The Don Rosen Show (Hour 2)

So, you ever find yourself being lazy for no reason at all?

Like, you pick up your mail, you go in your house,

you realize you have a letter for a neighbor,

you ever just look at the letter and go,

mm, looks like they're never getting this.

Okay, too much energy to go back outside.

You might like stick it on a bureau.

I gotta get that to them later on.

Right now, I gotta watch some love connection.

I gotta get some new host on there.

You ever have one thing to do all day,

but you just can't get yourself to do it?

I gotta go to the post office.

But I'd probably have to put on pants.

Not only open till five.

I'm gonna have to do that next week.

Kind of a little more free time.

I never have free time.

Yeah, I don't know about you.

Whenever I go to the cash machine,

there's two people in line in front of you.

You get kind of flustered.

You're like, forget it.

I'm not standing here for 40 seconds.

I got things to do.

Okay.

Sometimes being lazy can get you in trouble.

Like, you ever not take a shower all weekend?

Just lounge around, then you're running late for work on Monday?

Oh no.

So is one person at work.

Something smells like smoke in here.

I went to a barbecue on Friday night.

Only had 48 hours to get a shower.

But whoo table, don't you understand?

Friend, either you're closing your eyes to a situation

you do not wish to acknowledge,

or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster

indicated by the presence of a pool table in your community.

Well, you got trouble, my friend.

Right here, I say trouble right here in River City,

why sure I'm a billiard player,

I'm certainly mighty proud to say I'm always mighty proud to say it.

I consider that the hours I spend with a queue in my hand are gold.

Cap your cultivate horse sense,

and a cool head and a keen eye.

Do you ever take and try to find an iron clad lean for yourself

from a three-rail billiard shot?

But just as I say, it takes judgment, brains and maturity

to score in a box-line game I say that any boob can take and shove a ball in a pocket.

And I call that swath, the first big step on the road to the depths of day.

But this is a wine from a teaspoon, then beer from a bottle.

Yeah, seven away to WRJ and radio.

I'm Don Rosen, thanks for joining us.

Bob Benson is here, one of the great actors at the Racine Theatre Guild

in a lot of shows.

How many shows have you been in there?

You know, I tried to figure that out this morning and I lost count.

I think I'm in the upper 20s, I believe.

Wow, that's a lot.

Yeah.

Have you acted anywhere else besides the Theatre Guild?

I have.

I've done a few shows up at Greendale Community Theatre.

And yeah, that's the only other place.

It's a great place.

Nothing is like at the Bellasco and Broadway or...

No.

The Walter Kirk Theatre on Broadway, nothing like that.

And then nothing quite like that.

The Netherlands Theatre.

No.

Okay, nothing.

I just want to see what Theatre is like that for.

Would you play in the Music Man?

I was in the ensemble in the Music Man.

The Music Man is the first show that I did at the Racine Theatre Guild.

So that's what kind of got me going here.

That was in 2005.

I did get a call back for that show, which is really exciting because it was the first thing I had done since high school.

So on a way on my audition, actually my son convinced me to audition.

He wanted to audition himself.

So he convinced me to take him.

And as long as I was there.

You still convinced me.

We were both cast.

So we had a ball in that show.

That is a fun show to do.

It really is.

And it's been on Broadway.

I can't tell you how many times.

Because Hugh Jackman just had a huge run at the Winter Garden on Broadway.

One of the...

I think that's the only theatre that's actually on Broadway.

You at the Winter Garden.

And he was in the Music Man playing Harold Hill, Con Man.

And they did it real well.

Yeah.

So yeah, that was your first show.

And you were just in the...

You were like...

In the ensemble.

Yeah, you were the ones just singing in the background.

Exactly.

Yeah.

It was 2005.

I find it so amazing when I took Doug incidents about this.

I found it amazing.

It's a horseshoe stage.

It's not completely in the round.

It's not a half thing.

It's more like a...

It's more than half a circle.

It's tough to do that because there's no curtain to come down.

Change the acts like on Broadway where they bring the curtain down.

Then they bring it up and there's a new set.

