September 22, 2020 • 33 mins
Few actors are as deeply associated with a character as Davis Gaines is with the Phantom of the Opera. When the Kennedy Center honored Hal Prince, Phantom’s original director, they turned to Gaines to perform the musical’s signature song, “Music of the Night.” Gaines’ spine-tingling vibrato shook the risers more than two thousand times in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and eventually Broadway, where Phantom remains the longest-running show in history. Alec speaks with Gaines about how his childhood led to his prolific acting career, with 14 Broadway and off-Broadway credits to his name. Alec finds Gaines is remarkably unassuming for a Broadway leading man, but he’s got friends in high places -- including the entire Bush family, starting with the late President George H.W. Bush.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing.
A few actors are as deeply associated with the character
as Davis Gaines is with The Phantom of the Opera.
When the Kennedy Center honored how Prince, Phantom's original director,
they turned to Gains to perform the musical's signature song,
(00:26):
Music of the Night. That's your mind, saw Journey, it's
your strange for thoughts, al if you your soul change you?
(00:59):
Oh can you be at all? To that spine tingling
vibratos shook the risers more than two thousand times in
Los Angeles, San Francisco, and eventually Broadway, where Phantom remains
(01:23):
the longest running show in history. But Davis Gaines isn't
just that legendary voice. He's an actor first and foremost,
with fourteen Broadway and off Broadway credits to his name.
That's something he hoped for but had trouble picturing. Growing up.
He was a theater obsessive in a place that didn't
(01:45):
have much of an outlet for kids like him. I
want to be an actor since my earliest recollection growing
up in Orlando pre Disney, Orland, pre Disney describe pre
Disney or lots of Orange Groves and um, no traffic, sleepy, little,
sleepy town. UM. I grew up there knowing what I
wanted to be an actor, but not knowing how. But
I found a children's theater group I joined early on,
(02:06):
and then I had an amazing junior high school drama
teacher and Dirflinger, and she just took me under her wing.
And I just couldn't stop after that. And and I
was cast in musicals then because I had a loud voice.
But I, did you model your singing after so well? Interesting?
I was really introverted, quiet, painfully shy kid. And that's
(02:28):
the way I think I tapped into that phantom rolls
so much that I understood his pain and his loneliness
and his I get it all that. UM. And So
I had grew up in my room mostly by myself
with my record player, listening to cast recordings, listening to
John Rayton, all those people, and it's somehow sunken, and
(02:48):
I guess I just sung naturally. So when I went
to Florida State major in theater and not musical theater,
but theater, and then UM came to New York and
just started going to audition sold and deer Flinger and
a young Davis Gains when he's in pre Disney Florida.
Where does the but where does the middle school child?
(03:08):
Where does he audition? Like? What was the theater? Reality?
Back then? There wasn't nearby? There's no there was, There
was not. It was only in school. I mean to
see theater with the shows that came through town that
they were touring shows back then, Broadway touring shows that
came through and um at you know, early age. Mom
and dad knew that I loved I wanted to be
an actor and I nothing else would do. So they
(03:32):
I don't know if they had been to New York
at the time, but when I was ten, eight, nine, ten,
they would take me and my sisters to come to
New York, my twin sisters to three of us. So
they knew I loved it so much, so they took
us here when I was ten and my saw my
first Broadway show, Oliver Um and who was in it?
Oh my god, it was I think Georgia Brown. Yeahclistening
(03:54):
who Will Buy in the car and went in your
way home. But I've since done the show and I've
done it several times did. When I was here early on, Um,
I was in the ensemble of a dinner theater show
along Island, and the woman playing Nancy was Shaney Wallace
of course, which was in the movie of Course. And
so I got to like as a like a kid
(04:14):
loving as long as he needs me, my goodness. So
I got to watch or do that everyone. But uh, yeah,
that's my life has been like that. Like my first
Broadway show was Camelot with Richard Burton. Like I was
thirty fourth spirit carrier from the left, but I got
to know him and hang out with him and be
his friend and watch him work every night. Did he
teach you anything? Oh my god? Yeah, what did he
(04:35):
teach you? Like? Um, storytelling? He was a great storyteller,
and he thought I was as well. But uh, he
taught me that the simplicity, the less is more, especially
economized on stage. And it was just wonderful, man. Because
for me, when I would work with people that were
older in television or film or in the theater, what
(04:57):
people taught me in the theater was he is a
little bit more precise and useful, you know, like I
know people come between you know. I did the first
prope I ever did was Loot, where we moved the
Manhattan Theater Company production with Kevin Bacon. They moved to
the Joe Wharton played David Merrick, moved it too Broadway
and Kevin couldn't come, so I replaced him with Joe
(05:19):
mahar And so we want to maker and Charlie Keating
and Jackavanick and Nick I'll let and all these people
that I remember like it was yesterday. And Charlie Keating
was saying to me, you come down stage mate with
that screwdriver in the hand. And he says, and how
did up? Will you say that line? I'm going to
batton down the acts now and howld up the screwdriver?
I bet you get a laugh, tonight, give it a try, Bengo,
(05:39):
come down stairs, hold it up. I get a laugh.
And I would get these tips from people who they
taught me how to do the business, you know what
I mean? And uh it was and Burton was one
of those people for you. Yeah, yeah, I gave me
just simplicity. I mean, he was Richard Burton, so I
just would could just like a sponge. I just took
it all in. And uh, he was a friend and
we hung out. Did you become the star? And how?
(06:02):
When you hate that word? But why? But when did
you become the lead actor in the I guess my
first break in that way was Cornelius Hackle with Carol Channing.
I think maybe that was a big step for me
in my career to step out of the ensemble and
Richard Mwin's he played Lancelot in the production and Christine
(06:23):
ever sold Guinevere, and I remember sitting on the bus
with him and I wanted to be him. I wanted
to be Lancelot. I wanted to be play roles and shows.
And I said, how do I do that? And he said,
just well, stop taking jobs. It's gonna be easy for
you to get a job in the course and you'll
get pegganed that way, and so just you might not
work for a while, but you know, just hanging there, wait, wait,
(06:46):
And sure enough I got a call to audition for
Jerry Herman, Carol Channing and Jerry's penthouse on the on
the East Side, and walked in saying it only takes
a moment, and got the job. And then that's what.
Then Carol and I were turned main friends ever since
until she died this year and sang. I just sang
at her memorial service in Palm Springs and and so
(07:07):
that opened the doors that started me on a different
path of playing roles. And then I had done a
couple of things at paper Mill Playhouse. Um So, Angelo
del Rossi was the producer over there at the time,
and he called and said, we're gonna do a production
of Damn Yankees, and when we want you to come
in an audition. Um I said, great, it's fantastic. Um
(07:29):
look at the music and oh, by the way, George
Abbott is directing it. And I went deed, Mr Abbott,
he ba, I said, oh my god. So I was
just like I learned all Joe Hardy music. And I
walked into minskof rehearsal studios and it was just Mr Abbott.
