WEBVTT - We Go Together with Barry Pearl 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:04.440 And that's what you really missed with Jenna. 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:10.639 And Kevin and iHeartRadio podcast. Welcome to and that's what 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:13.200 you really missed. I feel like I'm cheating on Jenna 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:16.840 by saying that, But here we are today. We have 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:23.480 one of the og Grease cast members, Barry Pearl, who 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.560 played Duty, one of the original t Birds. He also 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:28.920 was in the stage show before. We talked about all 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:32.880 of that, talk about his incredible career child actor, everyone 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.840 child actor, and he turned out. Okay, he is great. 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:40.920 He's a sensational storyteller. We get to hear all about. 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:43.519 You know what I was fascinated going into this was like, 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.559 how did this really come about? Like when you're around, 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.960 you know, we've been in the entertainment business forever, you 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:53.159 hear about projects coming up, and I wanted to know, like, 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:56.040 if you're there on the ground in the late sixties, 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:59.160 early seventies, what was this about. So Barry gives us 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:02.280 all all the pearls of wisdom. 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:03.080 I hate myself. 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:04.680 Okay, this is very Pearl. 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:06.640 Oh my gosh, it's so nice to meet you. 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:10.280 Yes, thank you so much for joining us. This is 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:11.000 very exciting. 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:14.000 Chris, Thank you guys for making that donation to Owen 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:15.080 J's Wellness Center. 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:19.080 That is respect Thank you for asking for that. That 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.039 was great of course. Do you want to tell us 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:22.759 about the work they. 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:27.560 Do well, they're allied with the Austin Health I've been 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:31.440 there actually I took a tour Toddy Goldsmith, who is 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:37.200 Olivia's niece from Rona who is her sister. I had 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:41.679 gone over to do what is tantamount to our comic 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:44.680 cons in Australia. They're called supernova's. 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:50.400 So yes, I've done one, you have yours. We did 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.680 it in Sydney, Sydney. Yeah, I've done Sydney. 0:01:54.680 --> 0:02:00.560 Perth, Melbourne and gold Coast. I was, I guess in Melbourne. 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:04.480 They had me over to the to the center and 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:08.240 gave me a tour. And it's her research facility that 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:12.600 is funded you know by private donors. That's how they 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:18.560 stay afloat. It is that center that's exceedingly special because 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:21.600 that's again where all the research is done to come 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:26.600 up with but they need to to battle this this 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:30.880 cant cancer all together. Yeah, so that's that, and so 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:34.720 the donation goes to to this, to that part of 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:38.160 the center, that part of her center, and you walk 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:42.919 downstairs down the stairs from floor to floor and as 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.799 you walk down, instead of a wall there, it's an 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:48.800 open it's a huge window, so you can see the 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:56.400 trees and yeah, or the patio park area that they 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.440 have for people to sit and relax and whatever. They 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:03.080 have rooms and music rooms and it's again a whole 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:11.280 a holistic approach to healing the cancer, you know, and 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:16.640 body spirit. So it's it's quite it's quite something. 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:17.920 Yeah sounds like. 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:21.120 Yeah, especially you got to go see it in real life. 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:23.560 Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was pretty terrific. 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:29.280 Well, we're curious to hear of it. We just watched Greece. 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:32.400 Again watching. 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:39.840 But uh, it's such an iconic piece of history. 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:44.200 Is one of the most arguably the most popular and 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:49.720 defining musical movie of all time, and it must feel 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:52.880 pretty special that you were a part of that, and 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:57.280 long before that the stage production as well, but also 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:01.240 like seeing Greece live on in today and you know, 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:05.120 for these younger generations that are still discovering and doing 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:08.160 this in schools, et cetera. So I'm just curious to 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:10.680 hear like what that journey has been like for you 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:13.120 and seeing all these different inceptions and being part of 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:16.360 the very original kind of start of it all. 