actually read that on the set of the Wes Craven. I loved it. The painting...

PC: What draws you to King?

RE: He has such a great way of writing that makes you feel like he is whispering in your ear.

PC: Like a campfire.

RE: Yeah, it's the suggestions - he's just hanging out with you and telling you a story and, then, little by little, he starts dropping in little hints that something isn't quite right. But, it all feels like you are kind of cozy around a fire, and you are sitting in a comfy place, and your best friend is telling you the story - and, little by little, your best friend starts to become... (Pause.) a little frightening.

PC: Or, a lot!

RE: (Laughs.) It's just the little asides - those little parentheses that he has in his writing are just so much fun. I don't know how you could ever convey that in the theatre. You could totally do that on film - because the camera can cut to something that isn't the central picture - but, onstage, how you would get that sense of some sort of whispered moment that just went right by you and chills you to the core, which is the heart of what Stephen King writes.

PC: Is there a favorite moment of yours in one of his novels that comes to mind where you had that experience?

RE: Hmm.(Pause.) Oh, yeah, in THE SHINING, when the little boy is playing in the concrete tube. You know that scene?

PC: In the topiary garden. Chilling.

RE: Then, the snow falls and he's not sure how to get out and he suddenly realizes that something else is in there with him - and it's the two dead girls. It's like the rustling around at the other end of the corridor, of the tube - and, suddenly, he's alone in the dark. I remember I read this when I was, God, like twelve or something, but it has stayed with me all these years. What he says is, "The snow feel and now it's dark in here... (Pause.) and, oh yeah, something else is in here with me." It's like (Shudder.), "Err."

PC: Shivers! What about CARRIE the musical?

RE: I actually never saw it. I am really looking forward to this idea that they are putting it up again.

PC: Yeah, Lesley Gore broke that story to me. The reading was quite wonderful. The score is great.

RE: Yeah, I don't quite know enough about it to speak about it, but what I've seen of those two women in it was just incredible. They were great.

PC: I hope it works.

RE: Yeah, I think what it comes down to is: it's hard to be scary.

PC: Near impossible. Especially onstage.

RE: You know, we don't do thrillers onstage anymore - you know, DEATHTRAP and those old Agatha Christies. Those thrillers, they just don't do them anymore and they are so much fun. The original production of DRACULA supposedly made people crazy they were having so much fun.

 

PC: Oh, the Edward Gorey?

RE: Yeah, yeah. I don't know why. Maybe we are just a little jaded. It's hard to pull off that kind of stuff without turning into camp.

PC: I'm sure we'll get the great horror house production when you finally play Sweeney - someday!

RE: (Laughs.) Oh, I am looking forward to that! Believe me.

PC: Define collaboration.

RE: Collaboration? (Long Pause.) Collaboration is running together towards the same goal, while everybody is doing their very best and putting in their own suggestions, but, everybody is running together towards the same goal - for me, it's like a relay race, sort of; that's the thought of it. You know that that guy has this and the composer has that and the writer has this and you have that and we are all headed to one place. Every contribution just keeps moving the energy forward - you pick up the ball and run with it and then the next person picks it up and, then, eventually, you are all running with it together.

PC: Where do you hope to be in ten years?

RE: Where do I hope to be in ten years? If I had an answer to that question... (Laughs.) everything would be fine in my life. (Laughs.)

PC: (Laughs.)

RE: I truly have no idea. I mean, I just turned forty so I could not have imagined the last ten years. So, I try not to think to much about what the future holds and just live in the present.

PC: That's the best way to be.

RE: I know that I want to continue to make the kind of contributions I've made - certainly, to the theatre and the arts. Hopefully, I will have written something of my own or created something of my own to share my own experiences with audiences, by then. (Pause.) And, the house with the picket fence, naturally. And the kids. And the dog. (Laughs.) And everything.

PC: Do you want to direct more in the future?