I can't do it there.

Everything's got to be right in front of everybody.

Right.

So they black it out.

They have people working black clothes.

They look like little demons running around the stage.

And they change everything around.

Just to set up the show in itself, the directing of it.

That's a big chore.

And I know I have been to the Ford Atkinson Theater.

And that's completely in the round.

Completely in the round, right?

But they have something clever that you guys don't have.

They can bring stuff from a basement.

And shoot everybody up.

So they can set something up.

Now it's not a big platform, but it's big enough.

Where they can bring stuff up and people up.

So they don't have to run up and down the aisles.

So they haven't even wanted to do any acting outside of a...

Like go to a like a big theater like an LA or Chicago or an...

I just hate to bring it up Broadway.

No, I mean...

You're good at that.

What I welcome that opportunity certainly,

but it's not something that I actively pursue.

Do you think I'm good enough for it?

Oh, sure.

I don't care about that.

We had Tom Cargo just to work here doing our news.

And I said to him one day, I know people, friends of mine,

who work at CBS and ABC Radio,

because I started out with them.

They're good.

You're better than they are.

And I'm telling you you're better than they are,

because I know these people.

I know what they do.

And I've heard...

Now they're all good.

And one guy did the CBS Morning News for 20 years.

And he's good.

But you're just as good or better than he is.

Well, thank you.

But they didn't believe it.

You know, he doesn't believe he's better.

I don't believe I'm better.

Well, I'm telling you're better.

You know, the best judge is the audience, not you.

You know, sometimes I come out and say,

oh, what a show to them.

So I'm embarrassed.

I want to go hide.

And somebody say, man,

well, you want some money today.

Whoa.

And then sometimes I come out here and say,

I feel so good.

What a great show.

Somebody come up.

What's money?

It's some gas today.

You're right.

That's about it.

You got a bad day than it.

A little sick.

Okay, so you started out.

When did you get the bug a teenager?

Or...

I did do theater in high school.

Okay.

Here we go.

America.

Yeah.

That's actually where I met my wife.

We were in West Side Story together.

Our freshman year of high school.

And I didn't necessarily fall in love with performing.

I fell in love with the process.

You just get an opportunity to meet so many crazy, fun people, you know.

So that's what really bit me.

So then I did theater in high school.

All four years of high school.

And then, you know, you...

You...

Life takes over.

You...

College.

Family.

Marriage.

You know.

And those things get in the way.

Certainly no time whatsoever for extracurriculars like theater.

So I didn't do anything for...

Gosh, a number of years.

Well, let's see.

I graduated in 1983 to 2005.

So that's too early for that kind of math in the morning.

Now...

Oh, I can't write and talk in this.

I...

In high school, I didn't want to be enacting.

But it looked fun.

So one day, I got on stage.

I had an audition for the show, whatever show it was.

And I got up there.

And I...

Three words came out of my mouth and I knew it was terrible.

Because I...

I just...

I was watching the people before me.

And I knew I wasn't doing what they were doing.

And it was like one of those things from, of course, like...

Nucks!

Nucks, right?

But I wound up for three of the four years in high school being a stage manager.

So, you know, it was kind of fun.

And I did some voiceover stuff when they needed an off voice from the...

I could read things on a piece of paper.

But I couldn't act them out.

I just couldn't do that.

So that was...

That was my big acting career in high school, just being stage manager.

And it was fun.

I did it for three years.

I think I did a good job.

Sure.

But, you know, I just couldn't do that.

I don't know how people act.

Now, the movie, you should get 20 times to do it right.

Right.

Maybe more.

Right.

But even still, you see people act on screen.

They're good.

But if you ever see behind the scene video of how they do it,

they do a little bitty part, little increments.

They do two sentences cut.

They do the two sentences again and again and again.

You don't get that opportunity when you're performing live on stage.

So I have a few questions for you here.

Okay.

Have you ever forgotten a line on the show?

Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Probably every show I've ever done, I've missed lines.

Absolutely.

The problem is the person who you're acting against

is depending on you to remember that line

because they can't save their line till they hear your line.

Exactly.

