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Transcript of Robert
Armin's online chat with Michael Rupert |
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[RobertArmin] Good evening and welcome to the Fynsworth Alley chat room. [RobertArmin] Tonight I am delighted to welcome someone I have known since BEFORE he was a BIG STAR. And that was a long time ago. [RobertArmin] Michael Rupert made his Broadway debut in 1968 in The Happy Time. I was fortunate to have met him the summer before. [RobertArmin] So we have been acquainted quite a while, indeed. [RobertArmin] Hi, Michael! [MichaelRupert] Hi, Robert. [RobertArmin] I'll never forget the L.A. Times article when you were doing the pre-Broadway production of The Happy Time. [RobertArmin] You said you really wanted to be a dentist! [MichaelRupert] I really wanted to be a dentist! [RobertArmin] Really? [MichaelRupert] Yeah. I think it was my Mom's idea more than mine. [RobertArmin] Well, it is to all of our good fortune that Gower Champion altered that course of events. [MichaelRupert] I think it was only when my folks were sitting at the Tony Awards did they realize I wasn't gonna be a dentist. [RobertArmin] So what WAS that like? You were, what, 15 at the time? [MichaelRupert] I was 15. Being nominated was terrific. I was a kid having a great time. [RobertArmin] My memories of Hiram Sherman are mainly -- he stole it from you! [MichaelRupert] I can't believe you remember that! [RobertArmin] Hey, you were pretty important to all the kids at the Northridge State Teenage Drama Workshop. You proved it could be done! [MichaelRupert] My training ground. [RobertArmin] So what was it like auditioning for Gower Champion? [RobertArmin] At the age 15. [MichaelRupert] It was okay. Everybody was very nice. [RobertArmin] Even David Merrick? [MichaelRupert] Merrick wasn't there. [RobertArmin] Lucky you. [RobertArmin] I am delighted that you finally did earn your Tony Award - some years later - for Sweet Charity. [MichaelRupert] Yeah. That was pretty great. Didn't think I was going to win. [RobertArmin] Oscar, incidentally, was my first lead role in a musical - at California State University - Chico! [MichaelRupert] It was? [RobertArmin] Yeah, but because I wasn't officially a student there yet, I wasn’t eligible to win an award! [RobertArmin] Dirty deal. [MichaelRupert] Rotten. [MichaelRupert] You were robbed, too! [RobertArmin] So, let's talk about what you did between Happy Time and Sweet Charity. [MichaelRupert] After The Happy Time I headed back to California. Finished high school. [MichaelRupert] Then I got Pippin. Did that for 2 years. [RobertArmin] Unfortunately, I missed you in Pippin. I think I was in New York during part of that time, but didn't know you were in it! [MichaelRupert] I took over for John Rubenstein. [RobertArmin] I sure wish YOU had done the later video of the show. [RobertArmin] I remember seeing you, in a small role, in the movie, A Boy and His Dog. [RobertArmin] Since I'm friends with Harlan Ellison, how did that come about? [MichaelRupert] You saw that? Unbelievable! [MichaelRupert] You are? [RobertArmin] Yes, he actually allowed me to write a play based on his works - Stalking the Nightmare. [RobertArmin] We did it here in New York in 1998. [MichaelRupert] We spent 6 weeks in the desert shooting at night. Jason Robards was in it, too! [RobertArmin] And your leading man was Don Johnson, pre-Miami Vice. [RobertArmin] Very strange movie. [MichaelRupert] What is Ellison like? [RobertArmin] I think I was doing a play in Lubbock, Texas (or somewhere like that) when it played the local movie theatre, [RobertArmin] Harlan is one of my favorite people. [RobertArmin] On the outside, he is just what you would expect - loud and arrogant. [RobertArmin] But, just under the surface, he is one of the kindest, most caring people I know. [MichaelRupert] Well, doing the movie was a bizarre experience. [MichaelRupert] Robards and I kept wondering what we were doing in the middle of the desert. [RobertArmin] Did you keep in touch with Robards after that? [MichaelRupert] Yeah. My dresser in The Happy Time was his usual dresser. We had something in common. [RobertArmin] One of our readers, Doria_Hudson asks: Michael, My two best friends, Elizabeth Lundberg ('Little Girl' in "Ragtime"), and Jesse Nathanson Greenwald ('Jason' in the "Falsettos" reunion) have told me WONDERFUL things about you! Do you find it difficult to work with child performers? and did you have any issues with Elizabeth or Jesse? [MichaelRupert] Issues? No. they were both pretty terrific. Elizabeth always tried to get the best of me, however. [MichaelRupert] Jesse was great. Neither were difficult to work with. [MichaelRupert] I have worked with a couple that I’d never work with again. So, they're not always as great. [RobertArmin] Falsettos, I think, is probably the role with which you are most