I did find it particularly difficult to do Broadway. It was not my favourite way to perform. When I do theatre, I like it to be smaller. I like the audience to be closer; I like it to be less presentational.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Broadway was without doubt the hardest I ever worked in my life and the highest highs I've ever had as an actor. The unadulterated fear was on a level that was hard to explain.
Broadway is one of the hardest things I've ever done.
I was never much of a musical theater guy, but I have so much more respect for the art form, the physical exertion of doing eight shows on Broadway a week, I cannot even fathom it.
I've never been a really big fan of theatre. I don't know why. It's so much for effort. It's much more difficult for me than stage acting just because of the pressure that's piled on you and you have to learn the entire performance by heart.
I can't tell you the thrill and joy of when I was cast in my first Broadway show. Granted, it was 'Starlight Express' and it was exhausting, but it was my first time on Broadway, and there was nothing like it.
Broadway was life-changing because it pushes you mentally, physically, emotionally - every way that you can be pushed. It makes you feel like there's nothing you can't do. It's like doing your own stunts.
I did do Broadway for a little less than a year and realized quickly I don't have a passion for it and, more importantly, I don't have a talent in it.
Though I acted in hundreds of productions, appeared at the Guthrie Theatre and on Broadway in Amadeus, I discovered in my thirties that I didn't really like stage acting. The presence of the audience, the eight shows a week and the possibility of a long run were all unnatural to me.
I always felt like Broadway was not for me - in terms of ticket price, in terms of what was on there. I never saw myself reflected in the mirror of the Great White Way.
What I like about Broadway is that you are still entertaining. You're standing in front of an audience every night and the critics are not friends at all - and that's good for me as an entertainer because I want to grow. It also gives me the structure of remaining in one city so I can get creative in different ways.