Broadway's Tony Yazbeck - Back with Bernstein in the Berkshires

When Tony Yazbeck was eleven years old, he would travel four hours a day - two in each direction - from his family's Pennsylvania home to Broadway's St. James Theatre where he was appearing as one of the newsboys in "Gypsy" starring Tyne Daley. He knew then that musical theater is for him. Cut to 2008 and Yazbeck is back at the St. James in a new production of "Gypsy," this time with Patti Lupone, where he's playing Tulsa, one of those newsboys grown up. In it, he performed one of the most graceful odes to the singing and dancing actor ever written, "All I Need Now is the Girl." But, he wondered after it closed, what to do next?

The answer came for the handsome triple-threat with a revival of Leonard Bernstein's first musical, "On The Town" where he played Gaby, a sailor on s 24-hour leave in New York during World War II. The revival of the Leonard Bernstein-Betty Comden-Adolph Green-Jerome Robbins musical came from the Berkshire-based Barrington Stage Company in a production directed by John Rando and it ran at the Lyric Theatre for 368 performances. For his role, he received his first Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical and won the prestigious Astaire Award.

Yazbeck is back in the Berkshires this weekend to take part in a concert that celebrates the centenary of Bernstein's birth taking place on the hundredth birthday of the great composer/conductor/musician/educator/celebrity. It is the starriest event of the summer concert season with five conductors (Andris Nelsons, Christoph Eschenbach, Keith Lockhart, Michael Tilson Thomas and John Williams) and a talent line-up hosted by Audra McDonald that includes violinist Midori, cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Kian Soltani, soprano Nadine Sierra, mezzo-sopranos Susan Graham and Isabel Leonard, baritone Thomas Hampson and Broadway stars Jessica Vosk and Yazbeck.

The concert celebrates the many aspects of Bernstein's diverse career with works from his concert repertoire and theater music, as well as composers (Aaron Copland and Gustav Mahler) he was long associated with.

For the concert, Yazbeck will be performing songs from "West Side Story," a work that the Boston Symphony performed in full earlier this summer. EDGE spoke to the actor recently about the concert and his career.

EDGE: What will you be doing in Tanglewood?

Tony Yazbeck: I know I am doing some "West Side Story" material, that is primarily what I am doing. I am singing "Maria," and taking part in the "The Quintet," probably my favorite piece of music in that entire score. And I think the entire company will be doing "Somewhere."

EDGE: Didn't you play Tony earlier in your career in a regional theater production of "West Side Story?"

Tony Yazbeck: Yes, The Trinity Repertory Theatre (in Providence) did this really great, fantastic, very different and risky production back in 2005 with a great director, Amanda Dehnert. She created this beautiful world for "West Side Story" in this almost all-the-way-around, thrust stage. It is a role I always wanted to play and I got to check that off my bucket list.

EDGE: Then you did "On The Town." What do you think of Bernstein's music?

Tony Yazbeck: I have been a fan of his my entire life, starting with "West Side Story", then growing from there. I think when I was young, it was always "West Side Story." Then saw the film "On the Town" and I realized later that "On The Town," the original stage musical, is much different and much more elaborate. I have been growing and growing as a fan ever since. When I was offered the role of Gaby at City Center Encores I didn't realize that I had to sing in this classical manner, then had to dance this 10-minute dream ballet. I hadn't realized there was a role that was created like that. I was so excited to get out there and attack this role as it had never been performed before. I am just thankful to Bernstein for writing scores like this. You feel his music very deeply in an almost ethereal way. I appreciate that.

EDGE: Dancing came to you when you were a kid and would imitate Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in your living room?

Tony Yazbeck: Yes, it was dancing like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. I was attracted to these leading men who could story tell through their dancing. Fred Astaire was the technician then Gene Kelly came around with this charisma. I got attracted to that and wanted to keep that spirit alive. Then when I did "Gypsy" when I was a kid, that was the point that I decided musical theater was the thing for me. It wasn't until I watched Tyne Daley on stage that I realized musical theater was for me.

EDGE: Unlike a lot of parents, yours encouraged you...

Tony Yazbeck: Yes. They were very encouraging. I don't think I could have done what I did as a kid without having encouraging parents. They both were really great at pushing me. I think they saw a career - or something there - and they pushed me. And they shaped my work ethic as it is now. I love to practice and I love to work, which I think came from my mother.

EDGE: Singing came later for you...

Tony Yazbeck: I have singers that run in my family. On my father's side, they stretch back to the Titanic. I have a great, great uncle who was the singer on the ship and he died when it went down. His name was Anthony Yazbeck, same as mine. My grandfather sang, he was a blues singer and played the piano a little bit, and my dad sang. I thought I was the dancer, not the singer in the family. But it was in my second year of college where I met this voice teacher who heard me sing a little bit and said he could get the voice out of me. It was kind of profound - one moment I thought I couldn't sing, and the next minute I could.