RE: I would love to. As I said, I studied directing a lot in school and it was a great way to learn about acting. I would love to. You know, I often find that I have all these ideas and I incorporate them into my performance and, sometimes, into the staging of the whole show where I make a suggestion that people just take and run with. It's kind of thrilling. It's a hard skill, but I like talking to actors. I find that when you are trying to direct a scene or whatever it is, and you are trying to convey to someone else about what you would like them to do, it makes you a better actor, too. (Pause.) I love the whole picture. There's not anything in the theatre that I am not interested in exploring.

PC: Denis O'Hare recently told me one of the great performances we'll never see is you in ASSASSINS. You did the workshop. Can you tell me what happened?

RE: I was hired to do that right the day I was starting to do TICK, TICK... BOOM. That was the first time I met Stephen Sondheim. And, we junked the whole thing after September 11th. By the time the show came around again I was doing TABOO, so I couldn't do it - and I regret that. It was a real shame, because I really wanted to be a part of that. I just wanted to work with Sondheim, so I put everything I had into that audition - and I got hired for it. That was so amazing. But, then, it didn't happen.

PC: What was the workshop like?

RE: That reading was one of those one-off, magical moments - like, you just had to be there - and, at the time, we knew that there was no way it could be produced at that time. It was like two weeks after September 11th.

PC: Sondheim told me it's the most perfect production of one of his shows. Did you see it?

RE: I did see it and I think it is Joe Mantello's finest staging. I thought it was outrageously great. He really, really did a great job as a director. And, the actors and the world of the piece - it was all exemplary. I don't think you could have asked for better. I loved it.

PC: When is your solo album going to happen?

RE: Oh, who knows? That one is still in the cards. We'll see what happens.

PC: It has to happen soon! It's been ten years!

RE: I know, I know. Everybody tells me that. But, I just focus on the acting and focus on the acting and focus on the acting, and I know that I have to give so much to the acting that I never thought I'd have the time to, furthermore, put down music, as well. But, it's probably time to do something. I'll figure that one out. I think that is something I'd like to do. I mean, I've been doing so much singing - I mean, we just finished four months of singing with LEAP OF FAITH out there [in LA] and everything. So, it's time to do something, I think.

PC: So a recording is definitely in your future?

RE: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I'll end up doing something soon, I'm sure. I am sure of it. Especially when you are doing these concerts, an album becomes a calling card. So, I have to give it some thought because I want to do it just right. But, I'm sure we will put something together. And, I am still keeping my fingers crossed on LEAP OF FAITH because the experience in Los Angeles was huge. I mean, we've got work to do - but, I know they want to bring it in. I think that can be a major musical.

PC: Alan Menken was just telling me how thrilled he was with your performance in it - he said it was the best performance he's ever seen in one of his shows. I would agree completely.

RE: Aww, thanks you. It's a great role. They have not written a great role for musical theatre like that in at least twenty years.

PC: Menken is at a career peak between SISTER ACT, TANGLED and LEAP OF FAITH.

RE: I think it's amazing. What he's written with LEAP OF FAITH just blows me away. He hit's a stride there in the second act where the last half hour of the play just runs. It just runs like gangbusters. Each song gets better than the last one and by the time you get to "Leap Of Faith" the audience is just a wreck. I am just... thrilled... to be a part of it. I believe in him so much and I think this could be something major. I think LEAP OF FAITH is his best score since LITTLE SHOP.

PC: Do you anticipate a Broadway announcement in the next couple months?

RE: We'll see. I don't know where the producers are with that. I do know that they are working very hard to secure dates and bring the show in. I will say that some major work has to happen - and that's all good. It's all good. We did not leave Los Angeles in a panic, we left Los Angeles inspired - and that's just great. It's just great. (Pause.) I've never done a show out of town, and that's just a whole other kind of experience, so we left going, "All right. We know what we want to work on, now we know what to try." You only get one shot at Broadway, so you want it to be the very best version of the story you want to tell.

PC: Totally. I hope it comes in soon.

RE: I don't know the actual plans and dates and things yet, but I do know that everybody is excited to move forward with it.

PC: Alan said pretty much the same thing. That's nice to hear, that you are all on the same page.

RE: Yeah, and he's have a great run right now with TANGLED. I'm really happy for him.

