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Backstage with Richard Ridge: Call on Horace! HELLO, DOLLY's! Victor Garber Relives Some of His Greatest Roles
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May 17, 2024
He has played roles as varied as Jesus and Mr. Applegate; John Wilkes Booth and Thomas Andrews; Anthony and Professor Callahan. Nowadays he's bringing audiences to their feet eight times a week at the Shubert Theatre as Hello, Dolly's Horace Vandergelder.
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Welcome to Backstage with Richard Ridge
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SAC After Foundation and Broadway World continue their filmed Conversation Q&A series
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which celebrates the vibrant theater community here in New York City. This event, which is coming from the Robin Williams Center
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is a special conversation with one of the entertainment industries most sought-after actors who is now back on Broadway
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wowing audiences eight times a week opposite Bernadette Peters in the hit revival of Hello Dolly
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Please welcome Victor Garber. Actors are always weird. I've had many stars sit here and they'd be like
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when I finish a job, I always think I'm never getting one again. Do you still have that
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No. Did you ever have that? I don't. No, I don't. You know, it's sort of, I know what you mean because most of my friends say that
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And I always think, something will happen. Something will turn up. I mean, I may not be, I'm just hoping it's a job I want to do
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You know, because there's often, it's like, I can't do that. Well, first off, welcome back to Broadway
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How does it feel? Yes. Hello, Dolly. It feels, this honestly came out of the blue
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I was doing my last little bit on Legends of Tomorrow in Vancouver
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and I was leaving the show, and I didn't know what I was going to do
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but I knew I was homesick for New York because I was in Vancouver for a long time
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and I just wanted to come home and I just wanted to be back and I didn't and I thought
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I hadn't done a play for since present laughter which was I think eight years ago
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or nine years ago I came no concept of time but it was a long time ago
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and I thought will I would I I probably would love to go back to the theater
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but would I still be able to do it that I did question will I be able to remember the lines
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Will I be too scared? Because the longer you stay away from something
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you know, it's daunting. And the idea of, like, getting in front of an audience
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and doing something was scary to me. And so I didn't know what I was going to do
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And then I read a couple of plays and that people were interested and I thought, oh, maybe that would, oh
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And I really didn't know. And then suddenly this call came. I thought, oh, well, this is the universe giving me this gift
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And it really feels like that. And it still does. Because I have to say the first week of previews
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the first time we just, I literally, I went over the lyrics for the first song
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almost to the point of when I walked on stage. I was so scared that I would forget the lyric right
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in the middle of the song, you know? And fortunately, I haven't, yeah
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But I'm still, you know, like, OK. I go over the lyrics to both songs every night. Yeah
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I just, you know, but I also knew that when I got in the first day of rehearsal
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and it was just me and Bernadette, really, in Jerry's acts, the director and a couple of the assistants and choreographer
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And I thought, oh, this is, oh, I remember this feeling. This is what I do
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And I'd forgotten that. And I'd, because, you know, when I left to go do all these television things, I've been doing so many plays that I was all so tired
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of that. So it's like anything, you know, you have to, you have to take breaks, and I'm very glad I'm back
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So when you knew you were going back into Hello Dolly, did you have a fear of singing again? Yes
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I always have a fear of singing. I have a fear of singing tonight. As you can hear, I've been dealing with these allergies
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we were talking about this. Which is upstairs. I don't know what's going on. And it's too boring, and we're not even going to discuss it
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However, I, I, it's a phlegm thing. And it's just, just driving me nuts
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Yeah. So, I'm grateful if I can, I'm just grateful when I can get through it
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Yeah. How much fun is it playing Horace Bandigelder? It's a lot of fun
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I didn't really know, I mean, I hadn't seen the show. Once I knew I was doing it, I came, David is a good friend of mine, but I was in Vancouver
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and I, of course, you know, you couldn't get a ticket when it opened with Bat and David
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And so, but when I got back, a few, about six weeks before rehearsals, I got to see it
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And I was just blown away by the production, by them, they were spectacular
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And I was, I just couldn't believe I was going to have this opportunity
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And also, it's not a killer role. Like I can, I, you know, there are breaks
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Bernadette has the, you know, she never stops. But Horace, oh, I can sit down for 10 minutes and, you know
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I don't smoke, but that's the cliche. But so I was grateful that it wasn't going to be
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I didn't have to carry it. Yeah. What is wrong with my voice
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It's everybody's, and we were talking upstairs. Yeah. Well, hopefully by 8 o'clock I'll be that
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So, no, and I, it's, Bernardine and I knew each other, you know, had known each other for years and had never really
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worked together except in Cinderella we had like a, we crossed in the palace scene, we like crossed paths
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but we didn't have anything to do together, but now we do. Now we are, we are joined at the hip
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and it's, you know, it's a joy to be with her. Yeah, so I was going to ask you, what is it like
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working with her? One of the greatest stars we have so nice, one of the loveliest people you'll ever
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meet besides her talent. Yeah, she's, she's, uh, everything you hope and more