So what do you do?

I mean, I contact is very important.

We always say at the guild, especially it's a team sport.

And it truly is.

I mean, everyone's got to be on and everyone has to be listening.

And you go through the journey together

and if somebody misses a line and inevitably somebody misses a line.

I mean, seriously, I have not been in a show

where someone hasn't missed a line.

But you're there.

You're in it and you're listening to one another

and you're all playing the same sport.

But you know, and the audience won't know

if you're missing a line.

Exactly.

They won't know unless you have the look of panic

and you look around like, oh God, somebody missed a line.

You know, so.

Why is Bob sweating on this?

Is he having a heart attack up there?

I see a lot of sweat coming from this one.

Exactly.

We've got to call him ambulance.

I would say to the person acting,

if you see me blinking wildly.

Right.

I forgot my lines.

You keep going.

How about this?

Did you ever break out in a serious role, laughing?

You couldn't stop laughing every cent.

I have not done that.

I certainly have broken character,

but not in a serious moment like that.

Fortunately, I have not come across a serious moment

where I can't keep it together.

How about the audience?

Does the audience ever screw up?

Where the cell phone thing must drive you nuts

when they go and they tell you before they shut yourself.

Shut yourself up.

And I don't know if people are just too old

to listen to what was just said.

They don't care.

They said, oh, no one's going to call me.

Don't worry.

Then all of a sudden, you hear the thing from the Godfather

playing in the dark.

Or were she some rap song playing with naughty words in it?

Right.

Coming from the audience.

Does that throw you at all?

I have certainly been distracted by it,

but not to the point where I've lost my place in panic

and skipped a line or two.

But that does certainly the audience is a beast of their own

and that has a whole new dimension.

But for the most part, I've been able to tone that stuff out.

You know, and also, I would last nine seconds

because if somebody's phone went off,

I'd look at them and say, hey, stop.

Come here.

I slapped them in the face.

Bring them on stage and insult them.

Now, they have done that on Broadway

where the actors have stopped.

They have.

And say, give me that cell phone.

They have.

Or they made fun of it.

Paddy Lapone is famous for her stopping a show

and yelling at an audience member.

I don't have the ego that Paddy has.

So I have not done that just yet.

It's not an ego.

It's just common.

It's respect.

It's not to perform.

It's hard enough to do what you're doing.

And there's some morons got to play a cell phone

because they couldn't shut it.

I can't imagine not shutting my phone off

after paying $300 to see a show.

That's right.

You know, when I first started going to Broadway shows,

they were six and eight bucks.

Six and eight bucks.

Remember paying my first $125 ticket

and now they're more than that.

Right.

Yeah, you go there.

You want to make sure you enjoy the show.

Exactly.

Anyway, we're talking to Bob Benson,

an actor at the Racine Theatre Guild.

You do any other theaters now?

Or just, it's just Racine Theatre Guild.

We'll see just the Guild.

Yep.

Racine Theatre Guild, or RTG,

has our friends gone.

We'll talk about some upcoming shows

and he might be in.

We'll tell you how to get into acting.

We'll talk about some of his other shows.

It's all coming up here.

At WRGN 99.9 FM, 98.1 FM, 1400 AM,

hometown radio refreshed,

a civic media station, 719.

Dear God, you made many, many poor people.

I realize, of course, that it's no shame to be poor.

But it's no great honor, either.

So what would have been so terrible

if I had a small fortune?

If I were a rich man,

a yaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiaddiad demander

and what would have to work out,

if I were a pity, pity rich.

Yaddiaddiaddiaddiad Damn,

I'd have built a big tall house with rooms

by the dozen right in the middle of the town.

A fine tin roof where the real wooden floors be low.

There couldn't be one log staircase just going up

and one even logger coming down

and one more leading nowhere just for sure.

I'd feel a mile,

Yaddiad with chicks and takeies and geese

and ducks for the town with the in here,

squawking just as noisy as they can,

and each love.

What a classic show, Fiddler on the roof.

Every song in that show is a winner.

There's no filler in there.

And you've starred in Fiddler as in the...

Ensemble.