PC: Number one at the box office.

RE: That's great! I think it's a good piece of Disney, a good musical and he's just outdone himself. I am proud as hell to work with him. The guy is a genius. Anything you throw at him, he'll just run with it and try to come up with something more thrilling. Being in the room with him is like being in the room with a firecracker: you just never know where you're going to go next, but it's all so much fun!

PC: Perfect analogy.

RE: To know that he trusts me... I mean, I'll start playing around with stuff. He comes from the same music background as me - the music that he likes and the music that Glenn Slater likes is the music that I love, too. And, it's mostly rock - some is theatre - but, it's mostly great rock. To just kind of have that energy in the room and the ability to write pop, rock, musical theatre and all these sounds going around - playing with all this stuff is like being in a playground. Or, a candy store.

PC: What's on your iPod right now? Top 5?

RE: Top 5 on my iPod. (Long Pause.) What have I been listening to? Hmm. What have I been doing? (Pause.)

PC: "We all go a little mad sometimes, Wendy." (SHINING reference).

RE: (Laughs.) The thing is, what I've had lately is all directly related to LEAP OF FAITH!

PC: Like what? For inspiration?

RE: Right now, I have real throw-backs. I have "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" with a gospel choir singing it. I had Elton John's "Take Me To The Pilot". I had the Sounds of Blackness - "I Believe". I have some Tom Waits - "Looking For The Heart Of Saturday". Then, Marc Brussard - "Home".

PC: I'm not familiar with Marc Brussard.

RE: Oh, Jesus Christ, the guy is great! It's like delta blues/funk - really amazing stuff. He was just at BAM. It's really great - you know, that New Orleans sound. The guy is tremendous. It stops your heart, that song "Home" - it's just as exciting as hell.

PC: Sounds amazing. What else?

RE: As I said, I've been listening to a lot of Marc Brussard. And some Matthew Perryman Jones. And Matt Nathanson. And Sugarland. I like sort of country and sort of indie rock in looking for inspiration for music in ways to do arrangements of songs. But, yeah, those are the songs on the iPod because it was all LEAP OF FAITH-based!

PC: I'm so glad you guys released that promo single on iTunes. It's great that there is a sample of the score out there.

RE: Oh, yeah! I'm glad, too! That worked out really nicely. They were going to do that little thing and I'm glad that they put that together and put it out there.

PC: Would you ever consider a Rat Pack type show? Singing the standards? There's a little of that in LEAP OF FAITH, too.

RE: Well, LEAP OF FAITH is more country/rock/gospel-based - but, I agree that there is a little Vegas in him! (Laughs.)

PC: Have you heard LOVE NEVER DIES? You should play the Phantom. It's Lloyd Webber's best score since EVITA.

RE: Really? I have not heard. I know Glenn wrote the lyrics. But, to hear you say that - now, I really have to hear it. But, no I don't know it... yet.

PC: There's a really hard rocker in that show, "The Beauty Underneath". I'd kill to hear you sing it. It could be a great show with you in it.

RE: Yeah, I definitely am going to listen to the score now - just to hear it. Lloyd Webber has some great songs that I have always liked. Some great stuff. I think EVITA is a perfect piece of musical theatre writing. And SUPERSTAR - just "Gethsemane" is worth the price of admission alone!

PC: I completely agree. I loved your "Andrew Lloyd Webber Love Medley" Trio on YouTube.

RE: Oh, I never google or YouTube myself so I didn't even know that was up there! I don't check that stuff out so much.

PC: You don't watch yourself - even on YouTube.

RE: I don't even know what's up there, honestly! I'm sure there's a lot of stuff that's been filmed. One of the cool things, actually, is that people have clips out there. I think it is giving Broadway theatre a lot of traction nationally. That's why the internet has been a huge boon for Broadway - you know, because people who could only connect to Broadway through the Tonys once a year, or maybe an article in their local paper, or a community theatre production are now actually able to check in with what's going on in New York and it's no longer just an only-New York thing.

PC: And by doing this column you are putting your money where your mouth is, for sure.