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She's amazing. She's inspiring because she is always working, making something better
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trying to, you know, coming up with something new. And we're very much on the same page
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about how we want to do the show and our belief in what this is about
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and the relationship And so it been a joy And Jerry Zax who I worked with many times this is one of the best things I done with him I think I feel like he sort of guided me in a
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very generous way, never imposed anything from the show that was there. I mean, obviously
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you know, it's hello dolly. So it's, there are requirements, but in terms of the interpretation
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it was very much our own journey. Because I love that. Because I love that
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I was going to ask you, what's it like stepping into an already existing production or train that's running down the track
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And it's the two stars that go in. Well, I think it's easier in the way we, and also the Scott Rood and the producer, they were so generous with the time
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And they really went all out to make us feel comfortable. And that made a huge difference
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So I remember the first put in, one of the stage guys said, well, I've never seen a point
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put in it in like this. You know, it's like everybody, we, they closed down the show for five days
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and we had full tech rehearsals in the theater, which is unheard of, really
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Never happens. And all, and the entire cast was there. So, so really, they were, it was
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sort of like, it was like a normal production with technical rehearsals. It was amazing
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Yeah, that's wonderful. Jerry Zax, you were talking about him, one of the greatest directors
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of all time. Yeah. What makes him such a great director and sought up a director to work with
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He's really smart. Yeah. He's really funny. He knows, and he knows what he wants
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You know, sometimes it's not always the same thing, you know, for an actor
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But for me, I have loved everything I've done with him, which the first thing was Wenceslaas Square at the public theater
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which was a Larry Shoe play that was sort of about the Prague Spring
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And it was a, it's a beautiful play. And I play like five different people, I think
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And that was, we just had this great time and then lend me a tenor and then assassins
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So he's been, you know, we just fit very well. He's, he just has a great eye, you know
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I mean, this production, when you see it, is so beautifully done
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It's everything you want it to be and more. Yeah. Just a brilliant director
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I'd like to go back to the beginning. Growing up, where did your love? for performing begin and what were your earliest creative outlets
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Huh. You know, it was so long ago. But I do remember, I actually do remember
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My mom used to, we had a theater in London, Ontario, where I was born, and it was an amateur theater
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that had sort of professional standards. And these people came from England
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a husband and wife, and they started, they sort of took over the theater when I was very young
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And my mother had a television show in those days. She was a sort of a, who would she be like, she at home with Hope Garber
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That was the name of the show. And she interviewed, you know, people from local celebrities and people
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who were, you know, new in town. And so she interviewed this man, Peter Dearing, and he was starting
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this new program at the London Little Theater for Children's Theater program. So, you know
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I knew from a very early age that that's what I wanted to do. I just, you know, I just, you know
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I just knew because my mom was a singer and I was a singer and I just, I was just attracted
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to that. And she used to play Broadway show albums all the time
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That's what I grew up listening to and I loved those musicals and so I got involved
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in the children's theater program at the Grand Theater and it just never stopped
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That's where it all happened. Your defining moment was then very young like I'm doing this. Yeah
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What impact did your acting teacher Robert Gill at the University of Toronto have on you
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Wow. Robert Gill. Yeah. It's not a name you hear every day
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It was a summer theater course at the Hart House University of Toronto. I was a high school dropout. I'm not proud of it, but it's what happened
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When I was 15, I wrote, I saw this summer theater six-week program on a pamphlet or summer
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I don't know where I saw it, but I filled out the form and I lied about my age because you had to be I think at least
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18 or at least 60. I don't know. Anyway, I was too young and I got accepted
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It was just like I'm I then I told my parents that they had to
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finance me and it wasn't I mean I think I paid for it. It was not a lot of money, but
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he this man ran the summer theater course for teachers actually for for for people who professors
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and I was the youngest person ever to be accepted at this summer theater course
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and it changed my life. I mean, I went to Toronto. I stayed in a dormitory
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My father drove me. They were very worried about me, but I was so headstrong, so determined
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And I think, I was a kid. I look at people my age now, I think, I can't believe I did that
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But at the time, there was no question, you know. foolish or not
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It was what I was going to do. And so that man really started me, you know
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on a professional track, really. That's great. You have this wonderful stage film and television career
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So let's just chat about some of the highlights and just tell me what comes to mind, a story or a great memory
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Oh. I have trouble with favorites. Oh, you have okay, Kay. You tell me, good, because I..
