There out in the darkness A fugitive running Falling from God Falling from faith God be my witness I never shall yield Till we come face to face
Till we come face to face He knows his way in the dark Mine is the way of the Lord And knows who follow the path of the righteous Shall have their reward
multitude Scares to be counted Filling the darkness With order and light You are the sentinels Silent and sure Keeping watch in the night Keeping watch in the night
Wow,
that's that's good.
That's Bob Benson now.
That's on stage and audition
actually, right?
Is that correct?
I was not able to be at auditions for the musical we did last spring Pippin at the Racine Theatre Guild.
So I had to submit a video audition for that.
And that was from recording of that
audition.
Les Miserables stars.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's telling.
But Bob Benson is my guest.
He performs a lot in Racine, perform outside Racine at all.
I've done a couple of shows for Greendale Community Theater.
OK, yeah.
In fact, I sang stars.
I did their Les Miserables production and I was Javier and that.
So I sang stars in that production.
Only show I ever cried at.
I was telling Bob I had a girlfriend.
We went into New York.
And we show late Mr. Rob.
Here I am going to have a night of the town with this girl.
She does.
It's going to be a hot night.
I'm going to cry in the show.
She said, I don't think so.
I'm crying like a baby in that show.
I have such a special place in my heart for that show.
I was fortunate enough to do two productions of it.
One in Greendale and one here in Racine.
Greendale, I played Javera.
And then here in Racine, I played Jean Belle Jean.
So.
The more sympathetic role.
Yeah, exactly.
But both of those spectrum roles.
So I've been pretty blessed with some pretty incredible opportunities.
And that was definitely high on my list.
I had to get started in theater.
So I did theater in high school.
My freshman year I auditioned.
I was just such a shy, awkward, gangly little child.
And that just seemed like some place I could fit in maybe.
So we were doing West Side Story, my freshman year of high school.
So I auditioned and got in that.
I did theater all through high school and then took a step back.
You know, life happens, marriage, kids.
So I didn't do theater for kids
Yeah.
Right.
And then let's see, it was 2005.
The Theater Guild was doing a production of Music Man.
And my middle son, Connor, had the bug and is a delightful vocalist and sang in the crib.
You know, I mean, he was just he was just always singing and just a sweet little kid.
Anyway, he saw that they were doing this and wanted to audition for the show.
So asked what I take him.
So, of course, I did.
And he convinced me as long as I was there to audition as well.
And we both were cast and the rest is history.
That was 2005.
So it was, you know, probably, let's see, I got married in 86.
I don't know.
Math is too hard this early in the morning.
So from 86 to 2005, I didn't do anything.
So which role did you get in the music, Matt?
I was in the ensemble.
Connor was...
one of the little boys in the ensemble.
Why did you do
in one of the Buffalo Bills roles?
They play
in the right
way.
And how can there be
in the city?
And since where is the good and goodbye?
Goodbye.
Ice cream.
We had a delightful quartet.
I don't know if you know Bob Gall from racing.
He was a legend.
Anyway, Bob was in that quartet and just we lost Bob this past year.
We've lost a lot of people.
Yeah, we have.
Gloria Steinem this morning, we heard.
That was rough to wake up to.
It's been a rough week.
I don't think I remember her being 92.
Right.
Anyway, so you went on and all of a sudden the music we said, I found my calling in
life.
Calling in life.
Yeah, I did.
And, you know, do I want to make a career of this?
Absolutely not.
Do I love everything I'm blessed with the opportunity of doing?
Absolutely.
You know, my mother said to me till her dying day, she said, you sure this is what you want to do radio 55 years?
Yes, I'm
pretty sure.
I think you and this is not a stable business.
You want to be like your father and your brother's a doctor.
I mean, I'll be like that.
OK, I'll think about it.
And Dr. Disjaki, no, I don't deal well with the public.
So I got to find a place where I don't deal with the public a lot.
So they started auditioning and.