RE: You know, I go all over the country and people know my work - especially, a lot of kids. It's all because of the internet. They know a lot of my work, those kids. Some school, actually, was like studying me!

PC: Really? What was the course?

RE: They were studying the way I act - I found all this out during TWELFTH NIGHT - their teacher uses my clips as an example. That couldn't happen without the internet, because unless you saw it live, it's gone.

PC: Not anymore.

RE: Yeah, it really gives people access to Broadway in a way that they never had before. I think it's great. I think that's why you see so many younger audiences, too - which is just so fantastic.

PC: You and Alice Ripley are the most popular Broadway performers, as well, so you are one to talk about it - I'm talking internationally, as well.

RE: Yeah, I'll get stuff from Spain, or from France, or from people all over the world. People have seen this material. Because it's the stage, you feel like you did the show and you saw it or you didn't, but the show's over. But, now, it exists beyond us. That's what so great about the COMPANY DVD we were talking about - it goes on beyond us. We'll be gone and that will still be the COMPANY that people see and relate to - and, that's incredible, to have that preserved.

PC: Forever.

RE: With the YouTube stuff and any of the sites - like yours - that allow those kids to access our world: which, for someone living in the middle of nowhere in Salinas, California who doesn't get into the city or can't - or lives in Illinois - New York is not right around the corner, but you can feel like you can belong to something. Because theatre has such a big, huge community around it online. I know that it pulls audiences. I think the internet is imperative, because if those people aren't coming then the theatre is dead.

PC: The internet connects us more directly with our passions, when used correctly. Plus, performers like you and Alice connect with their fans by doing big interviews like this where you know you can reach them.

RE: Yeah, it's just a different era. It's a different era and I am glad for that. I am not one of those people who gets bad about bootlegs and stuff because it just means it's out there and someone can see it.

PC: You can watch any of your performances on YouTube. Thank God it's at least there.

RE: That's cool. I mean, look, this concert I am doing on Monday: we did this one thing at The Zipper and then somebody filmed it and I got to see it. I didn't know how the song played - "O Holy Night" - so, even for me, somebody showed me footage of us doing it and I'm like, "Oh, cool! I like that! That went really well." Or, "What a nice night that was!" So, even concerts or one-offs or moments when you talk to somebody and they tape it - to see it later is kinda cool.

PC: How did you become involved with ASTEP in the first place?

RE: Mary Mitchell Campbell founded it and she is one of my very best friends and she was my musical director for COMPANY and re-orchestrated it. I got involved with the organization because of her and what she believes in with helping the kids. She had a real massive experience that changed her life when she was in India, working with girls in orphanages in such incredible poverty. She felt it was really important to bring the arts to these kids and to teach them to use the arts to empower some sense of themselves outside of this poverty and pain and loss. The fact that we have these spaces in India and South Africa and in the Bronx, here in the US, is really incredible. Mary is a dear friend and she is going to be my musical director at my Songbook concert.

PC: And the Christmas in New York concert?

RE: Lynne [Shankel] had this idea to do a concert a few years ago, as a fundraiser for ASTEP and for the kids as a Christmas thing. Just for the fun of it, you know?

PC: For a good cause.

RE: Yeah. But, it turned out to be - I mean, I don't like doing benefits and, to be honest, I kinda hate it - but, this one turned out to be really fun. So, I've come back every year now because it's such a great cause and we are with friends and you sing Christmas music and it is such a warm and wonderful couple of hours in New York. And, you feel really lucky to live in this city and work with such cool people. I think to see these kids brighten up because they heard a Stephen Schwartz tune in India... (Laughs.)

PC: How moving that must be to see.

RE: They do these things with the arts and it just transforms them. I am really proud to be a part of it. And, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger every year - which I am glad of, because, you know, if we can help the organization in any way then that is really important.

 

PC: And anyone can buy the album and make a contribution!

RE: Yeah, it's a really good album. And it's gonna be a great night. If we can sell copies of the album, that's a great start. The arts is always the first thing to go, because it seems superfluous to people. But, if you don't teach the arts - even to those who don't have a real interest in pursuing that - you are missing out on one of the greatest ways the human mind works; the human soul works.

