Many times the general public associates an actor with a role they
play on a long-running television show, not realizing that often
that thespian had an active career on the stage first. Jerry Orbach
and Sam Waterston on Law and Order, Jason Alexander on
Seinfeld, and Patricia Heaton on Everybody Loves Raymond are a
few of the many actors who first trained for, cut their teeth on, and
professionally performed on the legitimate stage.
The fact is the technique most often taught to American stage
actors - some form of the Stanislavski Method - works very nicely
on both TV and film. Although there are adjustments to be made
going from the stage to television, a well-trained stage actor can
usually make those adjustments fairly quickly.
The biggest changes have to do with the subtlety employed by
those acting for the camera. Stage actors find that physically and
vocally less is more in front of the camera. Additionally, a good film
or television actor has a sound sense of how to use the camera
frame to their best advantage. An actor like Michael Caine is a
master at this.
For someone who has only done television or film, acting on the
stage can be difficult. The stage demands that actors sustain a
character for long periods of time, something the electronic media
does not do. Overall, stage performing also calls for bigger actions
than those needed for television and film. If someone has never
been trained for the theatre, this can be intimidating.
Of course the scariest thing about acting on stage is the fact that
you??re in front of a live audience and if you make a mistake, you
don??t get a Mulligan. Even when a television show is done in front
of a live audience, there??s less pressure for the actor to be
perfect. If they go up (that is, forget their lines), they can make a
joke and get a laugh while cut is called. They then get to try the
moment, action or scene again. There is no cut in a live stage
performance; there is only covering for a flubbed line, a missed
entrance, or a misplaced prop.
Here are a few actors that you??ve become familiar with on
television who first acted on the legitimate stage.
Jerry Orbach
Orbach, who passed away in 2004, was best known as the
wisecracking Detective Lennie Briscoe on Law and Order. As a
young man, he attended the University of Illinois and
Northwestern University where he studied drama. After going to
New York, he continued to study for the stage. He became closely
associated with musicals, creating the role of El Gallo and singing
the well-know opening number Try to Remember in the long-
running musical The Fantasticks. He won the Tony in 1969 for his
portrayal of Chuck Baxter in Promises, Promises; he sang the hit
song I??ll Never Fall in Love Again in that show. He also played
leads in Chicago (Billy Flynn) and Forty-Second Street (Julian
Marsh). Most Law and Order fans don??t realize that Orbach had a
beautiful, resonate singing voice.
Bebe Neuwirth
Beatrice Bebe Neuwirth has recently become a regular on Law
and Order, where she plays the role of Tracey Kibre. However, it
was on the sitcom Cheers that she found fame by playing Lilith
Sternin-Crane - a tough, tense psychiatrist and wife of Frasier
Crane. Neuwirth trained at the Julliard School and first made her
name as a dancer and actor in the national tour of A Chorus Line
(1980), where she played Cassie and Sheila. In 1982, she
appeared on Broadway in Dancin??, directed and choreographed by
the legendary Bob Fosse, and in the musical Little Me. She
cemented her reputation on the Great White Way by playing the
lead in Bob Fosse??s revival of the musical Sweet Charity (1986), for
which she won a Tony. Neuwirth is an amazing, charismatic musical
performer, who commands the stage with her voice and body.
Jason Alexander
Best know as Jerry Seinfeld??s obnoxious best friend George
Costanza in the sitcom Seinfeld, Alexander, who was born Jay
Greenspan in Newark, NJ, is another former Tony winner. While he
was an undergraduate at Boston College, Alexander was cast in
Stephen Soundheim??s Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along. He
won the Best Actor in A Musical Tony for his role in Jerome Robbin??s
Broadway (1989). In the first few episodes of Seinfeld, he wasn??t
quite sure of how to play George Castanza so he imitated Woody
Allen.
Sam Waterston
On television he plays tough, no nonsense D.A. Jack McCoy in Law
and Order (1990), but originally Waterston was best known for his
stage roles. He went to Yale, where he did not study acting, but
did taking acting classes at the American Actors Workshop in Paris.