He was ninety nine at the time, and Angelo del
(07:52):
Rossi and I walked up and shook his hand and
I said, Mr Abbott, what what an honor it is
to meet you and be able to audition in front
of you? And what would you like me to sing?
And he goes, well, you you look like a baseball player.
And I said, thanks, thanks you much, thanks so much.
I appreciate that. Um. He goes up, Um, can you
(08:14):
swing a bat? And I said, yeah, of course, you
better right, and I can do that. He goes, well,
the guy we got for the movie I forget his name,
and I said tab Hunter and he goes, yeah, well
he couldn't swing a bat. I said, oh, but I can't.
I can do it. What would you like me to sing?
And then he long paused and he looked at Angela
(08:35):
and he says, well, if Angelo says you can sing,
that's good enough for me. I'll see your first day
of rehearsals. So I got to play Joe Hardy, directed
by George Abbott orson Bean was the Devil. Um it
was supposed to come to Broadway, but that's the story
of my life. But then, um, from that chance meeting,
he was and that next year he turned a hundred.
(08:58):
So there's huge celebration for him on Broadway. And who
who put them together and directed them was Hal Prince.
So from Mr Abbott, that's how men. Yes, George Abbott,
we're gonna talk about who George Abbott is from the people. Goodness,
tell us who George Abbott. I mean, he's like before
Hal Prince there was George Abbott, and he was like
(09:21):
he was an actor to begin with and a playwright
and producer director. He wrote so many things and directed
so many things. Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, he wrote them
and directed them and the movies. And when Hal got
out of the service, he came to Mr Abbott and
they shared an office up until Mr Abbott died at
a hundred and seven. And uh uh. He was the godfather,
(09:45):
He really was. He was the beginning. There's a joke
that he always said that somebody asked him what was
the biggest change that he's seen in his lifetime on Broadway?
And long pause again electricity. So that was Mr with
a great sense of humor. And so by chance then
(10:06):
I'm at how and then how it took me under
his wing. And and when Hal called and said, Um,
would you come audition for the Phantom? And I said sure,
so I I had where where they at in the
run of the family by that point. Um, this was
like maybe three years into the Broadway run probably, But
I remember auditioning first on the stage of the Majestica again,
(10:28):
and then then it was down to two people, um apparently,
and they flew me to Toronto because he was putting
the Toronto the Canadian Company together, and they flew me
there and put me up. The driver dropped me off
and he said, I just dropped someone else off here earlier.
Oh there's somebody else auditioning as well. So they kept
as totally separate. And then I guess he went first
(10:51):
and I went second. And then how it comes on
stage and said do you want to go to l
A and be the phantom? I went, sure? When you
when you look at these roles where you were people,
I think, I'd love to get your take on this.
Mistakenly think you just come out and you just blow
those notes and just saying where is the acting involved?
And there in the rehearsals, what was the discussion about
(11:11):
acting the phantom? That's a big pet peep in mind,
like people like after after six doing the phantom for
six years, I would tell people what I did or whatever,
and they go, oh, so do you also act? And
I went, that's what I've been, that's what I do.
I'm gonna chop you up in the ba and that's
what I do. But to me, I can't separate the two.
When you were directed by people how much were to
do when when you if you were doing collection for
(11:33):
inst and how well George abbott Um you know he
wrote the script so he would was a very old
school and the way he would give us line readings.
You know, let's say it just like, and I go really,
but then I did it and then sure enough after
we opened like he was he was honestly it was right.
But then how Um would say to me, you know,
(11:56):
I've never seen it that way before. I've done that before.
I've never seen that before, but I get keeping in.
So he didn't want me to be uh like Michael
Cropford whoever else had played at that point. He was
just open to my ideas and my interpretation, which was
a credit to him and how he cast um so
so you didn't feel you had some some pressure as
a put in. They didn't say to you, Michael did this, No,
(12:17):
they your interpretation. How do you think you were different
from him? I saw him do it once, but I
thought it was really pretty bad. When I first first year,
I went into it pretty young, and I you know,
I played him to you push a madman and like
he's all over the place. And then after six years
and two thousand performances. I would do just the slidest
(12:40):
bit of the head or the hand, and it just
really it just makes all the days it's there. It's
it's like part of me. Two thousand performances. Yeah, I
did that. When you do a show two thousand times?
What's the key for the long distance runner like you
in that isn't husband and your voice and you take
care of your voice and you're very cautious. Well that
(13:03):
I was a monk. And I listened to your podcast
with Julie Andrews, and when she said I think she
was talking about I don't about herself, but I had
no life for six years. Basically, I I that was
my life. And I couldn't drink, I couldn't go out.
I just went home and slept and drank water and
(13:24):
came back and because I felt a huge responsibility to
the people that were buying tickets to be it on
my best on my best game. And yeah, and I
that was my life. Um. She also said, Julie Andrews
on your thing that you asked her about doing the
same roll over and over it and I just figured
out things that that no acting class could teach me,
(13:47):
or it was just I would have hit a plateau
like two years in like that was my personal best.
And then a year later, no, that was my personal best.
So I kept challenging myself and get trying to get
better and trying to tell the story more clearly and
more economically. And you did l A for how long?
(14:08):
I did two and a half years at the Amondson
And then uh, I thought, I bought a house in
Hollywood Hills, and I just I'm gonna start my TV
and film career and you know, and and that didn't
and how called He said, would you would you poor thing?
He would you open the show for us in San Francisco?
I said, oh, sure, like so I did it four
months up there. I was on my way back to
(14:29):
l A literally and uh starting mine. Then he kind
called again and he goes, you know what, Uh, it's
not right. I think you should come back to New
York and show everybody what you've been doing for three years.
And so I said, okay, so two and a half
years at the Majestic And so when you left l
A and I'm sure it was a very comfortable life
(14:50):
for you, and he went back to New York. What
was that like, uh, well as now it was fantastic
as a dream come true, like I was playing the
freaking family opera. Probably it's like it's not you know,
a good perspective. Yeah, it was like how lucky? How
lucky can one one person when you when Phantom is
going to end in New York? Whose decision is that?
(15:10):
What happens? For me? It was once again I was
home and hal caholed, how's your travelated from christ? He
goes Davis Andrew and I are doing a new show
and together first once since we did Phantom, and we
want you to be in it. And I went, well,
can I once again? Could I sing something for you?
(15:32):
Because is there anything you can't sing? And I said,
well probably yeah, no, just just just stay putting Phantom.
We'll pull you out when the time comes. And that's
how it happened. Um it was called whistle down the
wind Um hal cahold and said time to come. So
I left the show, so mine it was gonna be
a new show. How Prince Andrew Lord Howeber playing the
(15:55):
lead Mine to originate a role on Broadway. It was
like it was everything was great and we we we
got to Washington, d C. And opened in the views
were imagine didn't happen, no, and and we got okay reviews,
but Hall and Andrew didn't. And like the next day
how I went to Spain and Andrew back to England
(16:16):
and left us there and they were they were Marquis
was up at the st James were coming in and
then um, last night they came on stage and told
us that it was the stay chance, because where do
you want your trunk to go? I said, I guess
back to l A, so that that was my one
chance to come back. They pull you from and then
(16:37):
Washington and then you know, I went back and didn't
have a job anymore. But but then I think I
did Phantom one more time in Los Angeles at the Pentage.