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:20.720 First, I'm blessed to say the least as are each 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:27.800 of us, that we're a part of that phenomenon. We 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:33.839 do not take it for granted, and there really isn't 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:35.760 anything like it. And at the same time, it's funny. 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:40.880 It's so monumental, it's such a legacy. But I don't 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:43.280 wake up every morning with it in my eye, if 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.640 that makes sense. Yeah, I'm aware of it. When I'm 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:49.760 aware of it, I don't. I certainly don't laud it 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:55.599 over people, and I'm I've always been exceedingly willing to 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:59.920 talk about it with everybody. Friends and fans of like 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:04.920 friends have had enough of it, believe and I often 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:07.880 worry about that because I think that I don't want 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:10.160 them to think that I'm full of myself with it. 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:13.839 And I'm certain there are folks out there, oh Barry, Yeah, 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:17.360 if I hear Greece one more time, you know, and 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:19.320 I guess that will just be what it is, and 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:25.240 so be it, because there are vast numbers of folks 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:31.320 out there who, like yourselves, are very taken with what 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:34.479 this experience is like for them and must be like 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:40.200 for us. And we take it in stride again, we 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:45.680 feel blessed? Do we feel special as much as I 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:51.400 feel as special as I allow myself to feel without 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:55.920 being conceited about it, without again, like I say, lauding 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:59.440 it over anybody, or just having there about it. Because 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:02.960 a lot of luck went into and and always goes 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:07.880 into anyone who works a lot of talent, a lot 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:12.320 of perseverance, and an element of luck. So yeah, we 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:14.760 just don't take it for granted, if you know what 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:19.160 I mean. Definitely, So as much as I don't think 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:21.120 about it every day, it's with me every day that 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:22.200 I'm blessed. 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.200 Yeah, Yeah, And when these kinds of. 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:29.280 Things come up, we love telling the stories. I mean, 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:32.600 you're probably going to ask me questions that I've answered many, many, 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:36.600 many times, So forgive me if I'm repeating myself. Folks 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:38.960 who are watching this, I don't know that you're going 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:40.880 to learn anything necessarily new. It's not going to be 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:43.160 so revolutionary. And if you've heard it before, you're going 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:45.680 to hear it again, I guess, and the new the 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:47.640 new folks out there, you know, strap In. 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:54.560 I think it's a really important point you bring up 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:56.599 about because I think it happens to us and we're 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.040 much earlier in the journey of being a part of 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.839 something that went on to mean more than we could 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.440 have ever imagined to people. And obviously, you know, I 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:08.359 think being a musical musicals connect on a whole different level, 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:12.240 I think than other forms of TV and film. Sure, 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:17.400 And I think your distinction between talking about it because 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:20.400 you're so proud of it and blessed to be a 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.680 part of something that meant so much to you and 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:25.400 so much to other people, and then the difference between 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:31.080 that and the ego and being conceited about it and obviously, 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:33.360 speaking to you now for what less than ten minutes, 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:37.680 clearly it's you know, the former. And I think where 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:40.520 I struggle with that and think about that in my 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:43.360 personal life too, when I'm talking about it and I'm 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:47.200 not bragging about something I did, you know, fifteen years ago, 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:53.880 but especially for you, where this has a real, deep, 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:58.680 deeply ingrained legacy in so many people and it is 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:00.280 something you should be so proud of. 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:02.200 Yeah, uninevitable, you know. 