And nowadays on Broadway, you have to both sing and dance. The old days are gone. As far as leading men go, if you sing expect to dance as well, so you have to be physically fit and be aware of your surroundings because there is so much technical work onstage happening. But as a song-and-dance kind of guy, I gravitate towards those roles. And my thing right now is I am looking for writers and composers who want to write something new and fresh for a song and dance person, and there isn't a lot of that happening right now. There are a million projects that come and go, but I am waiting for something that will break the mold - that allows me to sing and dance but can story tell in a way that hasn't been done before. If you look at a song-and-dance person like me, and there are a few of us in New York, we are doing revivals because I think people think we belong in a certain era. It would be lovely if we could recreate a brand new era for song-and-dance men and women. That would be excited for me.

I made Broadway debut with "Gypsy" as a kid, then a few shows in the ensemble - I did Alan in "A Chorus Line," then got to play Tulsa in "Gypsy." Having watched it so much as a kid I always wanted to do, so being able to that was a dream for me. But after that, it was, no what? I needed to figure out what I was going to do as an actor and find new ways of theatrically telling a story.

EDGE: Congratulations on your Astaire Award and your Tony nomination for "On the Town." You have a long history of playing Gaby...

Tony Yazbeck: I did it a bunch of place. First at Encores ten years ago, then at Barrington, and then Broadway. It was neat to have all the different versions we did, all with John Rando at the helm. That will always be one of the most favorite things I have ever done because I am not sure I will be in a show where I have to do all those things ever again. It was a lot of work. It was a treacherous amount of work. I loved it because I was challenging myself to push my limits even further, but at the same time, I would come home every day completely beat. I couldn't imagine having a son at that point. Thank God it was just me and my wife because I wouldn't have been able to do it. So that I have a kid I have to balance things a little more and get smarter.

EDGE: Will you be dancing at the Tanglewood concert?

Tony Yazbeck: I don't think so, which is really refreshing because I just get to stand there and sing. I just did this Bernstein tribute at Wolf Trap with the National Symphony Orchestra under Michael Barrett. Misty Copeland and I did the dream ballet from "On the Town," then 10 minutes later I changed and came out did "Maria," then did "Make Your Garden Grow," and it was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. Different sets of muscles do different things as a dancer and a singer, so to switch gears that fast takes a lot of effort. I am thankful I am just singing in this concert.

EDGE: Do you hope to move onto directing and choreographing?

Tony Yazbeck: I have been doing some direction and choreography over the past couple years, especially with the Young Arts Foundation, which is this wonderful organization that helps young people meet mentors from their perspective studies and pushes them forward in college and beyond. And then there's the President Scholars of the Arts concert that is done every year at the Kennedy Center, which I did last year. That made me realize that is what I want to do as I get older. I want to start creating shows - conceiving, directing and choreographing shows. Just saying something, leaving a mark in a sense. I want to make a difference in the world of theater. I am not sure if I want to direct and choreograph the next production of "Guys and Dolls," I would love to do something where we can find some meaning and bring some peace into the world. So that's my hope in these really tough times we are living in right now that I can help in an artistic way that we connect with each other a little bit.

EDGE: Recently you were featured in the Harold Prince tribute on Broadway - "Prince of Broadway" - where you herniated your disc, yet you continued performing. Wasn't that difficult?

Tony Yazbeck: Yes. I actually continued to perform with a herniated disc in my back. It wasn't the healthiest thing to do, but I knew it was a short run and scheduled surgery immediately after it closed. I got surgery on it and in a matter of a few months, I was 70% healed. But that show was important to me and what I was doing in it. I loved what I was doing in that show and didn't want to give it, so I managed somehow to get through it through physical therapy and taking care of my body better. I was in pain but sometimes the show must go on and you get through it, and then you have your down time. But it was a tough time for me.

EDGE: What did you learn from that experience?

Tony Yazbeck: Recently it has been making sure that everything is loose and ready to go. If I am going into rehearsal, I have a big stretching regimen. As far as not getting hurt again, I have learned a lot about posture and how to pick things up. I have an 18-month old son, so a lot of what I learned is how to make sure that I don't hurt myself by picking him up anymore. So I pick him up a better way. It seems to me that I'm getting hurt not by dancing but by regular activity, so I have learned a lot about how to stand up straighter. Everything is deliberate. Think before I do.

And being a dad has changed me. It takes a lot of scheduling. You schedule for weeks on end. You have to compartmentalize everything. I use to think that I was an artist in the city and I can run free and create, but it is a lot different when you have a kid because it is not you anymore. Your ego is completely thrown out the door. You have to do what you have to do and do it well and hopefully, love and make money doing it so you can provide for your son. At the same time, this beautiful little boy is your priority now. So it changes how you live and the decisions you make - the projects you take or not take in the business.

Tony Yazbeck: Has he got his first set of tap shoes?

It's funny. Susan Stroman gave him his first pair of tap shoes as a gift a while back as a present when he was born. He is about to grow into them, so we will be seeing if likes them. But I am not going to push him.

The Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood takes place on August 25, 2018 at the Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox, MA at 8pm. For more information, For more information about Tony Yazbeck, visit his website.