You know, when somebody asked me what I was in a show

and the answer to that is Ensemble,

I'm really proud of that actually.

It is not easy to be in an ensemble in a show.

There's the phrase, there's no small part,

but it's so true.

The Ensemble really carries a show

and helps it move along.

And the Ensemble does not get a whole lot of individual rehearsal time.

So a lot of that is work that they've done on their own.

I have tremendous respect for people who are ensemble members

and do nothing but ensemble work.

And I see them with the guild all the time.

There are certain people always in the ensemble.

And there's a lot of moving around on stage.

That's another thing.

Two things.

First of all, how do you remember lines?

And what can you give young people a little clue

on how to memorize the script?

Because it's not a lot.

I am here, I've been here for how many years, 24th,

a little more than 24 years.

I still have to write down the lines I have to say.

Because I can't remember them.

And you've got a whole script you've got to remember.

How do you, how do you memorize that?

It is difficult.

I won't lie.

And certainly the older I get, the more difficult it becomes.

But there are some tricks to the trade out there.

And many of them work.

Some of them don't work for me.

But I am a visual learner.

So I literally visualize the script.

And I can tell you what line is the third one from the top.

Because I've put that in my brain visually.

So that helps me a lot to picture that page.

Oh, I know how you do that.

I just feel good.

I mean, I wouldn't say certainly it's a photographic memory.

But there is something to that that you can visualize

that page of the script and that helps you remember.

Then you have to remember the song.

Then you have to remember the song and the choreography.

And yeah, it's a lot.

It's a lot.

I didn't even get to the choreography yet.

You've got to because the light, the spots that come on on the stage overhead,

you've got to be underneath them.

Hit your mark, absolutely.

And they can't have too many marks on the stage.

Because the audience looks like a landing strip out there.

Right.

But they have all these places you have to be

an exact part of the song and the script.

And certainly most of the stuff that you see taped out on this on a stage

that is a spike mark.

That is for props and furniture.

It's not for an actor to hit his mark.

So you're right.

I mean, there is a science to it.

And it's not.

It is easy, but it's not easy.

T.C.

You want you to have it do it.

It's easy with it.

It's like anything else on what people say.

How do you know where these buttons are?

I don't.

Exactly.

I'm sure years of hitting buttons.

I know where they are.

Right.

But when I first came into my post job, I didn't know what they were.

Right.

I just, you know, I'm looking and making experiments.

When you guys run off stage in when the, you know, different scenes of characters have to

leave your run through the tunnel way there.

What's on the other side?

We always want to know where you're going.

At the receipt data, it's really a cool space.

When you go down, we call them the Vombs.

There is a walk around that wraps the entire circle of the stage.

So you can go behind stage to, you know, so you can go down and around and then come through

a new entrance on stage.

But it's probably a, I don't know, maybe 10 or 12 feet wide.

We store props down there.

And change, you know, change clothes, certainly.

Sometimes, you know, you've got 30 seconds to completely change your costume.

Maybe you could make it in front of people down there.

I have never gotten completely naked.

Everybody wants to know what I mean.

We do, there are certainly circumstances where it, it's a requirement that, you know,

you are stripped down to your skitties.

But when we're in a situation like that, we try to put up curtains and, you know, provide privacy

certainly for the actors.

Usually in a change like that, you've got somebody assisting you.

So it, it happens quickly and it, it's...

Well, I was backstage once.

My dad fixed pumps for major buildings in New York.

You know, the water gets pumped up.

The gravity brings it down.

He got to get it up there.

And we, he had a job that's when I used to work with him in the summer.

It was at the palace theater.

And George M in 1968 was on stage of the palace with Joel Gray.

And I was, went backstage because that's where the pump was having the problem.

And it was during a matinee performance.

So it was busy.

And I was sitting there and the guy backstage said, once you just have a seat over here,

you can watch everybody doing everything, but just stay out of the way.

So the run real fast, sir.

It was chaotic.

And this is a broadway show.

And I remember seeing Joel Gray and some of the, just running around.

And it was like, whoa.

And you really, that's why he sat me down.