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:07.080 Yes, absolutely, Like it is so rare that you get 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.720 to be a part of that, any of us, and 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.160 so to be a part of and yours is such 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:15.840 a singular thing. Yeah, because it was. I mean it 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:18.600 was beyond like the numbers. Yes, it was the biggest 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:23.000 grossing until like what last year like that, like that, 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:24.880 nobody else can say that. 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:28.640 Generation after generation. Yes, and we see I mean literally 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:34.680 we will see grandmothers sometimes great grandmothers, the grandmothers, the mothers, 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:38.200 the children and the children's children. It's it blows us away. 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:44.040 We were just Jamie Donnelle plays Jan and Michael Tucci 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:49.680 plays Sonny, and Larenzelamis plays Tom Chisholm and myself. We 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:54.200 often get taken for for weekends in different parts of 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:58.000 the country to do events, and we've done several drive ins. 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:02.319 Oh wow, So I'm driving up to this driving in Litchfield, 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:05.160 MISSOURIUS and this is where my career has come to 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:08.640 a drive in getting around Well, let me tell you, 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:13.280 over nine hundred people stood in line from five pm 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:17.480 to eight thirty pm after the movie started to get 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:19.800 our autographs and take photos with Yeah. 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:20.520 Wow. 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:25.120 So it's huge in that way and I don't I'm 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.200 not diminishing it in any way. And yet at the 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:33.120 same time I'm signing autographs that to drive in Well, yeah, yes, 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:36.439 those folks go to the drive in to be entertained 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:41.400 and then to meet they're the icons, the ones they've 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.400 grown up with and connection with it. You're talking about 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.640 how special it is, and we stop and we talk 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:50.480 with every single person who comes by, whether they're coming 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.720 by for an autograph or passing me up to get 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.000 Jamie's autograph. They're in line and we're schmoozing. And they 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:00.560 stood there in the heat and the wind all that 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:08.240 time to have some fellowship with us. And yeah, we 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:11.360 we've been to these comic cons and we have seen 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:15.400 lines around the room for the bigs like the William 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:21.480 Shatners and and uh, the casts of of what can 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:25.400 I think of Star Trek, you know, for instance, and 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:30.560 TV shows like of What's Happening and Vicky Vicky Lawrence. Yeah, 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.840 and it goes on and on. Marty Cove from Cobra Ka, 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:39.040 Cobra Kai around the block they go, and so they 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:44.120 certainly have their place, you know. And to even be 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:48.679 a part of that culture is a is a gift 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:51.640 and a blessing and we don't take we don't take 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:57.000 for granted there there really isn't anything very much like that. 0:10:57.040 --> 0:11:01.320 You're absolutely right. We're gathering the proverbial rosebuds while we can, 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:04.199 and you know, we got the fiftieth coming up, so 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.320 that should provide us with a whole bunch of other events. 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:11.040 I'm thinking, you know, paramount of course stuff in the 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:14.880 works definitely and we'll see what happens. So we're looking 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:16.360 forward to being alive for that. 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:28.480 Jenna mentioned, you know at the beginning of this that 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:33.760 you do have a such a deep history with the show, 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:36.600 because I mean, you went to school, you went to 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:38.600 school for performing arts, musical theater. 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:42.880 I went to Professional Children's School, which was different from Performing. 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:45.680 Artshame was model. 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:50.360 Yeah, so with performing arts, which I actually lived across 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:53.880 the street from the original and forty six between Broad 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.240 six and then it moved, i want to say, across 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:02.080 to the north and further further west. That was a 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:06.840 conservatory of sorts where they taught the arts, and one 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.840 it was not supposed to work while going to that school. 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:15.520 Now PCs Professional Children's School was designed for kids that 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.400 were in the business or who and or whose parents 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:22.120 were and traveled with their parents so they they had 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:25.439 tutors and worked through correspondence. So that's with that school. 