2005 Tony Awards Q&A: Gary Beach

Nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for La Cage aux Folles, Gary Beach previously received the 2001 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for his performance as Roger DeBris in Mel Brook's The Producers. He also created the role of Lumiere in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, for which he received Tony and Ovation nominations. Other Broadway credits include Annie, Doonesbury, Broadway Bash and Sweet Adeline (Encores!), Something's Afoot and 1776.

Things certainly haven't been dull onstage or off with this revival of La Cage, what's the experience been like for you?

I can honestly say that this has been one of the wildest rides of my life. When the opportunity came at me, I was still in the Producers at the time, and about a year before we went into production I got a call about doing it. I went in, met with the director, I read, months passed, I read again and then all of a sudden I'm doing it.

And now, 8 months after we started doing it, we were back in rehearsals. It's been a long trip, and certainly not uneventful. It's been wild, and I've loved the whole trip!

Were you interested in doing the revival from the outset?

Usually when you do a revival of a show, no one is around from the original. They didn't have to worry about what Frank Loesser thought when they did Guys and Dolls. We were very lucky in that with this, if you have a question…ok, you can ask Jerry Herman who's sitting right there, or you can ask Harvey Fierstein who's sitting right there in the room.

That excited me from the very beginning to do the show, and that's very lucky. We've also had a chance to bring this show into the present.

How has the show been updated?

The show is set in its own time, in the early 80s, but we've been able to make it a bit more 21st century. In 2004, 2005 two men can hold each other's hands, and can openly show affection. As you know, at the end of the show Goulet and I kiss, because it's a musical comedy, and when musical comedies end on a nice note – the leads kiss, so we do. And the audience loves it!

We get a lot of matinee ladies, and the applause level just goes up and up, because they love it, they really do.

Have you approached singing I Am What I Am differently from the original?

I feel a great deal of responsibility because it became the gay anthem back in the eighties. What we've tried to do is to make it…it's still an anthem, but it's a little bit more wide this time.

Harvey and I talked about it a lot, and instead of coming from such an angry place with it, now it comes from much more of a joyful place. It's like "I'm accepted! I'm accepted now!" So I think it's a triumphant thing more than a "You'll see! I'll get mine!" sort of a thing which it was 20 years ago.

Did you see the original production?

I was there at the very final preview, the night before it opened and I loved it. It was, for its time, believe it or not, not racy, but the sort of thing that everybody portrayed on the Broadway stage, so that was fun.

It was interesting at the time that the two guys doing it, and it was almost part of the advertising campaign to say "and they're straight!" I think that it had to be sold that way to get New Jersey and Long Island to come in and see it. I on the other hand, am openly…"not," and the audience doesn't seem to mind it one bit.

Of course Robert Goulet is actively straight, and the first thing that he said to me when we met is 'so this is the man that I get to kiss!'

What's working with him been like these past few weeks?

He's a legend, for my generation he's Sir Lancelot, and it's a thrill. When I heard he was coming in, I was like 'Robert Goulet?' He came in, and when we started rehearsing, I said 'wow, he sounds like Robert Goulet, and he looks like him too!' so it's been great. He's 71 years old, and is terrific, great and best of all he's very game.

He seems to be having the time of his life. When you're replacing someone in a Broadway show they almost just hand you the script and push you out on stage, but he's just doing great with it. He's really added to this whole experience, and it's a joy to perform it night in and night out.