Is just like six months or so. Yeah, um, but yeah,
whatever House said, you do. I'm at some show. I
want to say. It's like a good benefit for the
round About or something like back in the nineties, maybe
(16:57):
late nineties I think. And McIntosh is there at the
table and he says Mr Baldwin, and he's very gleaming
and very shiny, and he says, Mr Baldwin, I like
very much for you to come and meet with my
staff and I and we'll talk to about doing a
play a musical. And I said, well, I said, I
don't think nonsense, Mr Is, that anyone can sing, and
he is, and this is a part that was made
(17:18):
for You're born to play the spot and he said,
it's we're going to do the Witches of east Wick.
Can I want you to assay the role played by
Jack Nicholson in the film, the lead male role. And
I said, oh god, that sounds phenomenal. And you I'm
in such a boundless admirer of you. But I said,
you don't want me to do this. You don't want
me to do this, I said of Mr Boaldwin, nonsense.
(17:39):
I want you to meet with Is. You're going to
meet with my New York based music director John Clark,
and he will take you through some tunes and he
will take so we go to his apartment on the
Upper West Side, this old old building. We're going and
you got the piano and we're singing. Just say that
word and our beach your bird down to a Polco bay.
I'm doing all my Sonatra rip offs. I'm doing it.
I'm'm doing impersonation. So I can't sing. I finally get
(18:01):
to like the third song, you know, John larry By
or whatever his name was, and he stops the piano
in the middle of song. We're literally, we're literally in
the middle of the song. He goes, Mr Bould, and
I believe you are. He says, you really really come sing.
You were listening to my conversation with the actor Davis Gains.
If you're a Broadway fan, here's a quiz. Gains is
(18:23):
to the phantom as Audrey McDonald is too. Well. Maybe
it's a trick question. You could say Porgy or Billie Holiday,
But to me, the answer is Carrie Pittbridge, the spunky
mill worker with the best songs in Carousel. It was
(18:44):
her breakthrough role, performed in the shadow of her alma mater, Juilliard,
where she had once felt so hopeless that she tried
to take her own life to then open in Carousel
at Lincoln Center, where you can look up and I
can see this school that I had a hard time
in and and I remember standing in those windows seeing
(19:05):
Patty Lapone performing there, going why am I not doing that?
And then how do you feel? Um like lucky survivor
in the world. You can find the rest of that
conversation with Audrew McDonald. If you text Audre, that's a
(19:26):
U D R A to the number seven zero one
zero one. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to hear
(19:52):
is the thing. Davis Gaines is remarkably unassuming for a
Broadway leading man, but he nonetheless has got friends in
high places. The entire Bush family, for one, starting with
the late President George H. W. Bush. I sang in
Orlando for a cancer center gala benefit and h W
(20:13):
was the speaker. I had met him during the Whistle
Down the Wind Time in Washington, had a picture, but
he doesn't remember, but I did. And so then after
the show he came up and said, Barbara would really
like you, and thanks, like, yeah, her birthday is coming
up and I'm gonna get my boys and we're gonna
do something. But what's your email? So I gave him
my email address. Two weeks later he wrote and said
(20:34):
would I come and sing for Barbara Bush's seventy surprise
birthday party in Kennebunkport. I said yes, yes, you know
I can't. I cannot pass this out of course, And
so it was amazing experience. Barbara Bush ran that family,
and she was the boss and she had a mouth
like a sailor. She was an amazing lady. I loved her.
But they just took me in and h W said,
(20:56):
what are you doing tomorrow Sunday? I said, I'm going
back to New York because well, come I a house
for coffee and donuts. I said, okay. So I walk in.
There's no servants, no secret service. Really to park and
went in the house and there's Henry Kitsons, you're going.
Good job last night, David's good job, and thank you general,
thank you so much. And then h W goes, there's
coffee in the kitchen, go help yourself. And so I
(21:17):
was in the dining room, um, hanging out, and George
W walked in. W W walked in and said, good morning,
having no how are you doing? How you doing? It's
like feeling fine, feeling fine. It ran for a couple
of hours after church, feeling good. So good for you.
And he goes, can I ask you a question? He said, yeah,
he Um, can you learn how to sing? Or is
(21:38):
it something you're born with? And I said, good question.
I think one can learn to sing, but you probably
have to have some musicality in your head. Maybe long
pause again and he goes, well, I don't know shit
about singing, but you probably got the best boys in America,
and so well, thank you so much. And then I
looked around. All the out of town guests were gone
but me and the Bush and I said, oh my god,
(22:01):
I just me and him. Now I better get going,
and he goes, no, no, no, no, stay for lunch.
And I said, I really overstayed my welcome. Look there's
mama was putting out lunch stuff and I got to go.
He goes, no, no, no. If you're gonna pick a
day to eat here, this is the day because we're
having tacos. And I went, oh wow, I love me
(22:22):
some tacos. I said, you better go ask your mom
if I can stay, because you're right wait right here.
So he went in the kitchen to ask Barbara bushop
I can stay for lunch, comes out and goes, you're in.
So I was his little buddy all day long, and
pinching myself undertainb why pinching myself like thanks, Oh my gosh.
Do you know when you go out there every night
(22:43):
the effect you have on people? No, but no, no,
but you know know, but sometimes like that's the goals
to move people or you know or um, like in Phantom,
like if I didn't feel like I had a if
I wasn't my best that night, there was a huge
long embarrass bow that we had to do, like stage left,
stage right in the middle of I said short bow,
(23:04):
short bow, because I didn't think I deserve I didn't
deserve that all that. So yeah, I go out there
trying to do my best, and it's nice when people
laugh or cry. Um. Yeah, it's nice to do that
to feel that. I love that the show you go
back six months of the amis and then what happens
then you know, I just uh settled back in l
(23:26):
A and so a lot of concerts. Yeah, I do
a lot of concert work. Enjoy that, yeah very much.
So pays the bills and people want to come see
very muchself. Could you need to do anything? I get
to do what I want to do. But what's great
about that is like I get to sing. I can sing.
It only takes a moment as that character, as Cornelius,
I can do Fagan. I can sing uh reviewing the situation.
(23:49):
As Fagan, I I can go impossible possible dream and
every every song has it. I've become a character, which
that's what I love to do, and so like morph
into that and then I can just sing, you know,
normal standards or some standards that you were. What are
some of your favorite I did on an album Sammy
Contunes because I sang at his memorial service. I wonder
(24:13):
if that's the go to what these guys are dying
and they're saying, you know, I love you, Irene. And
one more thing, Yes, Sammy, you gotta get Davis my memorial.