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:31.079 It was for the professional child. If you will and yeah, 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:34.160 so I go way back and Jeff may he rest 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:38.280 in peace conaway. He went to one of the rival schools, Quintanos, 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:41.800 which wasn't as strict as PCs. It was kind of 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:46.720 you know, you phoned in. It was crazy. And my 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:50.920 dear dear friend k Cole, who played Maggie and chorus line, Oh, 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:52.320 I was just with just a couple of hours ago. 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:56.760 We're doing a project together. She went to Quintanos. She 0:12:56.840 --> 0:13:00.160 got by by the skin of her teeth too, And 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.000 it was very tough. They they were very hard on 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:06.400 us and as they prepared us for college and and 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:08.680 I actually then went to college. I gra In fact, 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:10.840 I graduated a year late because I thro the course 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:12.840 of four years, I had failed a history course, an 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:16.240 English course, in geometry course course. So I basically had 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:18.520 to take my senior year over again, or I took 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:21.000 my junior No, it was a senior year exactly over again. 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:25.800 So but I did graduate, and uh and got into 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:31.320 Carnegie Mellon University and the class of seventy three it 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:33.559 started out with sixty five people and only four of 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:36.840 us graduated, so that was also wow school to go to. 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:42.040 And and still uh, so I wanted that. I wanted 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.400 that sense of formal education. I wanted to be completion. 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:49.040 Not not that that necessarily helps you get the gig, 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:53.079 but it's just nice to have that for yourself. Yeah, exactly, 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.320 to have that cheap skin for myself. So but yes, 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:58.280 I I you know, I've been doing it since I 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:00.440 was the kid, since I was eleven years years old, 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.439 and I was active in community theater in my hometown 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:08.360 in Pennsylvania, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And in fifty nine I had 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:10.520 done a production of Dark at the Top of the Stairs, 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:15.360 playing Sunny Flood in that play, and there was an 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.440 aspiring playwright from New York by the name of Charles E. 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:22.120 Miller Chuck Miller, who, because he was a playwright, he 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:24.800 needed to pay the rent. He came to the Fulton 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:28.560 Theater where the play was being done to run lights 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:30.840 because I had to make a living. He took a 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:33.080 liking to my mother and myself, and he told my 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:34.680 mom that one day he was going to get me 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.880 on Broadway. And I was always looking for daddy because 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:41.280 my parents were separated and divorced, so I would latch 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:42.520 onto any. 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:43.760 Male mailing area. 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:50.320 And two years later, summer sixty one, Chuck was friendly 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:54.120 with the secretary of the producer of Bye Bye Birdie, 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:59.000 the first rock and roll musical, and Chuck became aware 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:01.760 of the fact that the young boy playing Randolph McAfee 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.160 and by by Bertie Johnny Borden was leaving to do 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.360 a new play called Milk and Honey with Molly Pecan, 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:10.360 and so that role was going to become available, and 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:14.200 Chuck told this secretary, Bob Fagan said, I got the 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:16.840 guy for you. So called my mom. In the next day, 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:18.960 I took a train into New York and I never 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:23.480 went home. I auditioned for the piece and then went 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.440 to work right away. That was a Wednesday, and I 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:29.800 went on like that following Saturday. Actually, oh my god. 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:30.320 In fact, it was. 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:32.320 Supposed to be that following Monday, and my mom went 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:38.600 home for that weekend. And that that's when I started 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.600 the professional career. And I do this because professional is 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.560 really not whether you're being paid, in my estimation, whether 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:47.200 you're mad or have an agent or have union representation. 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:51.600 It's how you behave on the field. So but my 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:55.480 my anniversary, my sixty fourth year anniversary of being a 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.800 member of Afters Equity was this past September. First Wow, 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:01.160 I had joined the cab in August to buy by 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:03.320 Bertie in August of that year, and then got my 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:07.040 equity card and went on the road. Did the last 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:08.840 month on Broadway, and then went on the road with 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:11.840 Bertie and with Kate. That's how I met ky Cole. 