BWW INTERVIEWS: THE PHILANTHROPIST's Steven Weber

There's something special about hearing the natural sound of human voices in the theater. They become a symphony of verbosity akin to a chamber ensemble performing in a first rate concert hall. There are nuances and colors that are to be detected without the aid of amplification. Such is the case with the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of THE PHILANTHROPIST which is currently on stage at the American Airlines Theatre. Prominently featured in the cast is Steven Weber whose voice carries so well that it seems like a clarion instrument in the divertissement of playwright Christopher Hampton's witty wordplay. Weber's voice is so mellifluous that it is obvious he's been trained to use it well on the stage.

Although he attended the famous High School of Performing arts in New York City, Weber credits his actual stage training to the State University of New York at Purchase. "I had several years of intensive and serious theater training with lots of vocal work and that's where I really had the bulk of my studies." He's very proud of the education he received at SUNY Purchase. "They have amazing facilities and great performance spaces up there. The theaters range from small black boxes to major ‘cathedrals' with thousands of seats and we put on plays like HEARTBREAK HOUSE and SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY, where we had to project our voices. In doing plays over the years, I've had to adjust per the requirements of each theater. The American Airlines Theater is deceptive. It's small and beautiful. It carries sound well in many ways but there are many pockets that your voice can disappear into."

Continuing with his discussion of the vocal skills he employs in this production, Weber talks about the challenge of playing a British character. "When trying to do an accent I found that much of my dialect got lost when I was trying to ‘project'. I made the decision to err on the side of being heard." For the record, no amplification at all is used in this production of THE PHILANTHROPIST. The "sound design" that is listed in the Playbill has to do with the music and sound effects that are used in the production. The actors' voices are not amplified in any way.

The actor is sitting in his dressing room before a Thursday evening performance. Casually attired in jeans and a blue t-shirt, Weber noshes on a spinach salad throughout the conversation. This is a man who knows how to "nosh": his father was a manager whose clients performed on the Borscht Belt and one just assumes that someone a Borscht Belt connection would certainly pass noshing skills down to his son. Weber's mother, who presently lives in Manhattan, was a cabaret singer and a Copa Girl. With a pedigree like that, is there any wonder that Weber would carve out a career for himself in the performing arts?

The actor is a familiar face to viewers of the small screen, having starred in the "Wings" sitcom, as well as such other television fare like the critically acclaimed "Once and Again" and "The DA". Yet, when meeting the actor in the flesh, one is taken by his affability, his intelligence and the sparkle in his azure eyes. These eyes gleam when lit by the fresnels on stage but reflect a thoughtful and sensitive man when Weber is engaged in conversation. The time in his company zips by and is filled with perceptive comments as well as modest assessments of his personal achievements.
Through his father's show business connections, the young Weber did a few television commercials. The boy had headshots taken and before he knew it he went out for a bunch of auditions and booked several commercials. "In those days they were 60 seconds long and I've been actually trying to hunt them down to no avail. I've made direct inquiries to the advertising agencies that did them and they either don't have them or are disinterested. I remember doing a Gleam toothpaste commercial with Frances Sternhagen and it was a full minute long. That's incomprehensible by today's standards!"

Although Weber is proud of the experiences that SUNY Purchase provided, he never graduated. "I got cast in a PBS production of Mark Twain's "Puddin'head Wilson". Ken Howard, Tom Aldrich and a bunch of other great actors were in the cast. I'm terrible in it. Terrible, terrible, terrible. It was my first taste of professional acting and the treasures that went along with it were inestimable. I mean I had steak and shrimp every night and loved it." His first big theater gig was with the Mirror Reparatory Company. "It was a production of PARADISE LOST and I got to work literally along side of and become very friendly with Geraldine Paige and a cast of very talented character actors. It was pretty much an idyllic situation for me."