You know who. Michael Schilders is, the photographer. He called
me the day to come sing at a funeral of
someone I didn't know, but it's so sure. And then
I was sitting next to him because you know you're
(24:33):
singing at my funeral on it? No I didn't. I
didn't know that, Michael. He said, you know you sing
at John Schlessinger's funeral. I went, you're too kind. How
did the film and TV thing go many years? Well?
I did a lot during the fense when I was
spent him. They wanted me as a guest star on
Vernics Closet with Kristie Alley, and I did it. Murder
she wrote with Angela Lansbury and those guests, Things Charmed
(24:56):
and all those. But since then, I have no representation
Los Angeles, so I don't go out on anything. You
don't want to? Yeah, I do, but I don't have
an agent, so that stuff has kind of fall off.
I don't. I don't really have anybody to book me
in concerts and clubs or music anymore. So people just
come to me and say, well, I sing um, I
(25:17):
definitely want to, but I'm only I'm really good when
I'm working. When I'm not working, I'm not so good.
And you know, as a person, and as I get
what do you mean, any get anti depressed? And when
I'm on stage. When I'm on stage, I'm like the
long as you went where you didn't work? Oh gosh,
months six months year, six months? A year? Maybe, so
(25:39):
let's let's say we'll split the differences nine months. Maybe
we'll say a year. And without getting to too much detail,
I don't want to pride. But when you say you
get answer it? What what's what does that say? I
don't feel like I'm worth what do you do? What
do you want to tell? This? Interesting? So I don't
I just I probably wanted to quit many times the business,
like I don't know else, but I don't know else
to do, but I would rather I mean, the part
(26:00):
of me wants to just have a normal job, like
a normal person. But on the Phantom, like its happened
on and the Majestic. Um. I was probably you know,
five years, five and a half years into the run,
and for whatever reason, I just hit me, Um, I
was at the organ. I had just came in and
I was Phantom was going at the organ in the
beginning of the show, and I just burst out into
(26:23):
tears like me not the Phantom, I had to use it.
And I just realized that that moment, like I only
felt worth anything or loved between eight o'clock and ten
thirty every day. It's like I went there's and I
loved what I did, and I just loved it. But
I realized there's got to be more to life than
(26:46):
Phantom or between our job, TV business and film business. Yeah,
so I just like knew that I just had this
thing like that I only felt worth anything in those
hours that I was there to work on that. Yeah,
I went just there at me. The next probably the
next day, I found a great therapist here. But I realized, Yeah,
and it's always a balance now just to you know,
be happy, um doing not working. But but when I
(27:11):
appreciate when I get on stage even more now because
I've just it's like home. It's like, don't to me exactly,
don't let it define you in the way that it's
going to cripple you. Yeah, And when I did when
I did I did this Joe Orton play. I did
another Joe Orton play after we did Luton eight six
Entertaining was just Sloan in two thousand four. And I'll
(27:32):
never forget when I had the scenes with the young guy.
I'm ed the middle aged of brother with you know,
my sister lives in the house with my father, and
then this male hustler shows up and I'm this bisexual
man who's in love with and Chris Carmack. And I
remember the moment when I was alone with Chris on
stage for some of the funniest parts of the play.
I remember saying to myself, oh my god, I never
(27:53):
want this to end, because I don't have as much
fun anywhere else. Right. This is before I met my
wife and my kids. This is two thousand four. I
met my wife and too in eleven so seven years
prior in the in the thick of my divorce, and
my life was hell and custody, battles from my daughter
and just everything outside the doors in the theater was shit.
And I'd walk into that theater, I thought, I know
exactly what I'm going to say for the next two
(28:13):
and a half hours. I know exactly what you're gonna say.
I know exactly how they're going to react, and people
will love you. And I was, yeah, I never had
more fun in my life. He's like, that's line from applause.
I'm only alive at night when I'm in the show.
It's like, that's what I gotta do. That's what I do. Now?
Would you do shows? Now? Yeah? I mean I do
most of my stuff in l A. But I've got
(28:34):
the thing about living there, Like the last ten years,
I got to play roles that I never would have
played here. What's the least. I just played Nostradamis in
Something Rotten, and then up Fagin and Oliver and music
Man and silence the musical Hannibal Electors. That's that's the
(28:55):
nastiest but the greatest silence of the lambs of the
music and you played lect her. Yeah, you could probably
of beans and everything. The song my first song, it's
like I can't even speaking on My parents were so
great about coming to everything I ever did. And that's
the only show, the first song that you can't I
can smell your blank if I knew if I could
smell her w Yeah, it's huge. Oh god, what is
(29:21):
that you've done? The gamut was something really fun. I
just play with Rita Rudner a comedy just the two
of us kind of and and uh so, yeah, I
love doing all different kinds. Not to sing, but I can,
but I don't have to. But it's fun to do
all those different things. Uh. And what I'm wondering are
their songwriters and are their individual songs get you name
(29:43):
a couple that you never tire of singing. Gosh, there's
a song Sammy con the words that he wrote and
he won four Oscars and twenty Oscar nominations all that
music that he wrote. His words are amazing. It's me.
There's a his his one of his favorite songs that
(30:04):
my favorite song that he wrote was from a Broadway
show called Skyscraper, and it's called I'll only miss her
when I think of her, and it's like just a
simple poem. It just I never tired of singing something
like that, songs that are are sad, songs that hit
the heart and UM like listening to. Like when John
(30:24):
Rate was old in his eighties and I was doing
Phantom in l A. We did concerts together, me and
John Ray and it was my and I would we
would sing if I Loved You together as a duet
or hey, they're from Pajama Game, and I watched I
would watch him sing soloquy and then he watched me
singing music to night and it was like a dream
(30:44):
come true. Why Why? Why me? And and be able
to like having Rosemary Clooney come backstage in l A
after Phantom and said, I can listen to you sing
all day. I said, no, Rosemary Clooney, and she give
me your home phone and call me. It's like, I
just don't embases me. And I'll bring this full circle
back to Carol Channing's memorial. The other day, I was
(31:06):
in the wings in rehearsal sound check with Time Daily
and we were talking about how lucky we are too
to be there and keep working and be there and
keep working and how much? And she goes, yeah, I
felt she thought I felt so great about being in
the golden end of television with Cagney and Lacey and
(31:26):
then I then Gypsy on Broadway, and I said, yeah,
I just feel the same way, like I don't know
why me? And why did I get to work with
George Jabbott and how Prince and Carol Channing and Richard
Burton and and um, I just don't sometimes can't put
process it, like I loved it. It was a dream,
but I and I don't know why me? Um? And
(31:48):
then she just put her hand on my chest and goes,
why not you? And I went it was like a
lightbulb moment for me, like wow, why not me? And
I'm told us to people since then, and it's like
if I only knew that twenty years ago, thirty years ago,
why not me? It would have mind emitted given me
(32:09):
that thing. But now this week just just I'm here
talking to you and and why not me? And I
I'm so grateful and I can't wait. I just you
know what I want to say as we go out
of this show. Sometimes it will wraps itself up perfectly,
does it wait, we'll tell you why, because we're gonna
play some music as we go out here, and when
I play this music, everyone will know what I know,
(32:30):
which is when you say why me, This is why.
