DECEMBER 21, 2010 FRONT PAGE POLITICS BUSINESS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT COMEDY SPORTS STYLE WORLD GREEN FOOD TRAVEL TECH LIVING HEALTH DIVORCE ARTS BOOKS RELIGION IMPACT EDUCATION COLLEGE NY LA CHICAGO DENVER BLOGS Michael Giltz Freelance writer and raconteur Posted: December 1, 2009 05:42 PM BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index 2 93 views WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? Inspiring Funny Hot Scary Outrageous Amazing Weird CrazyExclusive: "Ragtime's" Bobby Steggert On His Broadway Hit Read More: Audra McDonald , Bobby Steggert , Broadway , E.</p><p> L.</p><p> Doctorow , Lynn Ahrens , Musical , Ragtime , Theater , Entertainment News Actor Bobby Steggert was fated to star in a revival of Ragtime , though "fate" might not be putting it strongly enough.</p><p> As a kid growing up in Maryland (high school valedictorian, by the way), Steggert was already doing professional theater.</p><p> His first paying job? The Madison Square Garden spectacle A Christmas Carol, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens (whose next show would be the 1997-98 Tony winner Ragtime ). "I still have the beautiful handwritten note she gave to everyone in that show and that was some 15 years ago," says the 28 year old Steggert.</p><p> The summer before he moved to New York to study at NYU, Steggert had some assigned reading, including E.L.</p><p> Doctorow's novel Ragtime .</p><p> During orientation week, before classes even began, Steggert went to a Broadway show: Ragtime , featuring Audra McDonald in her Tony-winning performance.</p><p> After MOST POPULAR ON HUFFPOSTBIG NEWS: Ellen Degeneres | LeAnn Rimes | Levi Johnston | Movies | Smarter Ideas | More...</p><p> LOG IN | SIGN UP Get Breaking News Alerts Share Print Comments never spam Don't Miss Tonight's Rare Full Moon Eclipse Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Passes Senate Procedural Vote Sarah Palin Jabs Michelle Obama's Anti-Obesity Campaign Al Franken The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time PHOTOS: 10 Things We've Accidentally Learned From Crime Dramas Timothy Karr Obama FCC Caves on Net Neutrality -- Tuesday...</p><p> PHOTOS: 13 Products Most Likely To Be Made By Child Or Forced Labor Like 37K Like 40K Like 5K Like 11K Like 1K Like 7K Recommend 3K serving as an understudy on Master Harold and The Boys, the director of that show encouraged Steggert to try out for his revival of 110 In The Shade starring...Audra McDonald. "It's because of Lonny Price," says Steggert, who at one point foolishly thought plays were more seriousand important than musicals but has made his name in the latter. "He had no idea that I'd ever sung.</p><p> Istudied musicals and certainly did them in high school.</p><p> I'm certainly not a pop singer or a rock singer.</p><p> Ijust loved the play The Rainmaker so much and I loved Audra as a performer so much so I thought I'd just go in.</p><p> I guess my take on the character was what they were looking for.</p><p> They said, 'Do you dance?' Isaid, 'Not so much.'" Doesn't Steggert know that if a casting director asks if you can juggle or ride a horse or play the guitar you're supposed to say -- "I know, you're supposed to say yes.</p><p> I'm learning," he laughs. "I was the only person who danced in that show so that was quite ironic.</p><p> I could show up every day and just have a really good time.</p><p> I don't think Irealized the luck of that, getting to shine in a great part and have a really great actress playing my sister." Steggert savors his luck now.</p><p> After a string of critically acclaimed performances (including 110 In The Shade, which ran less than three months), he's in an honest-to-goodness hit with Ragtime .</p><p> The panoramic tale of turn of the century America, it encompasses the lives of a privileged white family (withSteggert as the combustible Younger Brother), a hardworking and talented black couple and Jewish immigrants hoping to make their fortune or at least survive.</p><p> The box office isn't explosive yet, but with reviews like it received, the show is certain to be a front runner for Tony's Best Revival.