Soap stars and Broadway folk collide at the Flea Market. One-time "All My Children" actor and stage star Bobby Steggert calls it "a melding of my two worlds." Bobby is in the Ragtime revival, where he gets to play the sibling of Christiane Noll.
Question: You are a part of the new Ragtime. Congrats. Bobby Steggert: Thanks. I am. We did it in D.C., and we did it without any intention of ever moving it anywhere. It was supposed to be kind of a sit-down production at the Kennedy Center. I think we did it right. And, because we focused on the story being told without thinking about its future, people responded the way they did, and now we can share it with New York audiences.
Q: Did you see the original Broadway production? Steggert: I did, and it was beautiful. I remember driving in my car—I was a senior in high school—and just falling in love with the score on my CD player. I went to NYU, and I saw the show during my freshman year, and I really loved it. I think this production is just as good and a far departure from it — much more abstract and impressionistic. It really focuses on the actors onstage. The production value is grand and beautiful but at the same time, really focused and specific. I think audiences will really love it.
[Ragtime opens Oct. 23 at the Neil Simon, 250 W. 52nd. Call Ticketmaster: (212) 307-4100.]
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RAPPING
Anthony Rapp
photo by Aubrey Reuben
Anthony Rapp, so familiar from Rent, just did a stage adaptation of "Without You"—his memoir of working on the show—at Joe's Pub on Sept. 29.
Question: How long have you been attending the Broadway Flea Market? Anthony Rapp: A number of years. I can't keep track of how many [laughs], but whenever they ask me, if I am in town, I'm happy to be a part of it. Broadway Cares is very famous in our community, but I think people don't realize how much they do across the country. They give grants and money to organizations that could otherwise hardly keep their doors open. It's great. We live in a very celebrity-driven culture, and it's great that we can use whatever celebrity we have to help make things happen.
Q: Do you enjoy meeting Rent devotees? Rapp: I do come out after the show every night and say "hi" and sign stuff, so I have a fair amount of interaction with people, but it is amazing to get so many people gathered together to support this event every year. People are so passionate about it.
BATT MAN
Bryan Batt
photo by Aubrey Reuben
Bryan Batt, a Broadway regular, now on the most talked about TV show in the free world, "Mad Men," personally raised money auctioning off an incredible day on the set of the show.
Question: What does this event mean to you? Bryan Batt: I was at the first one, back when I was in Starlight Express. Jane Krakowski and I held down the fort at the Starlight Express booth, and I've been involved ever since. Whether it is — this, or the Gypsy of the Year, or Teddy Bear Auction — if everyone does what they can do, this world will be a better place. I live part-time in New Orleans and work with the NO/AIDS Taskforce down there, and after Katrina, Broadway Cares gave us an incredible boost.
Q: So you're not going to be leaving Broadway behind now that you are a TV superstar? Batt: [Laughs] Oh please. In my own mind, maybe! No, I want to do a Broadway show on the next "Mad Men" hiatus. There is some talk going on that it would possibly be with my other castmates. Don't you think that would be kind of fun? The Mad Men on Broadway? We have these preliminary ideas trickling in. We were so busy filming this year, nobody even thought of hiatus, but we have a good six months, so we could have a nice limited run.
Q: Did you know "Mad Men" would be a phenomenon? Batt: We knew it would be something special. At the first table read, I remember commenting, "There is something about this." But it is one thing to read a script. When I saw the pilot and saw Jon Hamm in the scene I did with him, he was so spot-on perfect in the role, I thought, if this thing goes, he is going to be a huge star, and I'm so glad that has happened because it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
Q: The first thing I saw you in was Saturday Night Fever. Do you have pleasant memories of that show? Batt: [Laughs] I do! Until my platform shoe broke, and I twisted my knee and tore the cartilage…But otherwise, it was the first time I was one of the older members of the cast. It was odd, being the sage of the cast. I got to improv a lot in rehearsals, and a lot was kept in the script, unlike "Mad Men" where you don't change a word. And in Fever, it was fun to lose myself in such a hideous character.
["Mad Men" airs on AMC.]
NO DOUBTING THOMAS
Thomas Sadoski
photo by Aubrey Reuben
Rising star Thomas Sadoski blew doors down in Neil LaBute's Reasons To Be Pretty. He was starstruck at his first Broadway Flea Market.
Q: Enjoying your experience at the Flea so far? Sadoski: Oh yeah — anything to help out this organization. It's such an essential organization. You spend a long time working in this business to get to a point where you are invited to donate your time to something like this. It is really cool. I was in the other room signing posters and trying to squeeze my name in as neatly as I could underneath Rosemary Harris. That's a really cool thing.
Q: Do you miss Reasons To Be Pretty? Sadoski: I spent a year working on that show, and it was an extraordinary experience. Working with Terry Kinney, I don't even have words to describe the quality of director and person he is. To work with Neil LaBute, easily one of the best playwrights of our generation. And to work with a dear friend like Marin Ireland who came up together with me doing readings at New Dramatists for free for decades before we ever got an opportunity, and Piper Perabo, who I've known for years and years—such a brave artist. It takes guts to do the stuff she did in that play. Steven Pasquale, the toughest guy on Broadway, great to work with him, we had a really extraordinary time. It was great to be with people who give a damn about the business and the art.
NEWMAN!