The music we're going to play right now, this is
why because you are literally one of the greatest singers
ever in thank you so much. I love you too,
Davis Games. While you were seeing now One Manue Low,
(33:07):
I saught one all my old I'm Alec Baldwin and
you're listening to Here is the thing us know Heavens
he dont le
This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing.
A few actors are as deeply associated with the character
as Davis Gaines is with The Phantom of the Opera.
When the Kennedy Center honored how Prince, Phantom's original director,
they turned to Gains to perform the musical's signature song,
(00:26):
Music of the Night. That's your mind, saw Journey, it's
your strange for thoughts, al if you your soul change you?
(00:59):
Oh can you be at all? To that spine tingling
vibratos shook the risers more than two thousand times in
Los Angeles, San Francisco, and eventually Broadway, where Phantom remains
(01:23):
the longest running show in history. But Davis Gaines isn't
just that legendary voice. He's an actor first and foremost,
with fourteen Broadway and off Broadway credits to his name.
That's something he hoped for but had trouble picturing. Growing up.
He was a theater obsessive in a place that didn't
(01:45):
have much of an outlet for kids like him. I
want to be an actor since my earliest recollection growing
up in Orlando pre Disney, Orland, pre Disney describe pre
Disney or lots of Orange Groves and um, no traffic, sleepy, little,
sleepy town. UM. I grew up there knowing what I
wanted to be an actor, but not knowing how. But
I found a children's theater group I joined early on,
(02:06):
and then I had an amazing junior high school drama
teacher and Dirflinger, and she just took me under her wing.
And I just couldn't stop after that. And and I
was cast in musicals then because I had a loud voice.
But I, did you model your singing after so well? Interesting?
I was really introverted, quiet, painfully shy kid. And that's
(02:28):
the way I think I tapped into that phantom rolls
so much that I understood his pain and his loneliness
and his I get it all that. UM. And So
I had grew up in my room mostly by myself
with my record player, listening to cast recordings, listening to
John Rayton, all those people, and it's somehow sunken, and
(02:48):
I guess I just sung naturally. So when I went
to Florida State major in theater and not musical theater,
but theater, and then UM came to New York and
just started going to audition sold and deer Flinger and
a young Davis Gains when he's in pre Disney Florida.
Where does the but where does the middle school child?
(03:08):
Where does he audition? Like? What was the theater? Reality?
Back then? There wasn't nearby? There's no there was, There
was not. It was only in school. I mean to
see theater with the shows that came through town that
they were touring shows back then, Broadway touring shows that
came through and um at you know, early age. Mom
and dad knew that I loved I wanted to be
an actor and I nothing else would do. So they
(03:32):
I don't know if they had been to New York
at the time, but when I was ten, eight, nine, ten,
they would take me and my sisters to come to
New York, my twin sisters to three of us. So
they knew I loved it so much, so they took
us here when I was ten and my saw my
first Broadway show, Oliver Um and who was in it?
Oh my god, it was I think Georgia Brown. Yeahclistening
(03:54):
who Will Buy in the car and went in your
way home. But I've since done the show and I've
done it several times did. When I was here early on, Um,
I was in the ensemble of a dinner theater show
along Island, and the woman playing Nancy was Shaney Wallace
of course, which was in the movie of Course. And
so I got to like as a like a kid
(04:14):
loving as long as he needs me, my goodness. So
I got to watch or do that everyone. But uh, yeah,
that's my life has been like that. Like my first
Broadway show was Camelot with Richard Burton. Like I was
thirty fourth spirit carrier from the left, but I got
to know him and hang out with him and be
his friend and watch him work every night. Did he
teach you anything? Oh my god? Yeah, what did he
(04:35):
teach you? Like? Um, storytelling? He was a great storyteller,
and he thought I was as well. But uh, he
taught me that the simplicity, the less is more, especially
economized on stage. And it was just wonderful, man. Because
for me, when I would work with people that were
older in television or film or in the theater, what
(04:57):
people taught me in the theater was he is a
little bit more precise and useful, you know, like I
know people come between you know. I did the first
prope I ever did was Loot, where we moved the
Manhattan Theater Company production with Kevin Bacon. They moved to
the Joe Wharton played David Merrick, moved it too Broadway
and Kevin couldn't come, so I replaced him with Joe
(05:19):
mahar And so we want to maker and Charlie Keating
and Jackavanick and Nick I'll let and all these people
that I remember like it was yesterday. And Charlie Keating
was saying to me, you come down stage mate with
that screwdriver in the hand. And he says, and how
did up? Will you say that line? I'm going to
batton down the acts now and howld up the screwdriver?
I bet you get a laugh, tonight, give it a try, Bengo,
(05:39):
come down stairs, hold it up. I get a laugh.
And I would get these tips from people who they
taught me how to do the business, you know what
I mean? And uh it was and Burton was one
of those people for you. Yeah, yeah, I gave me
just simplicity. I mean, he was Richard Burton, so I
just would could just like a sponge. I just took
it all in. And uh, he was a friend and
we hung out. Did you become the star? And how?
(06:02):
When you hate that word? But why? But when did
you become the lead actor in the I guess my
first break in that way was Cornelius Hackle with Carol Channing.
I think maybe that was a big step for me
in my career to step out of the ensemble and
Richard Mwin's he played Lancelot in the production and Christine
(06:23):
ever sold Guinevere, and I remember sitting on the bus
with him and I wanted to be him. I wanted
to be Lancelot. I wanted to be play roles and shows.
And I said, how do I do that? And he said,
just well, stop taking jobs. It's gonna be easy for
you to get a job in the course and you'll
get pegganed that way, and so just you might not
work for a while, but you know, just hanging there, wait, wait,
(06:46):
And sure enough I got a call to audition for
Jerry Herman, Carol Channing and Jerry's penthouse on the on
the East Side, and walked in saying it only takes
a moment, and got the job. And then that's what.
Then Carol and I were turned main friends ever since
until she died this year and sang. I just sang
at her memorial service in Palm Springs and and so
(07:07):
that opened the doors that started me on a different
path of playing roles. And then I had done a
couple of things at paper Mill Playhouse. Um So, Angelo
del Rossi was the producer over there at the time,
and he called and said, we're gonna do a production
of Damn Yankees, and when we want you to come
in an audition. Um I said, great, it's fantastic. Um
(07:29):
look at the music and oh, by the way, George
Abbott is directing it. And I went deed, Mr Abbott,
he ba, I said, oh my god. So I was
just like I learned all Joe Hardy music. And I
walked into minskof rehearsal studios and it was just Mr Abbott.
He was ninety nine at the time, and Angelo del
(07:52):
Rossi and I walked up and shook his hand and
I said, Mr Abbott, what what an honor it is
to meet you and be able to audition in front
of you? And what would you like me to sing?
And he goes, well, you you look like a baseball player.
And I said, thanks, thanks you much, thanks so much.
