NLB: (laughs) Yes. I went from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival to Rent. NR: Did you have that job already when you came to New York? NLB: No. I got it about one month after I moved here. When I moved up here it was my wife and me in our old beat up Saab with a 5 by 8 U-Haul, dragging our asses through the mountains of North Carolina with a “New York or Bust” sign in the back window. We laugh about it now. We scraped the bottom of the car in the Blue Ridge Mountains and were stranded. We sublet in Queens. My wife had a job so we did have some income. I was familiar with Rent and I have to say it was a real confidence booster for me. I came up to New York right after the show had opened and saw it during opening week. I looked at that show and said, “I can do this.” I just knew I could. Even though I’d been on stage in plays a lot, I’d been singing in bar bands and rock bands with my guitar. That’s how I supported myself through graduate school. When I came up and I saw that show, I thought, “That’s it!” Before that, I didn’t think Broadway and me were a logical combination at all. It was my first professional musical role. When we moved up I was lucky. I wanted to get an audition but I didn’t know how. I was singing in a benefit Off Broadway for a friend’s theater company and one of the publicists for Rent was there, out of something like 80 people who were watching that night. He got me in. They were in need of an understudy at the time. NR: I believe you started as a swing? NLB: Yeah. That was my favorite time in that show, being a swing. NR: How many roles did you cover? NLB: I covered six parts including the two leads and a lot of times I would do both leads on the same day. I did that almost every weekend. NR: How did you do that? That must be so hard. NLB: You know what? It was the most natural thing in the world to me. I had come from six years of repertory theater where we were sometimes running four plays at one time. I have a really short attention span. I think I have undiagnosed ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun for me. I wasn’t sitting in the green room all the time. I was constantly on and constantly having to create characters in the moment. You don’t have a lot of rehearsal time. They slap a costume on you, you learn the blocking and you go out there. I found that a great challenge. NR: Then you got the part of Roger. NLB: I was a swing for ten months and then I played Roger for a year. NR: How was that? NLB: It was great but I missed the other parts. I missed playing Mark. I did Mark 50 or 60 times. I missed “the Squeegee Man.” I missed playing Gordon. I found that singing that loud rock belt became a real drain on me emotionally and physically after awhile. It was my first experience of a long run in a part. I had to have surgery on my knee. I turned 30 that year so I started to think, “I’m getting too old for this.” NR: Did you take time off for the surgery before you went into Cabaret?
NR: Did your wife go with you when you toured with Cabaret? NLB: She did, most of the time. We brought our two year old daughter. It was a wonderful experience for her I think. They say that in those first few years the more experiences you can give your kids, the more they have to draw on. She did beautifully. It wasn’t like we had one week stops. We had six and eight weeks in any given city. My sister helped to nanny her. It was a really fun year. NR: Tell me about The Last Five Years. You’ve been with this project awhile now. NLB: Yeah, I love this part. I absolutely love this part. It really haunts me. I can’t think of another part in a contemporary musical that is as complex, which is amazing because it’s only 83 minutes long, it’s a set of songs, and there’s hardly any speaking. I met Jason (Robert Brown) when I was auditioning for Parade. We became socially acquainted after that. He came to me when he was writing this and said, “I’m working on this show. It’s going to be done in Chicago. We’re not going to make any money but I would love for you to come and do this.” I went to his apartment. He played me two of the songs and I had an immediate visceral response to the music in a way that I have never had with any show I’ve ever done, except for maybe Rent. Lyrically he writes very close to the bone. It’s very lean writing and I just responded to it immediately and I said, “I’ll go wherever this is going.” We did it in Chicago. We didn’t expect it to be here in New York. It was going to be a summer gig and I made $1.50 doing it. I took my kids with me to Chicago for the summer. It was just incredible that it got the response it did. It was extended and we got some great press.
NLB: It was hard for about two minutes when she wasn’t there the first day of rehearsal. Sherie is so incredible. I am very lucky. They are both wonderfully gifted and they bring very different things to the part. NR: Did that make a difference in the way you’re playing it? NLB: Not really because the two characters are never really on stage together. There’s very little interaction with the other person. Because the show is so minimal and because the themes are so universal, the characters are quite universal. There are certain specifications that an actor has to bring to it in terms of ethnicity or age but they’re really wide open roles. NR: Is it difficult because you’re not interacting on stage? NLB: Yes. Sherie and I talked about it, and Lauren and I talked about it too. It takes a lot of faith and courage to go out on stage by yourself - just you and an audience and a really strong lyric to tell a really clear story. I do miss having somebody else on stage but that’s the beauty of the piece. It shows two sides of the relationship and by not seeing them together except in one moment, which is a wedding, you’re seeing the love story at a different angle at all times.
NLB: Yes. There’s a great structural device we use. NR: It’s a big responsibility. Half the show is you. Usually you have a whole company up there to back you up. NLB: Yeah. I’m terrified. I’ve lost a little bit of sleep. The truth is that I don’t feel myself a performer per se. I’m not somebody who just loves to stand in front of a microphone and sell a song. I’m an actor, so I like things like props and other actors. There’s nowhere to hide here. NR: What’s it like working with Daisy Prince? NLB: She’s a smart, funny chick who comes from a great pedigree, obviously, but there’s no pretense with Daisy. I so respect her for carving her own niche as a director. She’s her own gal. Her dad (Hal Prince) has come in a couple of times and I’m sure she takes advice from him. She had a very strong visual idea for the show which she’s really followed through on. NR: Stepping back since we have a few more minutes, I wanted to touch on Thou Shalt Not. You were really the only cast member who received strongly positive reviews. Was that a little tough for you? NLB: I started this policy a couple of years ago where I’m trying not to read reviews. I don’t feel like they help an actor in any way, but these really got to me. Someone told me about them and it was a little uncomfortable. I didn’t understand how people could be saying I was giving this great performance if the show was such garbage. I don’t think it’s possible to do really good work in something that’s without value. I didn’t just invent it out of air. I had great music, a great director and a really strong character written into that book for me. I didn’t just wave a magic wand. I wish the show had been validated more by critics, or at least respected for its originality and its daring. NR: Did the backlash surprise you? NLB: Yeah. It really did. There’s nothing else on Broadway this year that comes close to looking like that show. I thought it should have at least gotten credit for originality. NR: I simply have to ask you this - What is it with you and rowboats? NLB: (big laugh) I’m so nervous about that! Opening night I’m afraid everybody is just going to start cracking up and it’s a totally serious moment in this show. To answer your question, I don’t know, but I did another play last year Off Broadway called Saved in which I played a boatswain. I wasn’t in the boat but I had to drag the boat. It’s a metaphor running through my work. NR: (laughing) You haven’t done Titanic yet, have you? NLB: No, I wasn’t in Titanic. I hope I will float and not sink on the boat this time. NR: What’s ahead for you in the future? NLB: Just keep on keepin’ on. Somebody was asking me last week, “What do you want to do now that people are starting to come to you?” I said, “I just want to do exactly what I’m doing.” There have been good parts, important stories and good directors. NR: And you have those kids to keep you grounded. NLB: Always. NR: Thanks Norbert. I hope the show does well. NLB: You’re welcome. Once again, Norbert has received wonderful reviews and he’s obviously a star on the rise. One thing’s for sure - people will remember his name.
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NLB: Not much. I took six weeks off from Rent
and when I finished my contract in that I took a week off and then
started rehearsal for the Cabaret tour. I was cast in
Cabaret when I was still at Rent.
NR: In Chicago you worked with Lauren Kennedy. Was
it difficult to switch and work with Sherie (Rene Scott)?