You get in the way.

You're going to be knocked down.

And we'll just step over you.

Right.

There's no time to care if you got hurt.

Whoa.

And this was a hit broadway show at George M.

It was, you know, went on for years.

And then my dad came and I was terrified.

Because it wasn't even a stop.

It wasn't a moment where it was just calm.

It was just constant.

People moving, running around.

And not only the actors, but people doing the props to the stage.

Right.

Holy Macro.

Yeah.

There's a lot going on backstage all at all times.

And that's the guilt.

Well, it depends on the show.

Well, do you have a backstage behind what we're seeing?

We see that the back, the wall, right?

Whatever the set design is.

Is there a back behind that that's chaotic or what?

The actually behind, absolutely back behind that wall

that you see in the back of the stage is our shop area

where we build our sense and paint our sense.

They are magnificent.

They are.

I can't believe what a job the set designers do.

We've got some kind of designers.

And the carpenters, whatever they build back there.

And then the actual floor of the stage is redone for every show.

Every show.

Yeah.

What does the real floor look like?

I've never seen the real floor.

In between shows, it gets painted black.

So it can be a basic floor, but you're right.

For every show, it gets a new facade.

It's about three inches high.

It probably is about three inches high.

From the paint.

Exactly.

It's amazing.

I've been going, I had seen some tickets for years and years.

My mother, who grew up going to Broadway musicals,

just couldn't wait to get to the guild.

She loved the shows there.

Her favorite one was Glorious.

With Kathy Bellarius.

Was it amazing?

She told you that show.

And she saw the original funny girl with Barbara Streisand on Broadway.

But she said Glorious was her favorite show she ever went to.

It's 729 at WRTM.

Bob Benson from the Racine Theater Guild is here.

We're talking about Broadway shows and the musicals and the plays they put on

at the Guild and how they do it.

We're getting a behind-the-scenes glimpse.

Most people don't get.

Give it here.

Home town radio refreshed to Civic Media Station.

729 at WRTM.

This by has recalled nearly 300,000 air friars

after receiving complaints that they overheated, melted, or caught on fire.

Overheated, melted, and caught on fire.

Those are actually the options on the New Tesla.

An Australian billionaire, Clive Parker, has revived his dream to set sail on Titanic 2,

a replica of the ill-fated ship that sank in 1912.

And that's just like the original with a traditional dining room,

first-class dining saloon, luxurious state rooms and suites,

grand ballroom, gymnasium, squash courts,

cylindrical bath, theater, and casino.

Yeah.

I'm here a lot of words there that aren't lifeboats.

Ito vines, ito vines, every morning you greet me.

I don't make CDs like they used to do that.

Actually, I think it's a CD player.

We're going to fix that and we're going to get to that song.

Because you sang that.

I did.

That was, of course, from the sound of music.

I was blessed to pay to play Captain Von Trap.

That's a big role.

That's like the lead.

That, certainly, opposite Maria.

But yes, really, really beautiful show, beautiful music.

The stage version is a little different than the movie version

that we're all familiar with, but still the same beautiful music.

So, yeah, that was a special show to do.

My niece actually played one of my children in that show.

So that was a fun thing for me.

Yeah, I love going back in.

They always go back to the children from the movie.

Some of them aren't around anymore, but they had one who was,

she went on a tour and she was actually gave the tour in Austria

to some of the places they filmed.

Oh.

And they forget her name.

Sharmian.

Is that her name?

Sharmian.

She was one of the girls in the show.

Did she play Liesel?

Yes.

No, no, not the little, that Liesel was a little girl.

Gradle was the little Liesel.

Yeah.

She was the oldest.

Yeah, I can't keep track of names.

I'm a rock air member of my daughter, my son.

Anyway, so she helped give the tour, which was really nice.

Imagine having that on the sound of music.

Kurt Vaughman, who was worked here for years,

he went on the sound of music tour.

Oh, really?

Yeah, he went there.

Do you see a show of the movie?

Do you watch a movie before you do it after the guild?

I mean, there was no way I could have avoided sound of music,

but typically, no, I try not to do that before a show.