I appreciate that. Um. He goes up, Um, can you
(08:14):
swing a bat? And I said, yeah, of course, you
better right, and I can do that. He goes, well,
the guy we got for the movie I forget his name,
and I said tab Hunter and he goes, yeah, well
he couldn't swing a bat. I said, oh, but I can't.
I can do it. What would you like me to sing?
And then he long paused and he looked at Angela
(08:35):
and he says, well, if Angelo says you can sing,
that's good enough for me. I'll see your first day
of rehearsals. So I got to play Joe Hardy, directed
by George Abbott orson Bean was the Devil. Um it
was supposed to come to Broadway, but that's the story
of my life. But then, um, from that chance meeting,
he was and that next year he turned a hundred.
(08:58):
So there's huge celebration for him on Broadway. And who
who put them together and directed them was Hal Prince.
So from Mr Abbott, that's how men. Yes, George Abbott,
we're gonna talk about who George Abbott is from the people. Goodness,
tell us who George Abbott. I mean, he's like before
Hal Prince there was George Abbott, and he was like
(09:21):
he was an actor to begin with and a playwright
and producer director. He wrote so many things and directed
so many things. Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, he wrote them
and directed them and the movies. And when Hal got
out of the service, he came to Mr Abbott and
they shared an office up until Mr Abbott died at
a hundred and seven. And uh uh. He was the godfather,
(09:45):
He really was. He was the beginning. There's a joke
that he always said that somebody asked him what was
the biggest change that he's seen in his lifetime on Broadway?
And long pause again electricity. So that was Mr with
a great sense of humor. And so by chance then
(10:06):
I'm at how and then how it took me under
his wing. And and when Hal called and said, Um,
would you come audition for the Phantom? And I said sure,
so I I had where where they at in the
run of the family by that point. Um, this was
like maybe three years into the Broadway run probably, But
I remember auditioning first on the stage of the Majestica again,
(10:28):
and then then it was down to two people, um apparently,
and they flew me to Toronto because he was putting
the Toronto the Canadian Company together, and they flew me
there and put me up. The driver dropped me off
and he said, I just dropped someone else off here earlier.
Oh there's somebody else auditioning as well. So they kept
as totally separate. And then I guess he went first
(10:51):
and I went second. And then how it comes on
stage and said do you want to go to l
A and be the phantom? I went, sure? When you
when you look at these roles where you were people,
I think, I'd love to get your take on this.
Mistakenly think you just come out and you just blow
those notes and just saying where is the acting involved?
And there in the rehearsals, what was the discussion about
(11:11):
acting the phantom? That's a big pet peep in mind,
like people like after after six doing the phantom for
six years, I would tell people what I did or whatever,
and they go, oh, so do you also act? And
I went, that's what I've been, that's what I do.
I'm gonna chop you up in the ba and that's
what I do. But to me, I can't separate the two.
When you were directed by people how much were to
do when when you if you were doing collection for
(11:33):
inst and how well George abbott Um you know he
wrote the script so he would was a very old
school and the way he would give us line readings.
You know, let's say it just like, and I go really,
but then I did it and then sure enough after
we opened like he was he was honestly it was right.
But then how Um would say to me, you know,
(11:56):
I've never seen it that way before. I've done that before.
I've never seen that before, but I get keeping in.
So he didn't want me to be uh like Michael
Cropford whoever else had played at that point. He was
just open to my ideas and my interpretation, which was
a credit to him and how he cast um so
so you didn't feel you had some some pressure as
a put in. They didn't say to you, Michael did this, No,
(12:17):
they your interpretation. How do you think you were different
from him? I saw him do it once, but I
thought it was really pretty bad. When I first first year,
I went into it pretty young, and I you know,
I played him to you push a madman and like
he's all over the place. And then after six years
and two thousand performances. I would do just the slidest
(12:40):
bit of the head or the hand, and it just
really it just makes all the days it's there. It's
it's like part of me. Two thousand performances. Yeah, I
did that. When you do a show two thousand times?
What's the key for the long distance runner like you
in that isn't husband and your voice and you take
care of your voice and you're very cautious. Well that
(13:03):
I was a monk. And I listened to your podcast
with Julie Andrews, and when she said I think she
was talking about I don't about herself, but I had
no life for six years. Basically, I I that was
my life. And I couldn't drink, I couldn't go out.
I just went home and slept and drank water and
(13:24):
came back and because I felt a huge responsibility to
the people that were buying tickets to be it on
my best on my best game. And yeah, and I
that was my life. Um. She also said, Julie Andrews
on your thing that you asked her about doing the
same roll over and over it and I just figured
out things that that no acting class could teach me,
(13:47):
or it was just I would have hit a plateau
like two years in like that was my personal best.
And then a year later, no, that was my personal best.
So I kept challenging myself and get trying to get
better and trying to tell the story more clearly and
more economically. And you did l A for how long?
(14:08):
I did two and a half years at the Amondson
And then uh, I thought, I bought a house in
Hollywood Hills, and I just I'm gonna start my TV
and film career and you know, and and that didn't
and how called He said, would you would you poor thing?
He would you open the show for us in San Francisco?
I said, oh, sure, like so I did it four
months up there. I was on my way back to
(14:29):
l A literally and uh starting mine. Then he kind
called again and he goes, you know what, Uh, it's
not right. I think you should come back to New
York and show everybody what you've been doing for three years.
And so I said, okay, so two and a half
years at the Majestic And so when you left l
A and I'm sure it was a very comfortable life
(14:50):
for you, and he went back to New York. What
was that like, uh, well as now it was fantastic
as a dream come true, like I was playing the
freaking family opera. Probably it's like it's not you know,
a good perspective. Yeah, it was like how lucky? How
lucky can one one person when you when Phantom is
going to end in New York? Whose decision is that?
(15:10):
What happens? For me? It was once again I was
home and hal caholed, how's your travelated from christ? He
goes Davis Andrew and I are doing a new show
and together first once since we did Phantom, and we
want you to be in it. And I went, well,
can I once again? Could I sing something for you?
(15:32):
Because is there anything you can't sing? And I said,
well probably yeah, no, just just just stay putting Phantom.
We'll pull you out when the time comes. And that's
how it happened. Um it was called whistle down the
wind Um hal cahold and said time to come. So
I left the show, so mine it was gonna be
a new show. How Prince Andrew Lord Howeber playing the
(15:55):
lead Mine to originate a role on Broadway. It was
like it was everything was great and we we we
got to Washington, d C. And opened in the views
were imagine didn't happen, no, and and we got okay reviews,
but Hall and Andrew didn't. And like the next day
how I went to Spain and Andrew back to England
(16:16):
and left us there and they were they were Marquis
was up at the st James were coming in and
then um, last night they came on stage and told
us that it was the stay chance, because where do
you want your trunk to go? I said, I guess
back to l A, so that that was my one
chance to come back. They pull you from and then
(16:37):
Washington and then you know, I went back and didn't
have a job anymore. But but then I think I
did Phantom one more time in Los Angeles at the Pentage.