</p><p> Ben Brantley of the New York Times finds the revival superior to the original, adding, "Mr.</p><p> Steggert, as a tentative rebel in search of a cause, provides a hot center of real pain." TheNew York Daily News gave it four out of five stars , saying "it's hard to argue with a revival as surefooted as Marcia Milgrom Dodge's strikingly staged and vividly performed redo." It also singles out Steggert as "terrific." Variety raves, saying, "this is big-brain, bold-strokes musical-theater storytelling at its most vibrant" and -- again -- notes Steggert's compelling intensity.</p><p> Even the irascible John Simon of Bloomberg said it was "good to have Ragtime back on Broadway" and praised Steggert first among the cast.</p><p> But don't imagine that just winning charm is what won the critics over.</p><p> Steggert may have the boyish handsomeness of a leading man but he's been consistently drawn to quirky, dark characters.</p><p> Younger Brother is no different: unhappy living with his sister and her family, miserable at his job in a fireworks factory, he burns with passionate intensity that needs a focus.</p><p> First it lights on gossip page tootsie EvelynNesbit, then the radical activist Emma Goldman and finally Colehouse Walker, the avenging angel demanding justice for the death of his fiance and the destruction of his car by bigots.</p><p> Steggert's biggest laugh comes when he simply blurts out to Walker that he knows how to blow things up.</p><p> But that's exactly what he's good at, as shown even more explicitly in Doctorow's book, where Younger Brother's role as a terrorist and inventor of weapons of war is spelled out more clearly.</p><p> Steggert bringsthat dark heart into his performance. "The book is dark and satirical and sexual," says Steggert, who spoke with me by phone just before the show opened. "The musical is more sincere and more emotional but they're both equally fascinating andrich.</p><p> There's not a better gift than getting to play people unlike yourself because you get to explore parts of yourself you rarely express.</p><p> I think that's healthy and also very exciting as a performer.</p><p> I just had to find my own anger and find my own sense of injustice in the world we live in today and there are somany examples of inequality and injustice." Though Steggert had charm to spare in 110 In The Shade, his Off Broadway work showed Steggert's predilection for the offbeat.</p><p> In the brilliantly designed and genuinely odd show The Slug Bearers Of Kayrol Island, Steggert played a man obsessed with instruction manuals to old and outdated appliances. (His best musical number involved reading those directions set to witty melodies.) 1 of 5 Billie Jean King Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Is a Big Deal Al Franken The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our TimeDON'T MISS HUFFPOST BLOGGERS HOT TRENDS johnston in playgirl kim zolciak pregnant miley cyrus lap dance video sarah palin michelle obama shania twain More Celebrity News at People.com More Celebrity News at Popeater.com John Boehner Strikes Back Against Sarah Palin Amanda Knox Court Makes Crucial Ruling Like 253 Like 155 Ask Steven Tyler a Question! READ MORE Missing Showgirl'sBoyfriend Abused Her, Police Say READ MORE James Van Der Beek Introduces Daughter Olivia READ MORE Keith Urban Helped NicoleKidman through 'Rabbit Hole' The Top Entertainment News Stories of 2010 'Biggest Loser' Ada Talks Popularity, Parents (Peter Friedman and Bobby Steggert in The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island photo: © Carol Rosegg) In Yank!, a very promising musical, Steggert had the lead role of a gay soldier who falls in love with a buddy during World War II but is rather passive and does some questionable things to survive (though he's so appealing in the role, you almost don't realize it until afterwards).</p><p> If there's any downside to Ragtime coming along now, it was the difficult choice of choosing between it and Yank !, which plans to open Off Broadway in February 2010 after several workshop and other incarnations. "It broke my heart because it's a project I care so much for," says Steggert, "and I've been in love with it for two years now.