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God's spell. BASBEL fans playing Jesus first on stage in the legendary Toronto production. Yes
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And then playing him in the film. Favorite memories? And that cast? Yes
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I can, I have favorite memories of that, or certainly some memories
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I remember excuse me I so sorry about this I have to apologize to Broadway tonight The callback final callbacks for the Godspell in Toronto
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I had been on a tour with a singing group, and I had been playing, just coincidentally
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I'd been playing the role of Jesus in this oddly, we were singing songs from Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar
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and original songs. and it was sort of this whole Jesus story. It was all that during that time
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And we were, by the way, illegally doing this. We found out later. But I knew the song Save the People
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which was from God's Bell, and I played it on my guitar in the show. So my callback, I obviously knew what I was going to do, you know
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So I came out and I had, you know, this hair. Yeah, you did
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And I sang this song, and people went insane. And my favorite story is that, and Eugene Levy
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who was also, he said, and after this rather rousing response I got
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he said, next, Eugene Levy. And he still talks about that as having to follow that
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And he does an imitation of that, of his face, when he realized he was, and he got up and, he got the role
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But it just makes me laugh to this day. And what I remember, one of the things I remember vividly
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is this young woman, she wasn't that young, skipping across the stage
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singing zippity-d-da with pig tails and it was Gilda Radner. And everybody was like, first of all
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what is she doing? And then everyone just melted. She was as adorable and as funny
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as anyone I've ever known. And I think the thing that I could say mostly about her
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is that she was never funnier than sitting at a table at dinner
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Never funnier. She was an angel. Paul Schaefer was your musical director on that, right
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Paul Schaefer was at the audition for the callbacks, playing for somebody for the audition
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He was like, you know, they brought their own accompanist, and they had the guy who was there for everybody
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else. And so this girl got up to sing and Paul sat down and started playing the piano and
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Steven Schwartz was sitting there and literally said to somebody, who's that? And went over
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and hired him to be the musical director from that, from that moment. He was so obviously like nobody
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else. Yeah. And doing the film, because didn't you shoot like on the World Trade Center when it was going
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up or something down there? Yeah, we shot. Yeah, we shot. We danced on top of it. the World Trade Center just before it was completed. Yeah
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Yeah, it was something. It's hard to believe, it's hard to believe that we did that. Yeah
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But it was, yeah, we shot all over New York. I mean, the part of the great thing about that movie
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is it's like a New York, it's a travel log, you know, and it's beautiful
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Because the premise of the story is that when Jesus comes into the picture
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New York, the people disappear, it's just these band of followers. So we're all, every, every, every, where you go, it's empty
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And we shot on Saturdays and Sundays and, and so it was really hard to do that
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But it was very special. Yeah. The first original role you create on Broadway, was that Clifford in Ira Levin's Death Trap
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original role? I think so. Yeah. Yes, I think it was. It was you, John Wood, the late Marian Celdis
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I mean, great show. when Broadway did mysteries back then. Yeah. Thrillers and all
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Yes, well, it was one of the few that worked. You know, there was, wait until dark and Death Trap
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They're sort of the prototypes for stage mystery thrillers. It was a thriller
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And actually, Ira Levin wrote Death Trap, and it says, a thriller in two acts
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That's how it's printed. That was, I was doing tartouf at the Circle in the Square
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with John Wood and the late. all gone now. It's hard to, wow. Tammy Grimes, Pat Elliott, Suzy Kurtz, who fortunately is still
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with us, Miltonik, there were all these amazing people. And John Wood, who was a daunting and
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brilliant man, brilliant man, actor from England, a big star at the RSC, was playing Tartouf, and
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we had, you know, I had nothing to do with him in Tartouf other than, you know, and one night
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he came up to me and said, I'd like you to read something and tell me what you think
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And I said, oh, okay, sure. And he said, just, I'd like your opinion because I've been asked to do this role and I just
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want to just want to get your opinions if you think I should do this role. I mean, we didn't really have that close relationship, but it was, you know, it was a kind
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of camaraderie and I was flattered and, of course I, so I went home and read the play
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And it was dazzling, you know. I mean, it was really well-written and funny and perfect part for John
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And it must have crossed my mind as I was reading the part of Clifford
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I thought, gee, I could play this part. Gee, I could do this
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But honestly, I really didn't really think about it. I just came in the next day and said
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John, you have to do this part. This is a great role for you to do in New York