Where were the first did you what we were always with the Racine Theater Guild?
The very vast majority of my time on stage.
Yes, but you
told me you still have to audition for roles now that you've been how many shows of the Guild is a ton of them
a ton of them They kind of know you you know they do absolutely, but I mean when when I've been on committees to that choose the plays that we put in our season and When you're choosing a show certainly you want to make sure that
that you know you can cast it.
So you have people in mind, certainly.
But when you put out an audition, you could get 100 other people you never knew about.
In fact, Les Mis, we had over 100 people auditioned for that.
Really?
We did.
incredible.
Yeah, we had an incredible turnout.
So yeah, you expose yourself to other talent.
someone you had no idea could come and blow you away.
So yeah, there are no guaranteed rules at all.
You ever get turned down?
Who's got to think about it?
That's good.
I have not.
Not at the guild.
Um, I have not always gotten the role that I wanted.
I've gotten other parts.
Well, look at you.
That's pretty good.
Yeah.
I have, I have an amazing track record at the Gill again.
I'm so incredibly blessed.
I have been turned down at other places.
Really?
Yeah.
Like we were talking about like back in the future when Huey Lewis was sitting in the audience and Michael J. Fox's band was auditioning.
You're just too loud.
of me left, so little left.
And in my twisted face there's not slight trace of anything but even kids' kindness and from my tortured shame.
No comfort, no escape.
I see within is utter blindness, hopeless.
As my dream ties, as the time flies.
Love, obesity, illusion.
I fuck your breath I'll hold that drinker To the side of the coffee shop
That's my guest Bob Benson in Beauty and the Beast playing the Beast.
You didn't mean make up for that, did you?
No, I'm not nasty.
Here are my guests that I'm making nasty comments.
Now, you had a lot of stuff on their face there.
Is it hard to sing through all that?
I did.
That was a really cool prosthetic.
That makeup was designed by Katie Kobal.
I don't know if you know her.
She's the drama teacher at Horlick High School.
and grew up at the Guild.
So she came back for that show and designed the makeup.
And she found this amazing prosthetic that was glued to my whole face.
It had a separate jaw piece.
So it was very easy to speak and to sing because it didn't constrict my face at all.
We've been seasoned ticket holders for more than 20 years at the Racine Theater Guild.
I love every show I used to bring my mother.
And she loved every show.
And one of her favorites was Glorious with Kathy Byrd.
So funny.
And every time Kathy Byrd would hit her head to get the right note out, my mother would start laughing out loud.
I said,
Mom,
it's
just great.
I think I saw that show probably five or six times.
And every time it was funnier than the last time I had seen it.
My mother used to go to Broadway growing up in New York.
She went to Broadway musicals all the time.
I still have the original playbill at home for Funny Girl, which is what Streisand in the early sixties and Funny Girl, he always playbills from over the years I saved.
And she just went like you and I would go to the movie, she'd go to a show, but they were only about eight bucks.
And now
they're over a hundred dollars.
Yeah, that's crazy.
I saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on Broadway at 125 and that's cheap today.
Right.
You want to see Hamilton?
Yeah, let's see, own your own home.
Is it a mortgage available on that thing?
Yeah, I just saw a report last night.
that Hamilton is still selling out.
Yeah.
Standing room only.
I have on my phone.
I don't know why it's on there.
But the the weekly takes for all the shows.
And they're still over when it says over 100 percent, that's standing room only 103 percent.
People are paying to stand
at the back and watch a show.
I can't
imagine.
Although standing is more comfortable than most of those seats on Broadway.
People have to know those those theaters are old.
There are.
And the seats were people that much smaller that long ago.
I mean, I'm an average size and I can barely fit in those seats.
And I saw Miss Saigon on Broadway.
I could hardly get into the seat.
And my father, he's going, when he dated my mother, they went to go see, it was the Oklahoma Carousel back in the forties.
And he left one third into the show.
My mother, he stood me up.
He was sitting in the lobby.