Just because I don't want to show up and copy somebody else's

version of how they explored that character.

So I tried to do my own thing.

Obviously, it was sound of music.

I couldn't avoid seeing that show for a while.

I did not see that until, like, in the mid-2000s,

in the early 2000s, I had never seen it before.

Our family wasn't movie musical people.

We were Broadway musical people.

We were movie musical people.

So my mother had never seen that show.

She was like 88 years old, and she fell in love with it.

Now, all she did, I got her a copy of the movie,

and she watched it at home over and over.

Now, she did see Richard Chamberlain on Broadway

through the sound of music.

She was a quick, funny story,

but we get some other questions here.

So she's with my sister-in-law.

They both live in New York.

And she said the tickets booth on Broadway,

where you can get the half-priced tickets

or last minute tickets to a show.

And they didn't have any left for the sound of music.

And some guy said, I have two tickets here.

You want to buy them?

And my mother said, I'm going to buy those tickets from you.

But if I find out that they don't work or they're not real,

I will find you, and I will fix your wagon.

So these better work, and turns out they did work.

But the lady in front of her online,

she had tickets, and they didn't work.

Oh, no.

But my mother worked for the department

for affairs for 21 years.

So she had a handle of people.

She actually said that.

I said, I will find you.

Did you come here a lot?

And I believe she would.

The movie, you know, I saw it.

And we saw it.

And Marcus theaters ran it a couple of years ago,

with the intermission, the whole works.

And I loved it.

What a great, and I never watched it growing up.

That is the first movie in my childhood.

I can remember seeing in the movie theater.

So that is always my whole life, and my favorite movie.

I don't know if it was because it was the first I ever saw.

But, yeah, that movie.

It's absolutely my favorite movie.

So for me to hear somebody who has not seen that movie

is so foreign to me.

My first movie is Rodan versus Godzilla.

I did see it.

I saw Rodan in the theaters.

It was one of my first.

My first was Tammy in the Bachelor.

I see you remember your first movie, isn't it?

I remember every movie I've ever seen,

and the theater I've seen it out.

Wow.

I could name you any movie that I'll tell you the theater I saw it,

and I'll tell you who I saw it with.

I can only do that with my first on.

But I can't remember a situation.

Okay, here's a couple of questions from our listening audience.

What are you most proud of in your community involvement,

both inside and outside of the theater?

Wow.

It's a community theater.

It is a community theater.

And they don't pay.

They do not pay.

There are certainly staff members who get paid.

Doug has a salary.

Well, that's a full-time job.

Exactly.

Jocelyn is on the payroll and our technical director, Jane.

She is a paid position.

But, yeah, everybody else is a volunteer position.

I am very proud of my volunteer work at the Guild.

It surprised me.

I was there for a number of years.

And my company that I work for, I work for Modine Manufacturing.

They actually have a program where if you volunteer for any nonprofit organization,

they will make a donation in your name.

And I would volunteer at the Guild for years.

Probably 10 years.

And finally, our CEO stopped me on the hall one day.

He says, hey, how come you never turned in your volunteer hours for your guild,

for working at the Guild?

And it never dawned on me that that was a community service.

You think of, well, you have to serve food in a food kitchen,

or you're not providing something for your community.

And it was sort of a light bulb moment when I realized, well, wait a minute.

I am providing a service to the community.

So, yeah, I turn in my hours now for that.

And they make a donation in my name, and it was just a wonderful program.

I'm very proud of that.

We look forward to going.

We've been seasoned ticket holders for 17, 18 years, maybe longer.

And we look forward to every show.

I have my phone so I don't forget.

And I have the tickets in my drawing when it's coming up.

We get so excited.

That's great to hear.

Because I do it because I love to do it.

And I never consider what I'm doing for other people in doing so.

That's just not part of it for me.

Well, I got to tell you, that's blowing smoke here.

But it gives a lot of enjoyment.

We talk about the current sugar just got done with just a moment.

The other thing was we have our same three seats.

My mother's no longer with us, but we still get the seat.

I don't know why, I just don't want to give it up.

