Spotlight on Alexander Gemignani
Talking Broadway
April 2004
by Nancy Rosati

Alexander Gemignani is a 24-year old actor who speaks with the wisdom of someone with twenty years in the business. He wasn’t a child actor, but he did grow up in show business. His mother is actress/singer Carolann Page and his father is Broadway musical director Paul Gemignani.

Shortly after graduating with a BFA in Music Theatre from the University of Michigan in 2001, Alex was cast for his Broadway debut - the role of John Hinckley in Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins. That production was cancelled after September 11th, but is now set to begin previews in March, and Alex is once again on board.

This past spring he played Brian in the Vineyard Theatre production of Avenue Q. Before that, he understudied John C. Reilly in Marty at Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company. Alex has done quite a bit of regional work, including two seasons at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera Company. He’s also a recipient of the 2003 NY International Fringe Festival Award for Best Performer for his role in Trapped Family Singers.

Nancy Rosati: I usually begin by asking people where they grew up, but it sounds as if you practically grew up on Broadway.

Alexander Gemignani: Yeah. I grew up right across the water in Tenafly, New Jersey. Since my folks were in the business, I was in New York all the time seeing shows. The first show I ever saw was Dreamgirls. I don’t have a lot of memory of that because I was two.

I came into New York a lot and I frequently sat in the pit. Into the Woods is the show I saw the most, probably over 20 times.

NR: Was that because you wanted to see it that often, or did you get dragged along?

AG: I wanted to. My folks never said to me, “Follow the path of the creative field.” They said, “Do whatever you want to do.”

NR: They didn’t discourage you?

AG: No, not at all. I went to college to be a trumpet player and after my first semester, I was losing my love for playing. It just wasn’t my thing anymore, so I thought, “Well, I can kind of sing ... I guess. Maybe I’ll try out for this musical theatre program.” It was the only thing I really loved, and I got in.

It turns out I was at a great school for it - the University of Michigan. The main reason I stayed and auditioned there was because I loved the school so much. I didn’t want to leave because I’d had such a great first year.

I still play trumpet every now and then. My first show in college was Anything Goes and I played it in that show. When I did Marty last fall in Boston I played a bandleader, sort of a “Sinatra-y, Harry James” guy and he played trumpet.

NR: Had you done any acting before you switched majors in college?

AG: Growing up, I didn’t do any theater other than high school. I didn’t do summer theater or any of that kind of thing until I was in college. I spent my summers working at the UPS Store - formerly Mailboxes, Etc - and that’s basically what I did. I had to spend a lot of time doing trumpet stuff in high school.

NR: Growing up in the business didn’t scare you off?

AG: Not really. It’s what I knew. I knew the hard times. The highs are so high. The lows are more frequent, but when the highs come, they’re so high, that you don’t remember the bad times.

NR: It sounds like you didn’t enter the profession with stars in your eyes.

AG: No. In fact, it’s prepared me in a lot of ways, to be able to come to New York and say, “Ok, now what?”

NR: You’ve done a lot of regional work already.

Alex (standing at left) in
Fiddler on the Roof
Pittsburgh CLO/Matt Polk
AG: Yeah. I worked at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera for two years. I had a blast there. I did Marty at the Huntington last fall and that was an amazing experience.

NR: I saw a review that said you probably had a better voice than John C. Reilly, whom you were understudying.

AG: That’s one person’s opinion. I covered John in the show and I learned so much from him, just from watching him and from being around him. As a human being, and as an actor as well, he’s just a fantastic guy. John’s voice is so genuine, and it matches the character so perfectly. Marty is a simple butcher, and he was right on the money.

NR: Is it possible it could still come into New York?

AG: It might. (laughs) Everything might. It’s not dead yet. I was speaking with (Marty composer) Charles Strouse about it and he said they’re hoping to get it going again. We’ll see. We did do a reading in New York in March or April. John couldn’t do it so I got a chance to do the part, which was fantastic. It was most of the same people from Boston and it went great. All of the rewrites they did were so smart and so good. We all left chomping at the bit, saying, “Please, let this work” because it’s such a great story. The three of them - Charles, Lee (Adams, lyricist), and Rupert (Holmes, bookwriter) - have done amazing work on it. Rupert’s book is just sensational.

NR: That’s some team.