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:15.320 She was in the show and that's amazing. 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:19.560 We finished the first national tour and then did the 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:23.800 Vegas Company summer set of sixty two, and then that 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:28.680 fall I had auditioned for Oliver, which was coming into Broadway. 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:31.360 I had a broken arm fell off my cousin Shetlin 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:34.160 writing Bareback, so but I auditioned with a broken arm, 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:37.520 didn't get the gig. However, about two months later they 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:40.680 were replacing two of the kids pre Broadway. I auditioned 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:45.400 again after having gotten the role of Tom, who appears 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.040 at the end of Camelot, and that was going out 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:50.800 on tour. I had actually gotten that gig and had 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:53.920 a call back for Oliver, and I convinced my mom 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.840 to let me go to that callback because it was 0:16:56.840 --> 0:16:58.320 coming back into New York. It was going to be 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.840 a Broadway show. Okay, there you'll go. And I got 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:04.840 that gig. It turned down the role of Tom and 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:10.680 Camelot and they flew me to Detroit, and then from 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:13.560 Detroit we did Toronto. This is before Davy Jones got 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:16.960 into the show. Wow, I was in Toronto, that's when 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:20.280 Davey joined, and then we came into New York January 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:24.320 sixty three. Laid it to the end of till about 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:29.000 September of sixty three. I left the show to understudy 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:32.000 Barry Gordon in the National two or thousand Clowns. And 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:35.840 had I not left the show Oliver at the time 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:41.520 that I did, I would have accompanied my Oliver buddies 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:46.200 that February of sixty four onto the Ed Sullivan Show 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:47.920 that the Beatles first appeared. 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:56.399 Oh my myself, there's not enough foresight in the world. 0:17:56.520 --> 0:18:02.119 No, no, you can't. Oh my gosh. 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:04.679 When you say you started young, like you were just 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:07.840 gig after gig after gig, No, what are you failed 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:09.840 worth of? 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:10.760 Yeah? 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:13.520 I as show business. 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:16.119 I spoke the same friend. 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:26.000 Yeah, yeah, you didn't have time for school. You're an entertainer. 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:29.440 You wouldn't get it. 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:35.520 Unbelievable. Wow, what a career, even pre Grease Yes, oh. 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.879 Yeah, yeah, which also brings me we'll get there. Just 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:42.880 how good every single person is in Greece. But it's 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:49.360 like just your your journey alone getting there shows why, 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:52.960 like the caliber of talent, how stacked that cast was, 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.080 every which way the camera looked. You're going to be 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:59.240 seeing somebody who is so good at what they're doing. 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:01.439 Yeah, like I said, Jeff and I grew up together, 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:01.800 he was. 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:02.159 He was. 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:04.080 In fact when I first saw the show. That's a 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:10.240 whole other story. He was playing Zuko. He was the best. 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:12.920 He was an amazing because he was Zuko in real life. 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:15.840 He really was. And so the first time I saw 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:18.640 it was blown away and Jeff and I, like I said, 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:21.160 growing up, he was kind of a bad boy, and 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:24.240 I kind of envied him and was angry with him 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:27.080 because he was so wonderful and good looking and played 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:29.720 the guitar and not fair. 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:30.480 It's not fair. 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.080 Not fair. And then we wound up becoming fast and 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:36.479 famous friends when we did. But also we had actually 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:40.480 done the show together. I think I did it with him. Yeah, 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:43.240 I did do it with him, uh for a while, 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:46.639 and then he left when I had first done the show. Yeah, 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:49.520 he was. He was playing Zuko, and I came in 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:53.000 to replace Michael Lembeck who was playing Sonny who had 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:55.600 broken his ankle. And I was only there for a 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:57.439 short time, and then they laid me off in the 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:00.600 end of that summer. I then rejoined the cast, replacing 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.119 Michael when when the show came out here to California 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:06.440 for the last ten and a half months. But but 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:08.840 getting back to what you had said about the caliber 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:12.080 folks not only from the movie. And you got Jamie 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:15.720 Donnelly who was like Rocky Horror Picture Show, George m 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:20.840 Michael who at fact Michael had joined the cast of Grease. 