Bret, have you worked in musical theatre? and if you have, who have you worked with? Just curious since I saw that you mentioned 1776. One of favorite actors, Matt Ashford did both 1776 and Urinetown-the musical.
Let me count on one hand ALL of the theater I've done in my life, musical and nonmusical. (I figure this is as appropriate a venue as I'll ever have to take this particular trip down memory lane.)
1. When I was 7 years old and in elementary school, the community college next door conscripted me (and a few of my classmates) to act in a production of THE MIRACLE WORKER. I was the only one who didn't get to appear onstage, but instead essayed the role of Annie Sullivan's deceased brother on tape. Yup, my first acting gig was a voice-over role. Take that, Mary Alice Young!
2. Fast-forward to age 19. By then, I'm a student at the aforementioned community college, working on the weekly newspaper. As part of a story about the college theater, I find myself interviewing the woman who directed us in THE MIRACLE WORKER a dozen years earlier. She is directing ZORBA, and invites me to be in the chorus. I happily accept.
3. At the same college, I got to act with my mother in Neil Simon's THE GOOD DOCTOR. (Both my mother and grandmother did theater and a few minor films.)
4. A couple of years later, I somehow landed the role of a pirate in a children's theater production of TREASURE ISLAND that a local community group was doing.
5. The same group cast me in the chorus of a modest production of ONCE UPON A MATTRESS. And that, my friends, was my last hurrah. I really did enjoy doing all of those things.
Oh, yeah, I neglected to mention that I was also the original Tevye on Broadway, before they brought in that hack Zero Mostel. Why do I always forget about that one?