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because you'd only done Tom Stoppard. Well, only. Charlotte Holmes and he had been, you know, he was one Tony's and he's, you know, revered
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And he said, really? I said, yeah, I really think it's a great part
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He said, would you be interested in playing Clifford? I said, yeah, yeah, I'd be, let me check
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Yeah, I think so. And then he the director was Robert Moore Yeah Great late Moore who was also a brilliant actor And John said they want to audition you and I like to read with you for the audition
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So I have, you know, that John Wood changed my life, you know, because he wanted me to do the role
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And fortunately, you know, everyone went along with it. I never knew that story
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What a great story. Yeah, it's incredible. You've appeared in three Stephen Sondheim musicals in New York
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creating the role of Anthony in the original production of Sweeney Todd
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John Wilkes Booth and Assassins, and then Ben Stone in Follies at City Center
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What is it like living in the songs of Stephen Sondheim? Like nothing else imaginable
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I mean, the reason I'm in New York, the reason I'm sitting here is because of Stephen Sondheim
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I heard anyone can whistle when I was very young in Toronto
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So I was an actor. I was a musician, mostly, singer, and like in the singing group and stuff
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And I was obsessed with anyone can whistle. And it was like a siren call
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I've said this many times, but it's really true that that show
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that's what brought me to New York. And that was my goal was to work with Steven Sondheim
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And I can't believe I'm here to say it happened. The first time you heard the song, Joanna, which you introduced, I mean, do you remember when he played that for you
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Thank God I don't have to sing it right now. Yes, I do remember very, because I was on the one o, no, I was on a bus on Second Avenue going to his house with my cassette tape recorder
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Because he wanted me, it was the callback for the Sweeney-Tong. And he wanted me to learn the song that I would be singing
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So you can imagine what that, I mean, my, on that bus ride
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with my cassette tape. You don't even know, a lot of you don't even know what that is
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a cassette tape. But I got to his house and knocked on the door
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and was introduced to the door, the guy who worked for him, let me in and said, Steve is upstairs waiting
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And so I went upstairs to his office den with the grand piano and he couldn't have been more charming
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and just said how much he, you know, was so happy he was that I was there
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And I thought, am I dreaming this? Is this possibly happening to me that this is happening right now
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And as I say it, I can't believe it happened, but it did. And so I put the cassette down, the tape recorder, and on his piano and pushed play
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and he hit those first chords and sang Joanna. And I learned it, because I don't read music
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And so I learned it from his recording. If you could sum up the best part of the experience
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of being back on Broadway and Hello Dolly, what is it for you? I think it's the awareness
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that this is what I was meant to do. That was very apparent to me, as I said, in the rehearsal
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And then when I finally found, when I was finally, because I was really scared those first few previews
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I was panicking. I was like, I was so nervous. And so when I think back to the number of my friends
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who came to like the first week of preview, I think, why? Which is you come and why would I allow you to come
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But you know, you do. And then you have to let it go because they're not coming back
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But it's, it's, just, just, just, there's not. I'm so grateful to have been able to have this
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life to fulfill what I really wanted to fulfill and still doing it
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And that's been the greatest thing about doing Hello Dolly. I feel like it's been a gift for me from everyone that came together to offer me this role. Yeah
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My final question is, what is the best bit of advice that you've been given
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either personally or professionally that you live by. Oh. That's hard
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You know, I mean, it's kind of what I try to do every day
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which is to, you know, you have to give up control. Can't control anything
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accept your own responses to things. You can't control anyone. You can't fix anyone
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You can't make something happen. All you can do is just trust yourself and let it go
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And learn from the experience. Every opportunity is an experience. That's my lesson
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That's great advice. This has been an absolute masterclass. I have known you for a long time
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Everybody takes things away from me. Maybe I should charge for this. This has been wonderful
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I thank you for taking the time out of... The joy, it's always great to talk to you
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and to have such intelligent people and questions because, believe me, they're not always..
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Things I can even begin to answer. And so thank you for coming
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and thank you for taking the time to do this. You are brilliant at what you do
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Go see him in Hello, Dolly. Ladies and gentlemen, Victor Garber. Thank you
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Thank you very much. Thanks, Richard. Thank you so much. Thank you, so much fun
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Thank you, everybody. We'll go this by. Okay, shall I bring my coffee
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This coffee is very good. Thanks so much for coming. Thank you
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