But anyway, so we get the same three seats for the Broadway blockbuster thing

you did recently.

You weren't part of that, but it was the spotlight show.

We sat in different seats.

You get a whole different perspective on the show.

After having these same seats for decades.

And when my brother and sister are come, sometimes we have to change seats to get four of them.

It's a whole different theater when you sit in a different circuit going to church.

Then you move to the other side of the church and all this and whoa.

This sounds completely different.

I never knew these people on stage talking.

Right.

Let's talk about, I got one more question here when I get to because I'll forget.

What's your internal process on taking up new theatrical projects?

Now, I have the new, we had Jocelyn Fish was on the ear with us when we broke the news about the new season.

Now, do you know if you're in any of these shows, you just auditioned?

Absolutely not.

Nothing is precast.

So, yeah, anything I'm interested, I will need to go and audition.

Do you still audition?

Oh, gosh, yes.

Of course.

But they know what you do.

Yeah, but you can bring something completely different to a different role.

So, yes, I audition for every role I've gotten.

Yes.

So, you're not going to be cast.

I'm not going to be cast.

So, that's probably not.

So, you're not going to be the one.

My wife is looking forward to little women.

Little women is a beautiful story.

I'm not familiar with the stage version, but it's a very popular show to produce.

So, I'm excited.

I think the season has got a lot to offer.

Oh, yeah.

I'm excited about the season.

The murder on the Orient Express.

You, you, the theater guild puts on show said I already know the, like, dial in for murder.

I've seen the Hitchcock movie a million times.

I even saw it in 3D once.

I've seen him a million times.

So, I know the ending was still fantastic.

The guy who played the lead, they were all good.

But the guy who played the lead and the inspector were standouts.

I agree with you completely.

They were standing up.

But everybody was great.

Yeah.

But we know the ending, right?

But it's still great to watch it.

You have to see them how they get there in their version of it.

Right.

And murder on the Orient Express.

We've seen the movie.

I can't wait to see it on stage.

I want to see how you pull off the train thing.

I was right.

I want to see that.

The other thing is legally blonde the musical.

I'm really excited for legally blonde.

I know that I shouldn't love that musical as much as I do.

But it's just a fun silly musical.

It's very true to the film with some great music added to it.

So, yeah, I'm really excited.

I actually did that show up in Greendale several years ago.

I played Professor Callahan and had a ball with that.

That was a lot of fun.

So, how do you get your mindset for these shows?

Do you have to get into character?

Do everybody have to call you?

They need to carry it back.

Do you always hear that in movies where you all call me by my character name?

Don't refer to me by any other name.

You don't like that.

I don't think there.

I'm definitely not like that.

I don't know any people like that.

Fortunately, I think that's a bit much.

Would you play in Willy Wonka?

Willy Wonka.

Oh, you will, Willy Wonka.

I was.

Because I saw that.

And all I remember are the bed was on stage and the grandparents were in the bed.

I recall that so much.

I actually have a movie prop for the movie.

The original movie, Willy Wonka.

It's a tiny little thing.

And it was something in one of the scenes.

They had all these whatever the grass or something.

And my son got me one of the pieces from the movie.

Cool.

Did you see the new production?

No.

Wonderful.

The movie.

The movie.

Yeah.

It was really wonderful.

It was a sentimental nod to the original, but expanding the story.

But they treated the original with Gene Wilder with beautiful velvet kit gloves.

And it was, I loved it.

My whole family loved it.

We went in between Christmas and New Year's.

And it was beautifully done.

I wanted to see Godzilla minus one.

But my wife didn't want to go see it.

And by the time they took it out, now I can't see it.

Right.

But I did want to see Godzilla.

I'm a big monster movie fan.

I am all home.

Rodan.

Gorgo.

Godzilla.

I got all the mood monster movies.

I love watching them.

And I know they're fake.

I know it's a guy in a rubber outfit.

Right.

But it's still.

I love it.

Let's talk about it.

And we're going to have to take a break.

But I'm going to talk on either side of it.

Now and then.

Didn't know what it was when I went to see it.

