Norbert Leo Butz (#184) - January, 2008

Norbert Leo Butz, 2005 Tony winner for his role in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, talks about his first reaction on being approached about appearing in a "new" Mark Twain play, Is He Dead?, and about the construction of farce and how David Ives crafted the version of the play currently on Broadway; recalls his classical training at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival; marvels at the good fortune that landed him in the company of Rent only two weeks after moving to New York; considers the experience of appearing in the critically unpopular Harry Connick musical Thou Shalt Not; describes the feeling of playing a character in The Last Five Years based on composer Jason Robert Brown -- with Brown often directly behind him as he sang; recounts the loss of a song for Fiyero when Wicked was out of town in San Francisco and how he worked with Stephen Schwartz in choosing a replacement; and delineates the difference between performing in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with John Lithgow and his successor, Jonathan Pryce.