PC: Undoubtedly.

RE: You don't teach a child to play the piano or to paint or to be in a play because you are tying to create Picassos, or Beethovens or Mozarts or Chekhovs or great ballet dancers - what you are doing is you are teaching a child to think for themselves, creatively. To think outside the box; to make connections that are tangential instead of literal; to learn things not by rote, but invent them for themselves; and, to know that all things are interconnected - because that's the way the real world works. Everything is interconnected. And, if you only teach English and history and mathematics and science, and you don't supplement it by encouraging artistic expression, then you will never, ever allow a child to truly expand their minds and say the truly original things that may be able to think about English and art and math. Because, I tell you, a business man has to be just as creative as anyone making a painting!

PC: You got that right. It's all connected.

RE: For some reason, people think the arts aren't necessary - I think it's one of the most necessary things of all. I think they think we are trying to make every student an actor and that is not the case - but, the thing of it is, if you study acting you may end up being one of the greatest lawyers there ever was. It's totally applicable.

PC: All play into each other.

RE: The main thing is that we just need to learn to think for themselves.

PC: Do you think people try to be something else in an attempt to make life easier?

RE: Yes. Too often in this life, it is very easy - and, particularly in this country - for us to be told who we are and where we fit. Everybody wants stuff to be black and white.

PC: And it's all shades of gray.

RE: Everything is on party lines. People don't think for themselves - it's easier that way. We're overwhelmed; we're oversaturated. But, the arts offer you an opportunity to connect with the world beyond the very thing in front of you and teaches you to think in circles instead of lines.

PC: What's next?

RE: There are a couple of things coming up I can't talk about, but I am doing the American Songbook concert in February and, then, in April, I am doing this evening of Stephen Schwartz's music at the New York City Opera. That should be really fun.

PC: Oh, are you going to do "Proud Lady"?

RE: I don't know - I hope so! We're going to do it with a great big orchestra. It's myself, Kristin Chenoweth and [Brian] Stokes [Mitchell] and Elaine Paige.

PC: What a line-up!

RE: It's gonna be a great night and Stephen is one of the most important friends I've ever had in the city. I've known him for thirteen years.

PC: As Tom Kitt just told me, he's also the best pianist in New York city!

RE: He's incredible in so many ways. As an artist; as a man. (Pause. Sighs.) I mean, you know, he was there for me when nobody was there for me. He kept saying, "Get up and keep going because they are going to figure out who you are one day." On a professional level. He knew me from Chicago. He just kept, "Don't worry about it buddy. Just keep going."

PC: I'd love to see you in CHILDREN OF EDEN someday.

RE: Oh, what a score! I'm sure we'll do stuff from that and THE BAKER'S WIFE and stuff from GODSPELL and stuff from PIPPIN.

PC: I hope there's some SÉANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON.

RE: Yeah, I hope so, too.

PC: Is this concert going to be recorded?

RE: Maybe. Maybe.

PC: So, somehow, there's even more you can't tell me about?

RE: There is more on the horizon, I wish I could talk about it, but I can't. The contracts haven't been signed yet.

PC: I very much look forward to anything you are in.

RE: Thank you very much. This has been so much fun.

PC: This was the best interview I've ever done, and I've done over a hundred. Thank you so much for that.

RE: Cool. Thank you, Pat. I really appreciate this, especially you wanted to do this all around the concert.

PC: It's for a great cause! Thank you so much, Raul.

RE: I purposely haven't done many interviews. With LEAP OF FAITH, we were out of town. When it comes to New York, then we will do all the interviews there are and can be. (Laughs.) Until then, it's just about the work.

PC: And you're all about the work - as is clear to see today.

RE: (Laughs.) I try. You are too kind. Thank you so much, Pat. I'll talk to you soon. Bye.

I hope you have enjoyed our biggest BroadwayWorld exclusive interview to date so far, and there shall be many more coming in the new year! Stay tuned!