I said, oh, they're doing this dopey show now.

And then let's go see it anyway.

One of the best shows I've seen there.

Oh, thanks.

It was four people.

That's all the show is for.

Right.

But I couldn't stop thinking about it.

And the next day, my wife and I were still talking about it.

That's what I love to hear about that show, the conversations that it's hard.

It's done playing.

It's done.

So we can finally talk about it.

Yeah.

It was really hard to discuss the show because as soon as you start saying what the show

is about, you give away the entire plot.

Yeah, you can't do that.

Yeah.

Although when the lights blinked red when you came on stage, I had a feeling we were in some kind of warp.

I didn't know.

I had no idea what the show was about.

And I saw the lights blink and I said, hmm, something strange is going on here.

And I picked up on it slowly.

What a great show.

What'd you tell about the, we'll start talking about it now.

Talk about the, the plot of the show.

Okay.

So the show opens your setting as a bar.

Jamie is closing up for the night and in walks this mysterious man.

Who is willing to pay ultimately $2,000 to be able to stay in the bar and talk to Jamie

and his girlfriend.

You have absolutely no idea why he's there or why he wants to talk to them so bad.

He sounds like a weirdo.

He sounds like a real weirdo.

Yeah.

In fact, in the beginnings of the show that Doug introduced some very strange things that my character

did just to try to throw the audience off to keep them wondering about what in the world is this guy doing here.

So as the story develops, we come to realize that the mysterious man is an older version of Jamie

who has come back to convince him to not follow through with his proposal that he has planned with his girlfriend that evening.

And his doing his darned us to get them to break up and to not follow the life path that he lived.

Hold it right there.

I mean, I'm going to cry because I didn't think the show had a happy ending.

I was not, I didn't walk out feeling great when it was over.

I said, oh, and you start thinking about what if I went back in time?

What would I do?

Hold on, we're going to continue talking about that with Bob Benson, one of the stars of Now and Then,

which is played at the Guild.

It's over now, so we can take it to plot points.

Get 749 and WRGN Radio, hometown radio refreshed as civic media stations.

There we are, more coming up with Bob in a moment.

How strange this feeling that my life's begun at last, this change can people really fall in love so fast.

What's the matter with you, cosette?

Have you been too much on your own?

So many things unclear, so many things undone.

In my life, there are so many questions and answers that somehow seem wrong.

In my life, there are times when I catch in the silence the sigh of a faraway song.

And it seems of a world that I long to see out of reach.

Just a whisper away, waiting for me.

Does he know I'm alive?

Do I know if he's real?

Can he see what I saw?

Does he feel what I feel?

In my life, I'm no longer alone, I'm not loved in my life is so weak.

Find me now, find me here.

Dear cosette, you're such a lonely child.

That's from Les Mis, Les Mis Rob.

And you had two different roles in that, not at the same show.

But you played two of the major parts in that show.

At the Guild, I played Jean-Fel Jean, which is the father in the show.

And yeah, beautiful, beautiful show.

I'm so proud of that show.

And then I had an amazing opportunity to play Javair,

his arch nemesis in the show in Greendale Community Theatre.

So yeah, I got to play both the good guy and the bad guy.

I cried.

It was fun.

I cried too.

I cried.

I cried a lot of movie.

I cried in field of dreams.

I cried at.

I was in the theater.

At the end with his father takes up his mask.

What's that matter with that man?

But there were other people tearing up to show.

And not women.

There were guys tearing up.

I don't know why.

I cried every show of now and then.

I mean, those were real tears.

If you saw the show, those were real tears.

Let's talk more about that.

So it turns out we left this off here.

You are the kid at the bar.

You are him.

An older version of him.

Years and years later.

And you've seen what the future holds.

Exactly.

And I mean, he lived his life and not without duress.

And he wanted to change some things.

And he wanted to convince his younger self to not go through

with proposing to his girlfriend Abby

and live a different life than what he lived.

He had children.

One of them joined the Marines after 9-11.

And they lost him in that conflict.

And he came back to convince him is younger self,

not to go through with it so that he could change the course of his life.