He didn't want to see it.
He can't stand musicals and he can't stand sitting in those seats.
And he just sat in the lobby with a soda and my mother said, where'd you go?
He said, I couldn't sit there.
You
couldn't
do it.
Your family's all involved in theater.
My family is.
In fact, that's I told you the story earlier about West Side Story.
That was where I met my wife.
She was also in West Side Story.
So we.
I would I was going to say we immediately fell in love.
We didn't.
I immediately fell in love with her.
She didn't immediately fall in love with me.
So I had to pursue her a little, but we did start dating.
I say that in quotes because do freshmen in high school date?
I don't I don't know that summer.
So we've been together ever since.
So was it the fight at the balcony?
You know, Romeo and Juliet.
That's my West Side story.
Was it the fire escape scene, the balcony scene that
did it?
So I was one of the jets.
I was snow boy in the gang of the jets and she was anybody.
So we were sort of adversaries and we argued a little bit through the show.
And I don't know.
I just, in fact, I remember I said to somebody else who was in the cast, Ron Schultz.
I don't know if you know Ron.
He's one of the.
Starters over at 6th Street.
He started that theater.
Anyway, Ron was in that production as well.
And I said to him, who's that girl over there?
He's like, oh, that's Karen Hansen.
I said, I'm going to marry her.
I didn't even know her name, but somehow I just she was it.
She was it restraining order.
So
family being part of the show.
OK, so your
Yes.
The acting bug definitely hit my boys.
I do have an older daughter, too.
She danced all of her life.
So she was she performed and, you know, loved that aspect of of performing just in dance.
She's not bitten by the acting bug at all.
But both of my boys, Connor and Carter have done shows with me.
And it's just such a special about your wife.
She will not get on stage.
Really?
Which is funny, because that's that's how we met.
What's that story?
One and done.
Right.
No, she all through high school, she did the shows with me as well.
But but she she's done with that.
She doesn't want any part of it.
But she loves to work backstage.
She's done lights in the booth.
She's designed props.
So yeah, she loves to do the do the work backstage, but doesn't want any part of performing.
Yeah, I auditioned in high school for a show.
I think what show was, but I was shaking.
I was sweating.
I go, oh, do you want me to read this?
And, you know, and I was terrible.
So they made me the stage manager for four years, which was better.
And I did some voice work over it.
But on that, I didn't do any.
I'm too
stupid to be nervous during an audition.
I don't know.
I was more nervous driving in here this morning, talking to you than I am to stand up and do an audition.
Just a conversation.
I don't know why.
Just a conversation.
That's all.
People, I know they get nervous.
I just feel like, what do I have to say that anybody cares about?
But I appreciate the conversation.
I care.
So you still perform at the Guild.
You were just in a show recently.
There was a last show you were in.
There was one show recently where the whole family was in it.
They all kind of run together,
right,
right, but I saw you with the first press.
It was first press material
here in church.
Yeah, I was they do a wonderful series all summer long called music and more.
Georgia Hall organizes that and just it's incredible the talent that she brings in and they do they do a concert every week.
I mean, my wife goes to all of them, which is so amazing to me that that I mean, imagine the time that takes to gather acts to come in.
And have them show up.
Right.
Right.
So she puts that together.
I'm sure it works all year to do so.
Anyway, she invited me this year to come and do their their final concert of the season to just kind of wrap it up and be a celebration.
So I did that with two very dear friends of mine, Robin Wilkes and Rob Cruz.
Rob is a teacher out at the University of High School, does things at the Guild.
And Robin is my lifelong friend.
And in fact, she came with me to the audition of Music Man.
She was cast as well.
So we've been doing shows for 20 years.
Bob, Robin, Rob.
Exactly.
We're talking to Bob Benson, an actor in town.
You do more than acting, though.
Acting's not your full time.
profession.
You worked at what?
I worked at Maudine for 25 years.
I am newly retired.
Oh, really?
I was in sales there at Maudine.