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:22.919 He was an understudy for the last month or two 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:26.520 in Toronto when I was doing the show there. And 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:31.320 Uh Kelly Ward, whose parents were in the business and 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:35.800 and and were wonderful dancers and producers and directors. And 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:40.280 like I say, Jeff and Johnny two who had been 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:42.840 on Broadway a bunch of time, played duty in the 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:46.040 first national trope. But but and you had the Barry Bostwicks, 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:52.280 and you had the uh Eileen Grafts and h who 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:56.600 played Walter Bobby and Jerry Zachs and and and Adrian 0:20:56.720 --> 0:21:00.199 Barbou who did the stage play, who also had of 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:05.200 incredible histories in the theater, film, and television. So it's 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:09.439 been packed through the years with those that kind of 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.880 caliber in all the companies that have been produced, all 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:17.840 the professional companies right and even beyond you know, so 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:21.480 just say even like some blischool productions are yeah, like 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:22.840 the talent, the caliber of talent. 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:26.280 I'm wondering if you remember because you were in trench 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:31.520 in the theater community pre Greece happening when you hear about, 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:34.359 you know, a new show being done or there's workshops 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:37.560 going on, Like what is your first memory of hearing 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:41.240 about Greece the stage show this production? 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:47.000 Sure, so in the summer of seventy two when Greece 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:52.040 Greece had started Kingston minds in Chicago actually, and it 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:54.960 then moved off Broadway and then on to Broadway. Just 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:57.720 occurs to me. Actually Chicago plays heavy in this because 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:00.159 in the summer of seventy two, it was my the 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:03.800 summer before my senior year of college, and my girlfriend 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:06.840 at the time and I got jobs with the Chicago 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:12.000 Free Street Theater, and the Street Theater brought live theater 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:18.840 into neighborhoods, into affluent to squalid neighborhoods all up and 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:23.160 down Illinois amazing. From Winnetka down to East Saint Louis. 0:22:23.760 --> 0:22:26.240 We would travel in this show mobile. It was a 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:29.960 huge semi opened up and then we the actors would 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:34.119 erect the stage, no, do two original gigs that we 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:38.199 wrote musicals, unfold and go to another gig. So I 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:39.920 did that for the summer of seventy two. 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:42.439 What a great experience truly. 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:48.680 But then into Europe during the fall we were sponsored 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:52.800 by the Bograd International Theater Festival in Yugoslavia, toured all 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:58.760 over Yugoslavia the Bograd Pierre Cardan sponsored us in Paris 0:22:58.800 --> 0:23:00.960 at his theater, the espos Kardan, and then we did 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:04.280 a week in Brussels. And for that that that period 0:23:04.320 --> 0:23:08.960 of time, Carnegie Mellon gave me credit for the work. 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:10.080 So I didn't have to go to my. 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:14.200 N some history classes you were not going to pass. 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:19.320 Yes, right exactly, and so and so in that company, 0:23:20.040 --> 0:23:22.320 the Street Theater Company, I befriended a fellow by the 0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:27.800 name of John Lansing, And after we came back from Europe, 0:23:27.840 --> 0:23:30.080 they took us down to Rockford, Illinois. I want to 0:23:30.119 --> 0:23:33.280 say that December, part of that January to teach theater 0:23:33.480 --> 0:23:38.520 arts to certain targets in Rockford, Frozer behinds off in 0:23:39.400 --> 0:23:40.560 teaching theater arts. 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:41.040 Wow. 0:23:41.280 --> 0:23:44.119 And then I went back to school. So I go 0:23:44.240 --> 0:23:47.680 back to school for the second semester, and I had 0:23:47.680 --> 0:23:50.359 a bunch of friends of mine who had been to 0:23:50.440 --> 0:23:53.440 school out here in California and had transferred to Carnegie, 0:23:54.000 --> 0:23:56.160 and they kept telling me how much I reminded them 0:23:56.200 --> 0:23:59.800 of their friend Michael Lembeck. Looked like we did the 0:23:59.840 --> 0:24:03.480 same shows, the same roles in the same shows. Okay, 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:09.280 So Grease now comes through Pittsburgh on tour, and my 0:24:09.359 --> 0:24:12.560 friend John Lansing is now one of their understudies. He 0:24:12.640 --> 0:24:20.240