Is just like six months or so. Yeah, um, but yeah,
whatever House said, you do. I'm at some show. I
want to say. It's like a good benefit for the
round About or something like back in the nineties, maybe
(16:57):
late nineties I think. And McIntosh is there at the
table and he says Mr Baldwin, and he's very gleaming
and very shiny, and he says, Mr Baldwin, I like
very much for you to come and meet with my
staff and I and we'll talk to about doing a
play a musical. And I said, well, I said, I
don't think nonsense, Mr Is, that anyone can sing, and
he is, and this is a part that was made
(17:18):
for You're born to play the spot and he said,
it's we're going to do the Witches of east Wick.
Can I want you to assay the role played by
Jack Nicholson in the film, the lead male role. And
I said, oh god, that sounds phenomenal. And you I'm
in such a boundless admirer of you. But I said,
you don't want me to do this. You don't want
me to do this, I said of Mr Boaldwin, nonsense.
(17:39):
I want you to meet with Is. You're going to
meet with my New York based music director John Clark,
and he will take you through some tunes and he
will take so we go to his apartment on the
Upper West Side, this old old building. We're going and
you got the piano and we're singing. Just say that
word and our beach your bird down to a Polco bay.
I'm doing all my Sonatra rip offs. I'm doing it.
I'm'm doing impersonation. So I can't sing. I finally get
(18:01):
to like the third song, you know, John larry By
or whatever his name was, and he stops the piano
in the middle of song. We're literally, we're literally in
the middle of the song. He goes, Mr Bould, and
I believe you are. He says, you really really come sing.
You were listening to my conversation with the actor Davis Gains.
If you're a Broadway fan, here's a quiz. Gains is
(18:23):
to the phantom as Audrey McDonald is too. Well. Maybe
it's a trick question. You could say Porgy or Billie Holiday,
But to me, the answer is Carrie Pittbridge, the spunky
mill worker with the best songs in Carousel. It was
(18:44):
her breakthrough role, performed in the shadow of her alma mater, Juilliard,
where she had once felt so hopeless that she tried
to take her own life to then open in Carousel
at Lincoln Center, where you can look up and I
can see this school that I had a hard time
in and and I remember standing in those windows seeing
(19:05):
Patty Lapone performing there, going why am I not doing that?
And then how do you feel? Um like lucky survivor
in the world. You can find the rest of that
conversation with Audrew McDonald. If you text Audre, that's a
(19:26):
U D R A to the number seven zero one
zero one. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to hear
(19:52):
is the thing. Davis Gaines is remarkably unassuming for a
Broadway leading man, but he nonetheless has got friends in
high places. The entire Bush family, for one, starting with
the late President George H. W. Bush. I sang in
Orlando for a cancer center gala benefit and h W
(20:13):
was the speaker. I had met him during the Whistle
Down the Wind Time in Washington, had a picture, but
he doesn't remember, but I did. And so then after
the show he came up and said, Barbara would really
like you, and thanks, like, yeah, her birthday is coming
up and I'm gonna get my boys and we're gonna
do something. But what's your email? So I gave him
my email address. Two weeks later he wrote and said
(20:34):
would I come and sing for Barbara Bush's seventy surprise
birthday party in Kennebunkport. I said yes, yes, you know
I can't. I cannot pass this out of course, And
so it was amazing experience. Barbara Bush ran that family,
and she was the boss and she had a mouth
like a sailor. She was an amazing lady. I loved her.
But they just took me in and h W said,
(20:56):
what are you doing tomorrow Sunday? I said, I'm going
back to New York because well, come I a house
for coffee and donuts. I said, okay. So I walk in.
There's no servants, no secret service. Really to park and
went in the house and there's Henry Kitsons, you're going.
Good job last night, David's good job, and thank you general,
thank you so much. And then h W goes, there's
coffee in the kitchen, go help yourself. And so I
(21:17):
was in the dining room, um, hanging out, and George
W walked in. W W walked in and said, good morning,
having no how are you doing? How you doing? It's
like feeling fine, feeling fine. It ran for a couple
of hours after church, feeling good. So good for you.
And he goes, can I ask you a question? He said, yeah,
he Um, can you learn how to sing? Or is
(21:38):
it something you're born with? And I said, good question.
I think one can learn to sing, but you probably
have to have some musicality in your head. Maybe long
pause again and he goes, well, I don't know shit
about singing, but you probably got the best boys in America,
and so well, thank you so much. And then I
looked around. All the out of town guests were gone
but me and the Bush and I said, oh my god,
(22:01):
I just me and him. Now I better get going,
and he goes, no, no, no, no, stay for lunch.
And I said, I really overstayed my welcome. Look there's
mama was putting out lunch stuff and I got to go.
He goes, no, no, no. If you're gonna pick a
day to eat here, this is the day because we're
having tacos. And I went, oh wow, I love me
(22:22):
some tacos. I said, you better go ask your mom
if I can stay, because you're right wait right here.
So he went in the kitchen to ask Barbara bushop
I can stay for lunch, comes out and goes, you're in.
So I was his little buddy all day long, and
pinching myself undertainb why pinching myself like thanks, Oh my gosh.
Do you know when you go out there every night
(22:43):
the effect you have on people? No, but no, no,
but you know know, but sometimes like that's the goals
to move people or you know or um, like in Phantom,
like if I didn't feel like I had a if
I wasn't my best that night, there was a huge
long embarrass bow that we had to do, like stage left,
stage right in the middle of I said short bow,
(23:04):
short bow, because I didn't think I deserve I didn't
deserve that all that. So yeah, I go out there
trying to do my best, and it's nice when people
laugh or cry. Um. Yeah, it's nice to do that
to feel that. I love that the show you go
back six months of the amis and then what happens
then you know, I just uh settled back in l
(23:26):
A and so a lot of concerts. Yeah, I do
a lot of concert work. Enjoy that, yeah very much.
So pays the bills and people want to come see
very muchself. Could you need to do anything? I get
to do what I want to do. But what's great
about that is like I get to sing. I can sing.
It only takes a moment as that character, as Cornelius,
I can do Fagan. I can sing uh reviewing the situation.
(23:49):
As Fagan, I I can go impossible possible dream and
every every song has it. I've become a character, which
that's what I love to do, and so like morph
into that and then I can just sing, you know,
normal standards or some standards that you were. What are
some of your favorite I did on an album Sammy
Contunes because I sang at his memorial service. I wonder
(24:13):
if that's the go to what these guys are dying
and they're saying, you know, I love you, Irene. And
one more thing, Yes, Sammy, you gotta get Davis my memorial.
You know who. Michael Schilders is, the photographer. He called
me the day to come sing at a funeral of
someone I didn't know, but it's so sure. And then
I was sitting next to him because you know you're
(24:33):
singing at my funeral on it? No I didn't. I
didn't know that, Michael. He said, you know you sing
at John Schlessinger's funeral. I went, you're too kind. How
did the film and TV thing go many years? Well?