They changed the name I heard.
Is it Maudine?
No,
not Maudine.
It is.
They sold a major portion of the business.
In fact, the group that I worked in, I honestly, I've lost track, so I don't know who they are now.
I said,
Bob retired.
We're going to sell the business.
Maudine, Mother Maudine is still there and still here in town.
But
Yeah.
Okay.
So acting, you still act, obviously.
It's a passion for you now.
It is.
It's a strange passion because it isn't anything I ever considered I would would consume my life as much as it does, but.
Now, be honest.
Did you
ever think I want an honest quest and honest answer now?
You know, if I can make it in Racine, I can make it on Broadway.
No, I never did.
Did you ever want to try?
It's funny.
Just just this week.
I had a conversation with my son Connor He and his wife were out in New York last week and saw a handful of shows and and he does a daily update of how the show was and what they thought and so it was fun to get those Updates, but anyway, the point of the story is he came back and he's they saw shmigadoon Mm-hmm and just fell in love with it.
They both said it was just delightful and then they decided that
I should play the role of the mayor.
I don't know what that means, so I'm going to research that to see.
But it was strange to hear that somebody thinks that I would be good enough, I guess, to fill a role on Broadway.
But no, it's never been my dream.
Are you going to try it?
I don't think so.
Come
on, I want to say I know somebody on Broadway.
Come on.
I do know somebody on Broadway, it turns out.
Our production of Les Mis in Greendale, our... Oh God, her name just slipped my brain.
Epineen.
Her name is Lyssa de Guzman, and she went on to really do quite well on Broadway.
She did a stint of, in Wicked, she was Alphaba, and this week she was just cast as Velma Kelly in Chicago.
So that's pretty, it's pretty fun to get those updates to see.
see her making it.
I
saw Chicago
with the Super Theater on Broadway.
Did
you?
Oh, I loved it.
That would
be amazing.
I
have never seen a bad show on Broadway.
I've just never seen one.
I haven't seen that many, but I would agree with you.
I've never seen a bad show either.
I saw Gypsy Twice on Broadway, Different Stars.
I saw Hello Dolly with Ginger Rogers.
I was a young tyke then.
But I saw, you know, Fandom of the Opera on Broadway, The Majestic.
I mean, just great shows.
I mean, once you get in that theater, it's like, you're in a theater that's over a hundred years
Yeah.
How many actors came through that this play?
And the funny thing is, if you want to meet the stars, there's only one more.
There's only one way out.
The stage door is right
on the street, right?
So one day with my dad and we're driving around.
He's I'm joining him at work for that day.
And he stops at a light and he says, huh, there's no one in Bates.
It was Anthony Perkins.
He was appearing in a show on Broadway, a star spangled girl.
And he's out there having to smoke.
And I said,
That's it.
There's Norman Bates right there.
And he's
just jumped
out and get his autograph.
No, we were to stop.
Like, you know, people don't do that in New York.
I don't know why they don't do it, but they don't.
And he was just taking a break during the matinee.
Just hanging out like a regular guy.
Just
get some fresh air and get
that
asbestos out of his lungs and everything.
But yeah, you see a lot of them.
I was dating, taking a girl to, we self-handled by the opera.
And Liam Neeson was appearing in the Judas Kiss next door.
And the show was over.
And I said, well, you want to see him?
Wait, the stage was right here.
He's got to come out.
Right.
And he got a crowd of people.
And I said, I want you to face me as soon as he comes out, took a picture.
So she's with Liam Neeson.
He didn't know it.
And he just yelled.
And he has that look on his head.
What?
Yeah.
Took the picture.
But yeah, you want to see a storm, bro?
Just wait
by the stage door.
Wait by
the stage door.
Yep.
Yeah.
So give me a show and be that they said, ah, you're not right for this role next.
Have you ever been not right for a role if we get turned down?
For a role, yes.
Did you really want it?
Yes.
You should see the look on his face.
He's going to cry in just a
second.