Weber also landed a recurring role on the soap opera "As The World Turns" however he didn't ‘recur' very long. "Julianne Moore and I played a couple, but after it became apparent that I was ill-suited to memorizing lines and stuff, my character took a bullet and I was fired. He previously appeared at the Roundabout when he did COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA with Shirley Knight. " I also did something in LA in 1987 or 88. It was a play called MADE IN BANGKOK which was written by Anthony Mangella. Zoe Wanamaker, James Cromwell and John Vickery were in that. It was my first taste of life out there. It was the next year or so that I got ‘Wings'. Thus began my legendary ascent to the middle," he remarked sardonically.  "Wings" ran for seven and a half seasons. "Actually we expected to get cancelled every season or half season, I remember saying at the very beginning that this would be the happiest we'd ever be. The show was never a ratings favorite. Although compared to the numbers hit shows get today we would have been on top. We were getting more viewers than ‘American Idol' does nowadays and we were just good enough to give a boost to the higher profile shows like ‘Cheers' , ‘Frasier', and ‘Seinfeld' et al. In retrospect we were a good utility show. We stack up against and surpass many shows that are around presently. We had good, long, funny stories that were very well done. We also were the place that gave a lot of writers who are doing shows now their start."  

Weber theorizes that what made "Wings" so endearing to many viewers was that it appealed to the Average Joe. "We dealt with basic, almost routine aspects of normal human beings. By that I mean we dealt with people who weren't particularly interesting. They were average people. That actually gave the writers a lot more freedom to write. The characters were given more breadth of detail, whereas with ‘Will and Grace' there was whatever social issues were overhanging and ‘Seinfeld' was almost hampered by its high concept to be obscure or odd in a way."

The actor has branched out into writing. "I wrote adaptations of a couple of Stephen King stories that filmed for ‘The Outer Limits' which was done in the 90's. I wrote and directed those. I also wrote a TV movie for Showtime called ‘Clubland' and it was a quasi-autobiographical story about my father and grandfather who were theatrical agents in the 50's. I wrote it and was able to act opposite Alan Alda. Brad Garret was also in it. It was a great experience for me. I find writing painful and lonely and I don't quite have the discipline for it." Weber does admit that he's become known for other writings as of late. "I'm a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and my writing there are leftist, cranky screeds that occasionally touch a nerve-- but more often than not the nerve that is touched is disgust on the part of people who can't stand my long, untethered metaphors and strangled syntax rather than my obviously left-leaning views. I've been called a ‘thesaurus-sucking liberal'. My response to that is ‘The only thesauruses I use are made in America and suck on thEm Lovingly.' Why not use five dollar words? I'm sick of saying ‘You know' or listening to people saying ‘You know' all the time. It makes me nuts. I have two little boys who are six and eight and my wife and I try gently to break them of that habit."

Steven Weber has been bold enough to step into the shoes of some very big names in his acting career. In 1997 he had the audacity to play the part Jack Nicholson immortalized in Stanley Kubrik's movie version of "The Shining". "I would readily take credit for having the guts to step into Nicholson's shoes if it was a question of that. It was more a case of being shallow and unaware. I got a call to audition for this and it really didn't occur to me that I was doing anything that was remotely sacrilegious because of the film's iconic status. I just auditioned without having Nicholson in my mind and got the role. I'm proud of most of it, although there are a few things I'd like to go back and re-do. Really, the specter of the Kubrik film didn't hang over the production at all. Mostly I think that was a good thing. The mini-series was done to fulfill Stephen King's real vision of the story. It was faithful to his novel but was hampered by the constraints of mini-series television. It was a fine experience for me. I didn't think-and perhaps I should have-that I was stepping into a role that people so closely identify with Jack Nicholson, and who I would pale in comparison to immediately."

Only a few years later, Weber found himself stepping into another pair of famous shoes but in a different genre. In 2002 he replaced Matthew Broderick in the Broadway musical THE PRODUCERS. "I had done a film called "Dracula Dead And Loving It" which was one of several not-so-great projects that I'd been involved in. The end result wasn't remarkable, at least perceptibly at the time (since then it's been on TV and it works much better on the small screen), There are great classic bits in it, though. Actually, it was an opportunity for me to work with several of my heroes: Harvey Korman, Peter McNichol and Mel Brooks. I'd worshipped Harvey Korman and loved Mel Brooks' 2,000 Year Old Man album ever since I was a kid. So I did that film and got to know these men. As years passed, we stayed in contact. Of course there was the massive triumph of THE PRODUCERS on Broadway, and when they were holding auditions to replace Nathan and Matthew, someone suggested that I should go for it. I thought, ‘Naw, that's ridiculous. Why should I audition? It's too much. It's in New York and I live in LA,' The only musical I'd sone was a limited run of HAIR in LA. for Reprise! And that was met with great response, but that was my one and only musical experience. Finally I was nudged into it by my wife and Richard Kind-who went on to play Max, although later in the run. So I figured that I had nothing to lose--even though on my way to New York I became terribly ill and developed a cold sore on my lip. I was a wreck. I think I was actually the last person they saw and somehow I got through the audition. I did "Till Him" and "That Face" and I didn't have a great amount of fear, which may have helped. I thought I wouldn't get the part but I did."