identified. [RobertArmin] At what point did you get involved in the development of that now classic show? [MichaelRupert] We first did Falsettos in 1981. Wow. A while ago. [RobertArmin] Were you just cast in the Playwrights production or did you work on it before that? [MichaelRupert] Jim Lapine cast me. Finn, who wrote it, hated me. Lapine talked him into using me. [RobertArmin] What was Finn's objection? [MichaelRupert] I wasn't Finn. He thought he was Marvin. [MichaelRupert] I think. [RobertArmin] Oddly enough, Chip Zien had played the part in In Trousers, the first appearance of "Marvin." Why didn't he play Marvin again? Instead he played Mendel? [MichaelRupert] I have no idea! [RobertArmin] It was the right choice, however. [MichaelRupert] it's always bothered him. [MichaelRupert] It was a great show. It meant a lot to a lot of people. [RobertArmin] You, Chip and Stephen Bogardus recently had the chance to revisit the show. [MichaelRupert] We did. [RobertArmin] First, you and Chip did it at the reunion at Playwrights Horizons -- without Stephen (who was in Man of La Mancha) [RobertArmin] But then, the three of you went out to Los Angeles to record the whole show -- including Falsettoland -- for a new recording! [MichaelRupert] Yeah. We just got back. It was good to be together again. And the audiences loved it. It still moves people. [RobertArmin] The power of the second play - Falsettoland - never fails to move people. What was it like revisiting a character like Marvin twenty years later? [MichaelRupert] Interesting now that I'm older. If anything, I was a bit young for the role emotionally. [MichaelRupert] It does have great power, that show. [RobertArmin] "Something strange is happening" may be the best description of the era of AIDS ever written. [RobertArmin] The puzzlement of it all. [RobertArmin] If I may quote the King of Siam. [MichaelRupert] The interesting thing about Finn's work is he says things in such an unusual way. [RobertArmin] Absolutely. [RobertArmin] I wasn't able to see Elegies at Lincoln Center, but have listened to the new recording and found it very moving, indeed. [RobertArmin] It's quite unlike anything you would expect. [MichaelRupert] Again, very interesting stuff. Here's a whole show about endings and death that's funny and moving and very Finn. [RobertArmin] You performed "Mark's All Male Thanksgiving" beautifully. For those who are unfamiliar with the material, Finn has written about many of the people he has known who have died. [MichaelRupert] most of the material I did in the show was autobiographical. I was playing Finn. [MichaelRupert] He really was at Mark's all-male Thanksgiving. [RobertArmin] There are many "famous" people and many unknown who were just as interesting, it seems. [RobertArmin] Finn brings them all to life. [MichaelRupert] he does. [MichaelRupert] Even his take on the World Trade Center was quite moving. [RobertArmin] I hope that PBS or someone does a video of the show. Has there been any word about it? [MichaelRupert] Not yet. But, it will have a life. [MichaelRupert] It would be perfect for PBS. [RobertArmin] With Betty Buckley and Carolee Carmello and you, not to mention Keith Byron Kirk and Christian Borle, it is some show. [MichaelRupert] They were all terrific. We all got along and really loved doing the show. [MichaelRupert] Graciela Danielle directed. [RobertArmin] Fynsworth is officially releasing the album tomorrow and I recommend it highly. But like most Finn shows, I recommend listening to it fully -- with great attention to the lyrics. It's not background music. [MichaelRupert] His lyrics are intense. [RobertArmin] It took me several listens to really begin to understand it all. But well worth the time. [RobertArmin] I have been listening to it a lot lately. [MichaelRupert] thanks. I hope people enjoy it. [RobertArmin] Do you have a particular favorite song in the show? [MichaelRupert] Mark's, etc. was fun. Jack Eric Williams was a tough one. weird. [RobertArmin] That's the song about three-named composers? [MichaelRupert] Yeah. weird. But, wonderful, too. [MichaelRupert] I finally got to hear some of his work (Jack...) and it was beautiful. [RobertArmin] It reminds me of a magazine article once about all the confusing young actresses -- Sarah Jessica Parker, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, etc. [MichaelRupert] I actually just worked with Ricky Ian Gordon. [RobertArmin] What did you do with Gordon? [MichaelRupert] We did a workshop of his "family project" with Malcolm Gets and Lauren Ward and Jessica Molaskey and Judy Blazer and Diane Sutherland (Frantantoni). [RobertArmin] I like them all! [RobertArmin] What's the show? [MichaelRupert] It's about Ricky's family. I played the dad. It was very strange. Nobody was age appropriate. [RobertArmin] You're Lauren's daddy? Are we really getting THAT old? [MichaelRupert] yeah. [RobertArmin] Scary - we have known each other 35 years!!!!!! [MichaelRupert] Seriously? [RobertArmin] Yup. [RobertArmin] Well, I am looking forward to seeing that show. [RobertArmin] I had Terrence McNally as my guest last week. What was it like taking over the role in Ragtime? [MichaelRupert] It was a beautifully written show. A lot of work. Very emotional, etc. [RobertArmin] You played Tateh... the role Mandy Patinkin played in the movie. [RobertArmin] Of course, the musical version was soooo much better than the movie. [MichaelRupert] Yeah. Russian Jew bringing his daughter to America. [MichaelRupert] It was verrrrrry long. [RobertArmin] Well, it told a lot of history. [MichaelRupert] It did. It was quite a show. [RobertArmin] It's strange to see Sweet Charity, a show you played in revival, being revived again! Time is going by, I must say. What shows (or roles) would you like to play in a Broadway revival? [MichaelRupert] There are none. I'm interested in creating new roles. [RobertArmin] Okay, let's talk about some of your original shows. [RobertArmin] What are you working on now? If you can talk about it. [MichaelRupert] I'm working on a musical about the 60's and the anti-war movement in America. [RobertArmin] Is there a role for you? [MichaelRupert] It's called STREETS OF AMERICA. Working with two young writers who are quite good. It's an intense show, too. [MichaelRupert] No role for me. Everybody's under 30. It's interesting writing a 60's based score. Lots of folk-rock, etc. [MichaelRupert] I enjoy writing that kind of music. I was a kid in the 60's. [RobertArmin] I remember seeing you in your show MAIL, with Brian Mitchell - who later became known as Brian Stokes Mitchell. That was the first time I heard him sing. How did you "discover" that part of his talent? [MichaelRupert] He auditioned and we were blown away. Also, one of the nicest guys in showbiz. [RobertArmin] Absolutely. [MichaelRupert] We also had Michelle Pawk and, out-of-town, B.D. Wong. He left to do M. Butterfly [RobertArmin] I loved that show and was sorry to see it close so fast. It was very unusual for Broadway. [RobertArmin] Your "pop rock" score for MAIL was not the usual sound. [MichaelRupert] Thanks. It was very tough being the composer and the lead actor. I'll never do it again. But, you're right, the audiences did like it. [RobertArmin] Did you ever get to record that show? [MichaelRupert] No. I want to do a kind of concept album with some of the younger people on Broadway now. And then do a couple of bonus tracks with the original cast. [RobertArmin] So you are planning to record it some day? [MichaelRupert] I'm talking to a few people who seem interested. [RobertArmin] Well, I think Mike here at Fynsworth is a big fan of yours [RobertArmin] so don't ignore us. [MichaelRupert] you got it. I'll give him a call. [RobertArmin] Of course, over the years you have recorded many things for Fynsworth (and Varese Sarabande) before that. So there are lots of compilations with your singing. [RobertArmin] I think you have THE most distinctive male voice in the theatre. [RobertArmin] There is no way to mistake your voice for anyone else. [RobertArmin] And I mean that as the highest compliment. [MichaelRupert] Thanks, Robert. I've had fun doing some of the recordings in the past...get to do things that have been cut from shows, etc. [RobertArmin] What ever happened to the idea of doing a solo album. Weren't you working on something at one time? [MichaelRupert] I was going to do an album several years ago...but, backed out. [MichaelRupert] The timing wasn't right. Had started to put together good material, though. [RobertArmin] I remember Jeff Marx talking about promoting such an album. Now, of course, he is the co-author of the smash hit Avenue Q. [MichaelRupert] Absolutely. His show is doing great. [MichaelRupert] I haven't had a chance to see it, but will. [RobertArmin] Well, I hope that you get back to the idea of a solo album -- or, at least, an album with guest stars singing with you. Maybe that will be Mail? [MichaelRupert] Yeah, I think so. [RobertArmin] Have you had the chance to do much film or television? I remember your "guest" appearance in Life With Mikey. [RobertArmin] lol [MichaelRupert] I did a lot of film in L.A. when I was a kid. Decided to concentrate on theatre. Will do some this year, however. [RobertArmin] Would you want to do a series at this point? [MichaelRupert] Yeah. Good money. Gives me the means to do theatre more. [RobertArmin] David Garrison did Married With Children for only a few years, but it's what most people recognize him for. [MichaelRupert] That's what happens with TV. [RobertArmin] And Sandy Duncan told me once that TV gave here the chance to do theatre and concerts. [MichaelRupert] It does. It's tough to make a living in theatre. So, TV allows you the means to go back and do it. [RobertArmin] New York only gets to see