</p><p> I'm incredibly close with the writers and the director and the choreographer and it's a role that means so much to me.</p><p> It was a really bittersweet decision.</p><p> I'm so happy Ragtime is resonating with audiences.</p><p> It feels like it was a good decision.</p><p> But leaving Yank! behind was really, really difficult.</p><p> I know the show will succeed." Now of course Steggert is focused completely on Ragtime . "I am committed for a year," says Steggert. "It's been very relieving as I own an apartment and have amortgage to pay.</p><p> It's also very frankly intimidating because the show takes a great deal out of all of usvocally and emotionally and physically.</p><p> I'm very committed to the story, to telling it fully and properly.</p><p> I know it's going to be a very exciting year and it's also going to be a very exhausting one. "I've been learning it's not even a good idea to really even speak on days off.</p><p> I have much less social energy and certainly less ability to focus on other parts of my life and I'm hoping for a balance to come in the next few months.</p><p> But it's what is most important to me and what I'm dedicated to and I'm willing tosacrifice those other things." So for now Steggert will cheer on Yank! from the sidelines instead of center stage.</p><p> And he tries to come down from the sad and angry place that performing Ragtime takes him by riding the subway home and listening to jazz like Dinah Washington on his iPod.</p><p> And home will be quiet too because Steggert is "very single.</p><p> I'm certainly open to the possibility but there's too much on my plate right now.</p><p> Not this week? Not this year." --30-- Thanks for reading.</p><p> Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.</p><p> Download his podcast ofTOP VIDEO PICKS 1 of 10 Vince Vaughn's New Bundle of Joy Paris Hilton's BikerBlunder Scarlett and Ryan's DinnerDate MOST DISCUSSED RIGHT NOW HOT ON FACEBOOK HOT ON TWITTER NBA Video PovertyHUFFPOST'S BIG NEWS PAGESTracy Morgan Undergoes Kidney Transplant 86 Comments PHOTOS: Paris Hilton Dons Leather Bodysuit 128 Comments Guess Who Got A Tattoo Of Her Daughter 750 Comments Pantsless Chloe Sevigny 'Needs Therapy' For Vincent Gallo Sex Scene 515 Comments Beneath the Feathers: What 'Black Swan' Says About Dancers 36 Comments Nicolas Cage Buys Pyramid Tomb 135 CommentsComments 0 Pending Comments 0View FAQWHAT'S YOUR REACTION? Inspiring Funny Hot Scary Outrageous Amazing Weird Crazy Shania Twain Engaged To Frederic Thiebaud 'The Fighter' Star Amy Adams Talks Weight...</p><p> Megan Fox In A Bikini (PHOTOS) Kardashian Christmas Card: The 'SNL' Spoof (VIDEO)celebrity interviews and his weekly music radio show at Popsurfing and enjoy the weekly pop culture podcast he co-hosts at Showbiz Sandbox .</p><p> Both available for free on iTunes.</p><p> Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.</p><p> NOTE TO READERS: I was provided with house seats to Ragtime during previews in order to see Bobby Steggert's performance in the show before our interview.</p><p> They were provided with the understanding that a story was in the works.</p><p> Follow Michael Giltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz More in Entertainment...</p><p> Health 30 Rock Immigration Death & Dying Islam Christianity MORE BIG NEWS PAGES » FOLLOW HUFFINGTON POST FRONT PAGE POLITICS BUSINESS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT COMEDY SPORTS STYLE WORLD GREEN FOOD TRAVEL TECH LIVING HEALTH DIVORCE ARTS BOOKS RELIGION IMPACT EDUCATION COLLEGE NY LA CHICAGO DENVER BLOGS Advertise | Log In | Make HuffPost your Home Page | RSS | Careers | FAQ | Contact Us User Agreement | Privacy | Comment Policy | About Us | Powered by Movable Type Copyright © 2010 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. | "The Huffington Post" is a registered trademark of TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.</p><p> All rights reserved.</p><p> Recency | PopularityComments are closed for this entry View All
