| Vol. 1 / No. 2 • Summer 2001 • @ the THEATER Section… |
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“I grew up loving musical theater,” says Oscar. “My parents did some amateur theater when they were younger and were avid theater goers. We would come up to Broadway as a family, two or three times a year, and see four or five shows a weekend. So this was always fantasy land to me. It was something I always loved.”
After graduating at the top of his class at Boston U, with a major in Theater Arts, it was off to Manhattan to chase his dream. And the first lines he would utter, working in the Big Apple were… ‘May I take your order please?’ “Yeah, I moved to the city and waited tables,” admits Oscar, “very traditional, totally classic beginnings for an actor. I spent three years waiting tables and auditioning.” From an open casting call for the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, ‘Aspects of Love’ came his first job on the stages of Broadway. “That was my dream, to work on Broadway, so to have gotten that first job was very exciting. I think at the time I remember being most excited that I was going to get a show jacket,” recalls Oscar with a laugh. “Because you see everybody walking around Broadway with their jackets and those aren't sold to the public like t-shirts or caps. So I remember at the time thinking, Oh my God, I'm going to get my first show jacket. It's the little things… the little things.”
Brad Oscar couldn't really say that he has a favorite section of The Producers but he did admit that he always loves doing his number, ‘Haben Sie Gehoert das Deutsche Band?’ (Have You Ever Heard the German Band?) in act two. “It's a ball to do,” said Oscar of the razz-a-ma-tazzy Joelson style vaudeville number his character Franz Liebkind, the crazy Nazi war criminal, gets to tear into. “It's hysterical in the absurdity of it,” Oscar said of that musical moment. “Nine times out of ten it plays so well, the audience loves it, and I run offstage, to make my one quick (costume) change, and think… how lucky am I to have this number. It's a blast, because it's one of those numbers that… if you play it right, if you fill it, if you just let yourself go …it's gonna play. The audience is going to love it. They're going to respond. And as an actor you feel lucky to have those numbers…”
“Oh, my God!… Where to start… I mean to be a part of all this…” says Oscar, as he tries to put into words what the whole experience has been like for him. The actor takes special joy in being a part of the musical that single-handedly brought back musical comedy as a major player on the Broadway scene. “American Musical Comedy is something that had fallen out of fashion,” confides Oscar. “I think a majority of people, both in the business and not in the business, thought it was sort of dead… that it just wouldn't play to an audience today … not today, not anymore. So the fact that we're doing a very traditional American musical comedy that is playing like gang busters in 2001 and feels as new and as fresh as The Full Monty or Rent, in it's own way… I think that's so exciting! I can't believe that I'm a part of something like this. Because let's face it these opportunities are few and far between.”
Brad Oscar says he's learned so much from working alongside both of these seasoned actors. From watching them listen to their own instincts and trust their own impulses on-stage he's learned to listen to himself more… trust himself more. “They've had so many years of doing it and the success that has come with doing it,” says Oscar, “that they trust themselves… They know who they are they … they know what they are… and they trust that… and then they just go from there.” Seeing them at work has definitely helped him to be more “fearless in a way.”
“You really have to commit, especially with this kind of comedy. I mean let's face it it's a heightened reality, right? So you have to find the truth, because if it's not true, it's not funny,” explains Oscar. “You've got to find the truth in who everyone of these characters is. Then you've got to turn up that dial … turn it up to ten … you've got to fill it. And as an actor I think the only way you can do that is if you trust yourself,” continues Oscar. “You don't comment on the material. You don't go there half way. You really truly commit yourself. And you trust the people who are around you … the people who are in charge,” adds Oscar. “Trust that Susan … that Mel … are going to help shape it. Tell you when that's too much or that's not enough.”
His parents and younger sister Victoria, who also acts in the theater and is following in brother Brad's footsteps, are enjoying watching Brad's childhood dreams come true. “So much of the joy of this experience,” says Brad Oscar, with a deep sense of warmth in his voice, “is the sharing of it with them. Because they've been so supportive and so amazing.” This one time DC schoolboy, who dreamt of coming to Broadway, is now a principal player in the hottest show on Broadway… he has certainly arrived. No, that's not simply arriving… that's arriving mit a BING and a BANG and a BOOM!
Visit www.ProducersOnBroadway.com – the web site of Mel Brook's SMASH Hit Broadway Musical for interesting information on the musical, Brad Oscar and the rest of the cast.
Photos from The Producers on Broadway are Courtesy Barlow - Hartman Photos by: Paul Kolnik
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If getting a show jacket was enough to get Brad Oscar excited, when he first started out, then he certainly has plenty to be excited about these days. As Springtime for Hitler playwright, Franz Liebkind, he's a principal player in Mel Brooks' smash hit musical ‘The Producers’, which is setting records for everything from TONY wins to ticket sales.
“To work with Mel Brooks – A God – whose every bit as funny and generous and special as you hope someone like that would be. And… Susan Stroman, whose had such extraordinary success in the last few years. I had heard so many great things about her. To be able to work with her and indeed find that she is everything that I thought she would be. She was such a big part of my being able to dive into this role the way I did.” With so many extraordinary talents involved in this one project Brad Oscar is finding it almost too amazing to believe … it is definitely the experience of a lifetime. “Just to be in the company of these people…” continues Oscar. “There I am on stage, my whole first scene is just with Nathan and Matthew, and there are still times when I turn to my left and I turn to my right – and there's Nathan and there's Matthew – and I'm like… Oh my God, I'm on stage with two extaordinary talents… so special and so smart and so funny.”
“Working with all these people at the top of their craft has made me fearless. As opposed to thinking… worrying… Oh my God, can I compete? Can I play this game with the big boys? Instead I just said, ‘well, what the hell…here's my opportunity.’ And everyone has been so supportive and generous to me as well, so that helps.”
