As a kid I was always a show-off. When I played with other kids, I always had to be the hero. Zorro. Superman. Davy Crocket. Daniel Boone. The Lone Ranger. Wyatt Earp. Marshall Dillon. The Rifleman. The Army Captain leading the troops.

Zorro - Christmas 1958

My Dad

In college, I studied at the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University as a voice major. The plan was to become a music teacher. However, it was at the local community theatre, The Youngstown Playhouse, where I discovered my love for acting and performing on stage. I completed my teaching degree, but it was the live theatre – musicals in particular – that became my calling.

My first paid performing gig was in Live Shows at the Kings Island Amusement Park near Cincinnati, Ohio singing and dancing on stage with Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Scooby Doo and Fred Flintstone.

Like my dad, I played the accordion. And I always sang. When people would ask me when I started singing, I would tell them, “When I was born, the doctor didn’t have to slap me on the butt. My mother said that I came out screaming!” Mom was prone to exaggeration and embellishing family stories. That’s probably where I got it from.

That’s Me - Second Row on the Left

After graduating from college, I got a job as singing waiter at this place called Musicana in Florida. I was told that the money was good, and it might lead to something better. Well, the money was terrible and it was a horrible experience! However, it did lead to something better – auditioning for and being cast as Sir Lionel (the one who dies) with the understudy for Lancelot in Camelot at the (now defunct) Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre in Jupiter, Florida where I earned my Equity Card. I was now a Professional Actor!

The next season, I was cast as Will Parker in Oklahoma! (you have to spell it with the exclamation mark), even though I couldn’t tap dance. But I quickly learned how to do a double time step, in cowboy boots no less. Good gig!

Then back to Ohio and in the chorus for another Camelot in summer stock for the Kenley Players. It played Akron, Columbus, Dayton and Flint, Michigan. Ah, life on tour living out of a suitcase.

That’s Me - In the Dark on the Left

I decided to make the big move to New York City to follow my ambition of becoming a Broadway Musical Comedy Star. Yeah, right. Me and a thousand other 22-year-old hopefuls. And for the first nine years I worked, on and off, out-of-town. I used to say that I performed in dinner theatres, summer stock and regional theatres all the way up and down the I-95 Corridor from Maine to Miami. Which is true. And points Midwest from Indianapolis to Cincinnati to Dayton to Columbus to Akron to Flint. But I hadn’t cracked the New York nut yet. So, I made up my mind to stay put and give it my best shot or give up like so many of my contemporaries and find another career path.

In 1988, I landed a job as the evening doorman at the Shubert Theatre for A Chorus Line, which had already become the longest running Broadway Musical. I was manning the door the night of the 6000th performance.

I’m listening to this show every night, six nights a week, and I’m thinking, “Damn it! I just have to get on Broadway!

But in the meantime, what about that other career path? WNEW-FM, the big Rock station in town, always advertised this school called The Institute of Audio Research. So, I checked it out and enrolled in the program. Audio Engineering School during the day. Shubert Theatre doorman at night. And I could still do the occasional audition.

Fast forward to the Mid- to Late-Nineteen Eighties. The Johnson-Liff Casting Agency (which no longer exists) had Broadway by the balls. I mean, they were casting for everything. Including Cats, Les Misérables, and The Phantom of the Opera. All produced by Cameron MacIntosh. (I once auditioned to be a replacement pit singer for Cats early in its run. I didn’t get it.) By 1988, Les Miz had already opened at the Broadway Theatre. Phantom was playing in London and was coming to Broadway soon. I’d already had a few auditions for Les Miz, so the Johnson-Liff Casting Office knew me – or at least I hoped they did.

When the casting calls went out for Phantom, I signed up right away for my first EPA – Equity Principal Audition. For EPAs you get 5 minutes to show your stuff. Sing, do a monologue or just chat with the Casting Director. Of course, I sang. The Casting Director thanked me but told me that there was “nothing for me in the show,” but that he “had me in mind for something else” and that “he’d call me.”

Well, Phantom went into rehearsals – without me. But I was at the Opening Night Party at the Beacon Theatre – as a cater waiter – slopping au gratin potatoes on cast members’ plates. Including the original Phantom, Michael Crawford.

Fast forward again to 1989 into 1990: Another audition for Phantom. For the same Casting Director. But this time at a chorus call. Back then, they were allowed to do this thing called “typing.” They herded you into a room, twenty-five at a time, and you held your pictures and resumes up in front of you (like in A Chorus Line) and they would point – “You, you, and you. Stay. The rest of you, thank you very much.” You haven’t sung. You haven’t even said a word. They were just looking for a “type.”

The same Casting Director came up to me, looked down at my picture, looked up at me and asked, “Haven’t you sung for me before?”

I said, “Yes. About two years ago. And you said that there was nothing for me in the show, but you had me in mind for something else and you’d call. But you never did.”

And he said, “Would you stay?”

And I said, “Yes.”

And thus began the odyssey.

Two more auditions for Phantom – both on the stage of the Majestic Theatre. Both for a role in the ensemble and a Raoul understudy. There were a couple of other guys besides me up for the same job at each audition. From the first one, the guy that went before me got the job. But I landed the second one as a swing and Raoul cover. I got the call on Wednesday, January 31, 1990, to audition the next day, Thursday, and was offered the job. I signed my contract on Friday. I saw Phantom for the first time at the Saturday Matinee – I had to sit on the stairs because it was sold out. And went into rehearsal on Monday. My life had changed that quickly!

On my last night at A Chorus Line the stage manager allowed me to sing the “One (Reprise)/Finale” backstage with the rest of the cast. It was absolutely thrilling!

In the subsequent 22½ years I was in Phantom, I understudied and performed every male role in the show – except Pangi, the fat tenor. (So much for there being “nothing for me in the show.”) And that Includes 379 performances as the Phantom. More performances on Broadway than the original Phantom, Michael Crawford!

From Opening Night Cater Waiter to the Star of the Show!

I am The Quintessential Broadway Success Story.