Waterston?played numerous roles in New York, including Jonathan
in Oh, Dad, Poor, Dad, Mama??s Hung You in the Closet and I??m
Feeling so Sad, Hamlet in Hamlet, and Signoir Benedick of Padua in
Much Ado About Nothing, for which he won the Drama desk award
for Best Actor. Prior to becoming associated with Law and Order,
he was best known for his work in straight plays, both new and
classic. On stage, Waterston perfected an elegant, refined style,
displaying an ability to make precise and subtle acting choices.
Barry Bostwick
On the Michael J. Fox sitcom Spin City, Bostwick played the
dimwitted mayor Randall M. Winston Jr. in 70 episodes. Since that
time, he??s appeared on numerous hit TV shows as a guest star,
including Scrubs, Cold Case and Law and Order. But Bostwick has
deep Broadway roots that include the creation of the role of Danny
Zuko in Grease, for which he received a Best Actor in a Musical
nomination, and the creation of the lead role of Jamie Lockhart in
the musical The Robber Bridegroom, for which he won the Tony.
Bostwick, who also played in numerous straight plays, was known
for his high energy and slapdash style. While performing in his
award winning run as Jamie Lockhart, Bostwick broke his arm
when he fell swinging across the stage on a rope. He proved he
was a trouper though when, after a short recuperative period, he
got back on stage with his arm in a cast and continued to play
Lockhart, rope swing and all.
Patricia Heaton
For 70 episodes, Heaton played Debra Barone, Ray Romano??s wife
on the very popular sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. As a young
woman, she focused on theatre arts at Ohio State University and
then went to New York where she studied with William Esper. She
made her debut in the Broadway gospel musical Don??t Get God
Started, but overall during her career in New York she was
relegated to small roles. With a few acting buddies, she started a
theatre company called Stage Three, which produced new works in
NYC. In 1989 they took their successful production of The
Johnstown Vindicator to Los Angeles, where casting directors saw
and liked Heaton. Slowly her TV career started to take off. But
Heaton has long acknowledged that despite the fact that she
never made it big on Broadway, her stage training has been
instrumental to her success on television.
James Gandolfini
Gandolfini continues his run as the cold-hearted, insecure,
narcissistic Tony Soprano on HBO??s hit series The Sopranos. After
receiving a degree in Communications from Rutgers University,
Gandolfini went on to study acting in the late 1980??s at the
prestigious Actors Studio in New York City. After making his
professional stage debut in Big El's Best Friend, he appeared in
many New York productions. He made his Broadway debut in 1992
as Steve Hubbell in the revival of Tennessee Williams?? A Streetcar
Named Desire, which starred Alex Baldwin and Jessica Lang. Other
New York credits included On the Waterfront, One Day Wonder and
Tarantulas Dancing. The same year he first appeared on
Broadway, he also landed his first screen role, which was in Sidney
Lumet's A Stranger Among Us. Since 1992, he??s appeared in over
20 films. He??s been Tony Soprano in over 70 episodes.
Other actors, who have either made their name or learned
invaluable acting lessons in the theatre before becoming part of
the electronic entertainment industry, include Martin Sheen,
Stockard Channing, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Duvall, Meryl Streep,
and Swoosie Kurtz. These actors have labored hard to learn their
craft on what was the first acting platform available to humankind -
the live stage.
Movies are a little over 100 years old and television is about 75
years old. The formal theatre goes back over 2,500 years! It??s the
true learning and testing ground for acting technique, stamina, and
skill that, once honed, can then be transferred to any other venue.
Go to a Broadway show or a professional theatre near you - you
may catch a performance by someone you??ll see break through on
the tube in the next few years. One night, you??ll be sitting in your
den or living room watching the next big hit drama or sitcom and
say, Hey, didn??t we see that actor on the stage? Yeah, you did,
before they were famous. Very cool.
About the Author
This article was written by Paul Mroczka sponsored by http://www.stubhub.com/. If you're looking for tickets for the next Broadway show, look no further than Stubhub.com where fans buy and sell the hottest Broadway tickets.