you once or twice a decade, it seems. What kind of theatrical work have you been doing "out there." [MichaelRupert] Most of the work I've been doing is directing. Regionally. Did do a big musical with Jimmy Buffett in the Bahamas. Tough gig, right? [MichaelRupert] I did do Finn's A NEW BRAIN in Washington, DC. That was fun. I'd done the first workshop here in NYC some years ago. Full circle. [MichaelRupert] I've worked in most of the major regional theatres in the last few years. [MichaelRupert] Unfortunately, there's only so many shows I'm right for here in NY. [RobertArmin] I've been trying to get out of NYC to catch regional productions more. Linda Purl in Streetcar Named Desire in Ventura, California. Alice Ripley in Little Shop of Horrors in Florida. [RobertArmin] Yes, but when you're right, there's no one better than you. [MichaelRupert] There's some great theatre in the provinces. [MichaelRupert] And, thanks. [RobertArmin] I don't think anyone ever imagined Oscar in Sweet Charity as a Tony Award winning role. But you made it so. [RobertArmin] Ironically, John McMartin has been one of my favorite actors for more than thirty years. [MichaelRupert] Surprised even me. [RobertArmin] And he created the role on Broadway AND in the movie. [MichaelRupert] He did. [RobertArmin] The two of your should work together! [MichaelRupert] I'd love that. I'm a big fan. [MichaelRupert] Sondheim once said he thought John's performance in FOLLIES was the best he's seen . [RobertArmin] And he was the ONLY one of the stars in Follies to NOT be nominated! [RobertArmin] I thought he was brilliant! The best thing in the show. [MichaelRupert] Is that right? [RobertArmin] And I saw Follies seven times. [MichaelRupert] I didn't see it, unfortunately. [RobertArmin] He was actually much younger than all his co-stars at the time. Because of the gray hair, no one realized how young he was. [MichaelRupert] He's been gray for a long time. [RobertArmin] What are your upcoming plans in the immediate future? [RobertArmin] Excluding the recording and the show you are writing? [MichaelRupert] I'm doing PUTTING IT TOGETHER, a show I did some years ago at MTC, at the Cape Playhouse. With Peter Scolari, Stephen Buntrock, Erin Dilly and Judy Canova. [MichaelRupert] I meant Diana Canova. [RobertArmin] I THOUGHT that's what you meant. [RobertArmin] Well, I guest Kris and I will have to add that to our summer "sweep" of the provinces. We are going up to see Enter Laughing at the Berkshire Theatre Festival and The Three Penny Opera at Williamstown. [RobertArmin] What are the dates? [MichaelRupert] 2nd and 3rd week of August. [RobertArmin] I was just listening to Putting It Together again a few days ago. You would make a great Ben Stone in Follies, too, I think. [MichaelRupert] I was asked to do Buddy at the Signature in Virginia, but couldn't. I'd like to do Ben. Hey, there's a role I'd like to do. And I thought there wasn't one out there. Thanks, Robert. [RobertArmin] Now that I would have traveled for. [RobertArmin] What was it like working with Dame Julie? [MichaelRupert] She was pretty great. We all called her "Mom". She always made sure we were all right. [RobertArmin] That was a show I just couldn't get tickets for. [RobertArmin] Putting It Together. [RobertArmin] And I couldn't stand in the lines at the time for cancellation tickets. [MichaelRupert] It was Julie's first time on stage in something like 30 years. We sold out pretty fast. [RobertArmin] Assassins was the same way. For a while, Sondheim musicals were a private club for the exclusive few. [MichaelRupert] And now he has a new one! [RobertArmin] Sondheim told me during Assassins that even HE couldn't get me tickets. [RobertArmin] I never quite believed him, but, oh well. [MichaelRupert] He always tells the truth! [RobertArmin] It's funny that Wise Guys is now gone forever. Bounce is apparently very little like the workshop of Wise Guys. So that was a VERY exclusive run. [RobertArmin] Well, it almost time to wrap it up. It's interesting that we have just exchanged more words in the past 90 minutes than we have in the past 35 years! [RobertArmin] Hopefully, we won't have to wait that long again. [MichaelRupert] Bizarre! but, let's keep in touch. [RobertArmin] Well, you travel around more than anybody I know. Settle in one spot for awhile. [MichaelRupert] That'd be nice. [MichaelRupert] thanks for having me in the chat room. [RobertArmin] A pleasure indeed. [RobertArmin] Well, stick around and I'll play it. [MichaelRupert] And glad you liked the ELEGIES cd. I can't wait to hear it. [RobertArmin] Gee, I answered before you even asked. How's that for psychic? [RobertArmin] Well, until next week, when my guest will be Sally Mayes, I bid you all a fond adieu. [RobertArmin] Good night, Michael, and thanks again. [MichaelRupert] Good night, Robert. |
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