Had to catch up with Robert Newman since the final episode of "Guiding Light" has now aired. He is still playing the lead in Off-Broadway's Sessions.
Question: How goes Sessions? Robert Newman: It's going great. I've extended with it through the end of the year. I love the people I'm working with. The audience seems to love the show. It's nice to be at this level of a show where it is still evolving, and we've become a good family onstage…We trust each other completely, and it is the kind of play that has a different flow to it at every performance. It is such an emotional piece for everybody.
Q: Do you have more clarity now on your post-"Guiding Light" existence? Newman: I think I'm starting to get there. I'd be jumping the gun to say I am there. The last month was extremely emotional, a lot of roller-coaster ups and downs. It really is saying goodbye to something that has been a part of my life for a really long time. My own therapist talked about those four or five things that really throw us for a loop: death, divorce, moving, losing a job. Those are the four biggest things, and she was saying, for me, this thing with "Guiding Light" really encompasses all of those. I'm actually quite thankful for Sessions for giving me something to focus on through all this. Somewhere around next spring I'll start thinking about what I want to be when I grow up.
[Sessions is playing the Algonquin Theater, located at 123 East 24th Street, between Park Avenue South and Lexington Ave. Check out sessionsthemusical.com for info.]
WHATEVER MAN MONTALBAN
Paulo Montalbán
In non-Flea Market news, 11 years removed from being named to "People" Magazine's most beautiful people list, Paolo Montalbán is applying his beauty to the New York stage again. The Prince from TV's 1997 "Cinderella," who also lists Broadway's most recent Pacific Overtures as one of the highlights of his life, is in the NYMF's Whatever Man, which runs through Oct. 8 at The Tank at 45th Street Theatre. He's also been working on a couple other pieces in development including a Korean production of Frank Wildhorn's Tears of Heaven.
Question: Tell us about Whatever Man. Paolo Montalbán: It is kind of crazy. It is the funniest script I think I've read of a musical theatre show. It's about an everyday guy who has a very vivid imagination and trouble committing to his girlfriend. He gets put into this group therapy session and meets a superhero, and the superhero reveals to him that great evil is coming to the earth, and all these other superheroes show up, and hilarity ensues.
Q: You've done lots of TV work, but is theatre in your blood? Montalbán: Absolutely, I started my professional career out of New York, and I've been away in L.A. for a long time. I feel like the new kid in town here, but I don't mind it.
Q: Now, I myself have never been named to any Most Beautiful lists— Montalbán: It's not too late!
Q: I've not given up. But is that something you take great pride in? Montalbán: It's something I get a lot of flack for from my friends, and to be quite honest with you, when I got the phone call, it was first from my manager, and he said the editors at "People" magazine wanted to talk to me. I thought it was for a piece on Whitney Houston or Brandy [both from "Cinderella"]. Oftentimes they ask fellow cast members about each other for articles. When I called them, they said, "You've been selected…" and I automatically thought I'd won some money or prize. Then they finished with the "Most Beautiful" thing, and I didn't quite believe it. I thought maybe somebody dropped out and they needed a last-minute replacement.
Q: What did the "Cinderella" film mean to your career? Montalbán:It was a little bit of everything. I would consider it my second big break, my first being The King and I on Broadway. But I feel like the creative team on "Cinderella" had a mission statement that was greater than just putting together a piece of musical theatre on film. The message they brought out is that any girl can see herself as Cinderella.
Q: Is it a fact that you once were pre-med in psychology? Montalbán: A definite fact. That is something I carry with more pride than to be "People" magazine's whatever. I actually wanted to go to school for pediatric cardiology. I wanted to sing over little baby hearts. At some point, I lost the passion for it. I moved to psychology, wanted to become a psychiatrist. Then an agent came down to see a show I was doing at Rutgers and the rest, as they say, is history.
[Whatever Man features book, music and lyrics by Benjamin Strouse. See www.nymf.org for show times and ticket details.]
HITHER AND YON
As mentioned last month, "The Leading Men IV" DVD was on sale at the Flea Market. Those who couldn't make it, note that you can get a copy through Applause Video at www.broadwaybeat.com for $35. Paulo Montalbán himself is on the disk singing "Close Upon the Hour" from The King of Hearts. Nick Adams does a stellar version of my fave Brigadoon number, "Come to Me, Bend to Me." Jack Donahue kills with "But Not For Me," and I don't want to spoil the other surprises, but it is a fun night and an excellent production with musical direction by our own Seth Rudetsky. You can order the past LM concerts as well through that site, so have at it…I was remiss in not remembering a great musician who passed away last month, maybe the man who appears on more records in my collection than anyone else, session pianist and member of Bread, Larry Knechtel. Look him up and be amazed at the sheer number of familiar songs and artists he was associated with, including playing piano on "Bridge Over Troubled Water," work on various Barbra Streisand albums and keyboards on the L.A. Rocky Horror Show cast album. One of the greats, truly…Ken Altman, Dan Grinko, Brian Haggerty, Jim Mullins and David Salyers make up the male cast of California Suite, the last show of the season at St. Bart's, 325 Park Ave. That's running Oct. 10-25. Go to www.stbartsplayers.org for more info… Okay, that was a lot. I'll rest up and be back next month!
Tom Nondorf can be reached at tnondorf@playbill.com.