THE PRODUCERS turned out to be an incredible ten month adventure for Weber. "I'd never done anything on that scale of commitment before. Actors are a lot of things but on film and TV they're a bunch of pussies. In theater it's a different story. In the theater an actor is a soldier; you are in the infantry. You have to work. You cannot mess around; you can't throw hissy fits, you can't mess around and you can't give a half-assed performance. I learned invaluable lessons in the process. The biggest realization was how difficult it was to maintain your apparatus so you can sing and dance. I was proud of myself that I'd gotten dance-related injuries. I was incredibly proud of them! It was an amazing experience. Stepping into Matthew's shoes was great. I was encouraged to do some of my own things but in many instances I saw that I didn't have to because Matthew had already done them brilliantly so I incorporated those moments into my own performance."

When Weber was hired for THE PRODUCERS, he was paired with the brilliant British actor Henry Goodman who was replacing Nathan Lane in the show. "The producers had seen him do the London production of CHICAGO and he was reportedly sensational in that. I have no doubt he was. He was a respected actor and it seemed that the intent was to prove that the show itself was the star-- not its two flamboyant leading men. However things did not work out well in the beginning. After five weeks of rehearsal and a few performances, they let Henry go rather unceremoniously, replacing him with understudy Brad Oscar. They decided to keep me on although I'm sure there were moments when they felt they should scuttle everybody-myself included. I was lucky enough to be kept on and worked very hard with the result of having an amazing time."

Now Weber finds himself sharing the stage with Matthew Broderick in THE PHILANTHROPIST. Weber explains that he'd worked with director David Grindley at London's Old Vic, in a play called NATIONAL ANTHEMS. Also featured in the cast were Kevin Spacey and Mary Stuart Masterson. "We had a great time," remembers the actor, "It's a very interesting play and it was well-received by audiences. David and I developed a great working relationship. We kept in touch and after few years passed he actually mentioned that there was a role in THE PHILANTHROPIST that I could do. I said, ‘Just ask. I'll read for it. I'll do it.' As it turned out, I didn't have to read for it; David offered it to me. When I heard that Matthew was going to be involved I said, ‘Absolutely." It would be a pleasure to work with him. We'd only crossed paths a little bit during THE PRODUCERS but this has turned out to be an exceptional experience for me. It's great to work with Matthew, Jonathan Cake, Jennifer Mudge, Anna Madeley, Tate Ellington and Samantha Soule. This play was a big hit in England. It demands audience participation on an intellectual level. It was done at the Donmar Warehouse and it was performed in-the-round. If you put an audience around the play, then they are participating. Our current production is given a proscenium staging and it's rather like watching an oil painting, but it works. It's an interesting script." 

According to Weber, the box office sales for THE PHILANTHROPIST are excellent and he credits that to word-of-mouth. "Our sales are up while critical successes have gone down the toilet. It's unbelievable to me. I guess it's saying that there is definitely an audience for this kind of drama. Not everything has to be on the level of a spectacle. This is an interesting play; not for everybody, but it shouldn't destroy the experience for that other demographic out there." 

It is obvious that the audiences are enjoying Steven Weber's performance in THE PHILANTHROPIST immensely. At a recent matinee, there was a murmur of recognition when he was discovered onstage as the lights came up for the opening scene. Throughout the performance several theater-goers were observed leaning forward in their seats whenever he made an entrance. It certainly wasn't because they were straining to hear better. It's already been stated that Weber projects his voice effectively. Rather, it was probably due to the fact that he's become such a familiar face in movies and television that they relish the chance to share this theatrical experience with him without any artificial devices between them and the actor they feel very much at home with.

The Philanthropist is playing a limited engagement through June 28th, 2009. Tickets are available by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212)719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the American Airlines Box Office (227 West 42nd Street). The Philanthropist plays Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. with Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m.  www.roundabouttheatre.org

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.