I did a lot during the fense when I was
spent him. They wanted me as a guest star on
Vernics Closet with Kristie Alley, and I did it. Murder
she wrote with Angela Lansbury and those guests, Things Charmed
(24:56):
and all those. But since then, I have no representation
Los Angeles, so I don't go out on anything. You
don't want to? Yeah, I do, but I don't have
an agent, so that stuff has kind of fall off.
I don't. I don't really have anybody to book me
in concerts and clubs or music anymore. So people just
come to me and say, well, I sing um, I
(25:17):
definitely want to, but I'm only I'm really good when
I'm working. When I'm not working, I'm not so good.
And you know, as a person, and as I get
what do you mean, any get anti depressed? And when
I'm on stage. When I'm on stage, I'm like the
long as you went where you didn't work? Oh gosh,
months six months year, six months? A year? Maybe, so
(25:39):
let's let's say we'll split the differences nine months. Maybe
we'll say a year. And without getting to too much detail,
I don't want to pride. But when you say you
get answer it? What what's what does that say? I
don't feel like I'm worth what do you do? What
do you want to tell? This? Interesting? So I don't
I just I probably wanted to quit many times the business,
like I don't know else, but I don't know else
to do, but I would rather I mean, the part
(26:00):
of me wants to just have a normal job, like
a normal person. But on the Phantom, like its happened
on and the Majestic. Um. I was probably you know,
five years, five and a half years into the run,
and for whatever reason, I just hit me, Um, I
was at the organ. I had just came in and
I was Phantom was going at the organ in the
beginning of the show, and I just burst out into
(26:23):
tears like me not the Phantom, I had to use it.
And I just realized that that moment, like I only
felt worth anything or loved between eight o'clock and ten
thirty every day. It's like I went there's and I
loved what I did, and I just loved it. But
I realized there's got to be more to life than
(26:46):
Phantom or between our job, TV business and film business. Yeah,
so I just like knew that I just had this
thing like that I only felt worth anything in those
hours that I was there to work on that. Yeah,
I went just there at me. The next probably the
next day, I found a great therapist here. But I realized, Yeah,
and it's always a balance now just to you know,
be happy, um doing not working. But but when I
(27:11):
appreciate when I get on stage even more now because
I've just it's like home. It's like, don't to me exactly,
don't let it define you in the way that it's
going to cripple you. Yeah, And when I did when
I did I did this Joe Orton play. I did
another Joe Orton play after we did Luton eight six
Entertaining was just Sloan in two thousand four. And I'll
(27:32):
never forget when I had the scenes with the young guy.
I'm ed the middle aged of brother with you know,
my sister lives in the house with my father, and
then this male hustler shows up and I'm this bisexual
man who's in love with and Chris Carmack. And I
remember the moment when I was alone with Chris on
stage for some of the funniest parts of the play.
I remember saying to myself, oh my god, I never
(27:53):
want this to end, because I don't have as much
fun anywhere else. Right. This is before I met my
wife and my kids. This is two thousand four. I
met my wife and too in eleven so seven years
prior in the in the thick of my divorce, and
my life was hell and custody, battles from my daughter
and just everything outside the doors in the theater was shit.
And I'd walk into that theater, I thought, I know
exactly what I'm going to say for the next two
(28:13):
and a half hours. I know exactly what you're gonna say.
I know exactly how they're going to react, and people
will love you. And I was, yeah, I never had
more fun in my life. He's like, that's line from applause.
I'm only alive at night when I'm in the show.
It's like, that's what I gotta do. That's what I do. Now?
Would you do shows? Now? Yeah? I mean I do
most of my stuff in l A. But I've got
(28:34):
the thing about living there, Like the last ten years,
I got to play roles that I never would have
played here. What's the least. I just played Nostradamis in
Something Rotten, and then up Fagin and Oliver and music
Man and silence the musical Hannibal Electors. That's that's the
(28:55):
nastiest but the greatest silence of the lambs of the
music and you played lect her. Yeah, you could probably
of beans and everything. The song my first song, it's
like I can't even speaking on My parents were so
great about coming to everything I ever did. And that's
the only show, the first song that you can't I
can smell your blank if I knew if I could
smell her w Yeah, it's huge. Oh god, what is
(29:21):
that you've done? The gamut was something really fun. I
just play with Rita Rudner a comedy just the two
of us kind of and and uh so, yeah, I
love doing all different kinds. Not to sing, but I can,
but I don't have to. But it's fun to do
all those different things. Uh. And what I'm wondering are
their songwriters and are their individual songs get you name
(29:43):
a couple that you never tire of singing. Gosh, there's
a song Sammy con the words that he wrote and
he won four Oscars and twenty Oscar nominations all that
music that he wrote. His words are amazing. It's me.
There's a his his one of his favorite songs that
(30:04):
my favorite song that he wrote was from a Broadway
show called Skyscraper, and it's called I'll only miss her
when I think of her, and it's like just a
simple poem. It just I never tired of singing something
like that, songs that are are sad, songs that hit
the heart and UM like listening to. Like when John
(30:24):
Rate was old in his eighties and I was doing
Phantom in l A. We did concerts together, me and
John Ray and it was my and I would we
would sing if I Loved You together as a duet
or hey, they're from Pajama Game, and I watched I
would watch him sing soloquy and then he watched me
singing music to night and it was like a dream
(30:44):
come true. Why Why? Why me? And and be able
to like having Rosemary Clooney come backstage in l A
after Phantom and said, I can listen to you sing
all day. I said, no, Rosemary Clooney, and she give
me your home phone and call me. It's like, I
just don't embases me. And I'll bring this full circle
back to Carol Channing's memorial. The other day, I was
(31:06):
in the wings in rehearsal sound check with Time Daily
and we were talking about how lucky we are too
to be there and keep working and be there and
keep working and how much? And she goes, yeah, I
felt she thought I felt so great about being in
the golden end of television with Cagney and Lacey and
(31:26):
then I then Gypsy on Broadway, and I said, yeah,
I just feel the same way, like I don't know
why me? And why did I get to work with
George Jabbott and how Prince and Carol Channing and Richard
Burton and and um, I just don't sometimes can't put
process it, like I loved it. It was a dream,
but I and I don't know why me? Um? And
(31:48):
then she just put her hand on my chest and goes,
why not you? And I went it was like a
lightbulb moment for me, like wow, why not me? And
I'm told us to people since then, and it's like
if I only knew that twenty years ago, thirty years ago,
why not me? It would have mind emitted given me
(32:09):
that thing. But now this week just just I'm here
talking to you and and why not me? And I
I'm so grateful and I can't wait. I just you
know what I want to say as we go out
of this show. Sometimes it will wraps itself up perfectly,
does it wait, we'll tell you why, because we're gonna
play some music as we go out here, and when
I play this music, everyone will know what I know,
(32:30):
which is when you say why me, This is why.
The music we're going to play right now, this is
why because you are literally one of the greatest singers
ever in thank you so much. I love you too,
Davis Games. While you were seeing now One Manue Low,
(33:07):
I saught one all my old I'm Alec Baldwin and
you're listening to Here is the thing us know Heavens
he dont le
Host
Alec Baldwin
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