Review: Norbert Leo Butz at Theatre Raleigh

Over 12 years ago, I caught Norbert Leo Butz on Broadway in Catch Me If You Can the night before he won a second Tony Award. On June 23rd, I caught him live at the De Ann S. Jones Theatre, kicking off a brand new concert series at Theatre Raleigh Arts Center. In addition to their Main Stage Season, producing intimate, professional theatre with the combination of Broadway and local talent, Theatre Raleigh is continuing to expand the highway between North Carolina and NYC by offering Broadway stars in concert as well as highlighting our incredibly rich talent pool here in the Triangle area.

With 11 main stem credits to his name, Norbert Leo Butz has become widely known as a triple threat with big show-stopping production numbers. Among them are 'Great Big Stuff' in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, 'Don't Break the Rules' in Catch Me If You Can, and 'Get Me to the Church on Time' in the most recent revival of My Fair Lady. He didn’t perform any of those songs (which I imagine would’ve been hard to do anyway in a more intimate setting). Yet, Norbert did start out the night singing some of his own original tunes, one of which he co-wrote with his oldest daughter. In between songs, he told stories that were funny and moving. Like he talked about how he grew up as one of 11 siblings in his family, going from busking to his Broadway debut in Rent, spending a good deal of COVID-19 all alone in Vancouver filming a TV show, and losing his mom, Dolly, at the end of the pandemic. In paying tribute to her, he performed a more somber rendition of her favorite song, Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5.’

Of course, Norbert did get to some musical theatre stuff. The first Broadway song he sang was 'Fight the Dragons' from Big Fish. A show that only ran for a couple months almost 10 years ago, but has since gotten a more successful afterlife through licensing to schools and local theatres. He also shared a couple of stunning duets with Theatre Raleigh’s producing artistic director, Lauren Kennedy. The two of them both originated the respective roles of Jamie and Cathy in the world premiere production of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years in Chicago back in 2001. When the show went on to debut Off-Broadway the following year, Norbert starred in it, but Lauren was unavailable as she at the time was appearing in a West End revival of South Pacific. Luckily, the second song they performed together was 'The Next Ten Minutes' from The Last Five Years, which really brought huge applause from the audience.

Other highlights of the evening were Norbert’s powerhouse renditions of popular hits, which were Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Atlantic City’ and Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer.’ He did get to something from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. It was a song mainly performed by Sherie Rene Scott’s character titled 'Nothing is Too Wonderful to Be True.’ The most successful show Norbert has ever been in was the original Broadway cast of Wicked as Fiyero. He did the out-of-town tryout in San Francisco, opened in New York, but a massive injury forced him to take a two-month leave of absence shortly thereafter. Taye Diggs filled in for him during that time (where he got to play opposite his then-real life wife, Idina Menzel). While Norbert was out of the show, that’s when he got involved in the workshops for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. By the time that musical went out-of-town, he left Wicked early. Although a great thing that came out of his experience from the latter show was that he met actress Michelle Frederer, who played Nessarose, and has been happily married to her for almost 16 years. Norbert did perform something from Wicked, but it wasn’t any of Fiyero’s songs, it was 'Defying Gravity,' which really brought the house down.

I think this is a great start for Theatre Raleigh’s new concert series. For locals who aren’t able to make it to New York on a regular basis, this is a real treat for them to catch some of Broadway’s best and brightest here in the Triangle area. Not only that, but this is also a great platform for local talent to get their own opportunities to shine. On a side note, I noticed on social media after the show that Christian Hoff, who won a Tony Award for his performance as Tommy DeVito in the original Broadway cast of Jersey Boys, was in the audience. Coming up are Tony winner Rachel Bay Jones on July 7th and Tony nominee Norm Lewis on November 3rd.

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For more information, please visit: https://theatreraleigh.com

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