We did Chicago at the Guild.
This is a number years ago.
So I think I think I'm over it by now.
It didn't look like
it.
I'm not calling Doug out, hopefully.
Um, but I wanted to play Billy Flynn so badly.
Um, and I didn't, I did not get that role.
I instead was cast as Amos, um, which I had a ball of fun with and, and grew to absolutely love.
But yeah, I was, I was pretty heartbroken when I didn't get Billy Flynn.
Bob Benson's next.
Is he here again?
Is it,
is it strange acting with your kids?
No, it's wonderful.
It's so wonderful.
Um,
Just, you know, when you watch your children do something from afar, it's amazing to watch.
But when you're standing right next to them while they're doing something amazing, it's a pretty special place to be.
It's a cool vantage point.
Anything that we should know about coming up at the guild that you're in?
Not that I'm in, but there's all kinds of fantastic things coming up.
Next week, we open a show called The Play That Goes Wrong, and it's...
Just hysterical.
I'm actually designing costumes.
So I was.
So you do behind the scenes stuff, too.
I do.
I do.
I've done hair and makeup, costumes, lights, sound.
The only thing I haven't done yet is manage a show, stage manager.
So I haven't called the show.
Have a director show.
No.
But fun fact, this.
His eyes lit up.
This season.
As part of the Paki season, the Children's Theater Program at the Guild, I am producing a show that's in March.
So it's a children's show.
It's a much smaller production, obviously, than a main stage show.
And you can order kids around.
Right, exactly.
They won't listen to you, but you can order.
And I have roped my family into helping me with that.
So it's our first Benson family production.
So we're pretty excited about that.
That is very exciting.
Yeah.
Yeah, I could never am I there's no actors in my family.
We just don't do that kind of thing because we don't act.
I was at a show where the lead actor is I think was the sunshine boys.
He didn't feel well, got sick, whatever.
And they called somebody in who didn't know the role.
So he did the whole show with the script in his hands.
And I forget the actor's name.
And he didn't such a way we didn't notice it.
He held it in the way and he would glance down when he had to to read it.
And I said, this guy's great.
I mean, how do you get on stage with a script in your hand and not look like you're reading it?
Right.
And when he was reading it, he used it as a prop almost.
Sure.
That's great to do that.
You ever get on stage, forget your lines.
Oh, absolutely.
Really?
I could probably pull every show I've ever done that I've
I've messed something up.
Absolutely.
But the problem is, if you forget it, the person coming after you is waiting for that cue.
Exactly.
And now you screwed everybody up.
Yep.
You figure it out.
You figure it out.
Wow.
See, if I make a mistake here, I just, hey, I'm stupid.
I made a mistake and I move on.
It doesn't matter.
People expect it.
Well, that's it.
But
you know, speaking of mistakes, the play that goes wrong opens next week and it's nonstop hilarity.
It definitely goes wrong.
Everything that could possibly go wrong does, and it's done with such precision.
By the way, on
purpose.
On purpose.
On purpose.
But yeah, if you can check that out by all means do, it's just hilarious.
Do you have any of those shows on the
list there?
I am not.
Yeah, because they didn't audition for the show.
Yeah, because we haven't auditioned, exactly.
The last show, Come From Away, I need to read that again.
I was on the committee that chose this season.
So, you know, it's been several months now since I've read it.
So I want to read Come From Away again and I believe I'm going to audition for that if something jumps out at
me.
The friend of mine said that on Broadway, Kurt Volman.
So Andy said it was just an amazing show.
It is just a beautiful script and great music.
And the story is so engaging and so beautiful.
So I hope to be part of that production in some way.
A little trivia question.
What's the biggest flop ever on Broadway?
And I know this because I've looked it up before and I've heard the story about it.
Financial flop or?
It didn't even make it past the first preview.
It previewed the one with big stars in it.
Huge stars.
And it had a great pedigree.
The show, it just
It was breakfast at Tiffany's.
Really?
It started Mary Tyler Moore and Richard Chamberlain.
Wow.
One preview and it closed it down.
It was so bad.
Now, if Mary Tyler Moore can't pull off a show.
And Richard Chamberlain.
What hope do I have to ever make it to Broadway?
Well, if they ever bring breakfast at Tiffany's to the guilty, I'm not a dissing for that
show.
If Richard Chamberlain couldn't pull it off, what chance do I have?
Exactly.
I love talking.
I love talking theater and stuff, only because I can't do it.
And I love.
I don't like talking radio because I could have done it.
I like talking theater because I love I grew up going to the theater.
My mother and father always took me and just said, I go into the movies, went to a Broadway show.
That's so incredible to me because I mean, that's just unheard of it today.
Well, you live there.
So it's, you know, I guess it's easier, certainly.
But I wouldn't consider myself a Broadway aficionado.
But I like, I mean, I love.
theater certainly, but there's a whole lot I don't know about it.
Well,
I never know that because I go to your shows and we see each other on Memorial Day every year at the Union Grove
Cemetery.
The future home of Don Rosen.
I had a friend.
This is horrible.
But he bought a gravesite and he put a sign in his future home with his name on it.
Really?
A little thing you put there on the ground and I think the cemetery removed it eventually.
funny
funny funny story so I mentioned Robin Wilkes earlier um her mother years ago um her husband had died and is buried at the cemetery across from my church and so she got a stone and put her name on it right away too so everything is is prepared and ready to go when she did that we had a housewarming party at the cemetery we had a cake
We had food.
It was it was actually pretty fun.
I mean,
I own we have four plots there.
I said, as long as we're there, more of it.
Work out the picnic basket.
I own the
plot.
Exactly.
It's a land deal when you buy a cemetery plot.
You got a deed and everything.
Break it
up.
Here you
are.
Do you want to?
Yeah, I got four.
Got a lot of people around.
They won't interfere.
One last thing I want to ask you.
A lot of years on the auditions I saw were a lot of faith based songs and so forth.
Yes, it is.
I go to church at North Cape Lutheran Church and a lot of the stuff that that is on there now is stuff that we Robin and I did a lot of stuff together and put together during COVID.
We had a we still had a weekly quote unquote service that we did all virtually and so a lot of that stuff is
Songs that we put together for those services.
I remember the Guild Theater Guild
did a an online thing that you bought tickets to watch it online
and we did
that and it was great I mean, I'm sorry they had to do it that way, but it worked out fine.
Did you see the
concert or did you
see everything they put out?
We bought everything every time they put something on we we put it on and we didn't have a smart TV at the time So it had to be on like a tablet.
Sure, but we watched it and it was really good.
I mean COVID do your best You do your best.
Exactly.
Whoever knew that was coming down a pike, huh?
Yeah
You know, we're talking to you.
Thank you so much.
Thanks for having me.
Now,
we're going to have you back.
I got tons of more Broadway.
When
you
when you get that job on Broadway, you said you don't
want.
So I told my wife that story about, you know, Connor saying, oh, you should be on Broadway.
I said, she we were in the car.
She looked over at me and she said, do you want to do it?
I said, well, I don't think so.
I unless you want to move to New York, she said, no, I'm not moving to New York.
The kids are here.
I'm not moving to New York.
I'm like, well, then no, I don't want to do it.
I'm not ready to leave my wife just yet for Broadway.
So
like breakfast at Tiffany's,
you can get a hotel room
for one night.
You'll be back the next day.
Exactly.
Thank you, Bob.
Thank you.
Bob Benson, love having him in here.
And you'll see him soon at the Racine Theater Guild.
750 local news, timeless hits and WRJN.
If you want to hear our complete conversation, you missed it.
Oh, man, I missed it.
I overslept.
It'll be podcasts later today at WRJM.com, civicmedia.us, Spotify, Apple Podcast, wherever you get your podcast.
Just put my name in there and you'll find the podcast.