AG: I know. You’ve got a score by Strouse and Adams - that’s spectacular as it is. Then you’ve got Rupert Holmes writing the book. And Mark Brokaw’s a fantastic director for the show. Then we had Rob Ashford ... some very talented people. All of these people were giving a thousand percent to the show, and it showed. Even in Boston, when we all knew there were flaws, everybody left with big smiles. It made you laugh, it made you cry. That’s the kind of arc the show has, which is so refreshing. The reason I want that show to come to New York, whether or not I’m a part of it in the long run, is just for the show’s sake. It’s got such a good heart, it would be really nice to see it succeed.

NR: You received the Fringe Award this past year, for The Trapped Family Singers.

AG: Yeah. It was weird. I got a call from Ellen Schwartz, who’s the lyricist of the show. She said, “Congratulations!” and I said, “For what?” I had no idea. She said, “You won this award.” Nobody had called me or anything. Apparently there was some kind of ceremony where they gave out the pieces of paper, but nobody told me about it.

NR: (laughing) That’s terrible!

AG: Well, I just don’t want them to think that I’m “too big” for this award. I didn’t even know about it!

NR: While you were doing all of these kind of jobs, were they your way of working towards Broadway, or were you grateful just to be employed?

AG: Yes and yes. It’s a strange dichotomy an actor goes through. Every step you take could lead to the next job you get. You always want to be working. There are plenty of opportunities for actors to take crappy jobs, and there are plenty of opportunities for that not to happen. Sometimes it’s hard to gauge. Suppose you always wanted to do Hamlet, and you find someone who’s doing a production of it. You may be dying to do it, but it’s not going to help your career at all. You’re always juggling that.

I’ve been very lucky. I’ve been a part of great projects with great people. It’s hard. Just because I lucked out and I’m going to have a chance to be on Broadway, it doesn’t mean that when Assassins closes I’m not going to be back to square one again.

NR: Tell me about Avenue Q, which you did at the Vineyard. What made you leave when they moved to Broadway?

AG: I wasn’t asked to move with it. I replaced Jordan Gelber as Brian. He did all the previews and a couple of performances. Then he got an HBO movie and had to leave. I was doing a reading and I got a call that said, “Can you come in tomorrow and audition for Avenue Q?” I knew nothing about the show, but I went in and sang for them. I got a call later that day and they said, “Come in tomorrow.” I did maybe a week of rehearsal and then I was in the show. The great thing about it was that it kept getting extended because it was such a hit. I was only supposed to do it for three weeks, but I ended up doing it 8 or 9 weeks.

What a great experience. The cast is fantastic. That was the hardest thing, when the producers said, “We’re going to go with Jordan for the Broadway run.” (shrugs) That’s the way the cookie crumbles. The hardest thing was not being able to see the cast every day because they are such a spectacular group of people. I still see them. I hang out with them all the time.

Jeff (Marx) and Bobby (Lopez), who wrote the score, put together a great mix of contemporary pop music, with a huge influence of TV jingles, and old school Broadway stuff. The show really has a nice sound to it. It’s truly a fantastic show, and I’m glad it’s enjoying the success that it is. I’m sad that I’m not a part of it, but what are you going to do?

NR: Before we get to Assassins, I wanted to ask you about a cabaret show you did last spring. Is that another sideline?

AG: A friend of mine, Justin Brill, who is in Christmas Carol right now, asked me to do it. We were roommates my first summer at Pittsburgh CLO. We became great buddies. He was an voice student of my grandmother’s when she taught at Carnegie Mellon. We had done a couple cabarets together out in Pittsburgh and he asked me to do this one.

It’s not something I usually do. Twenty years from now if I’m not acting, maybe I will think about doing it. We had a good time, but I can’t be known as that now.

NR: That reminds me of something Douglas Sills frequently says, that he’s not a singer. He wants to be known as an actor, and he just doesn’t get the same thrill when he’s singing in a concert or cabaret setting.

AG: It’s an interesting point you bring up. I try not to separate the two in my mind. When I’m singing, I make sure I’m not just singing. I don’t put on a different hat. I’m performing, whether I’m in a play or a musical, or if I’m singing in a cabaret. The trick is that you get labeled by casting people - “Oh, he’s a singer.” One of the main reasons I did a recent project for the Drama League is because it’s a play credit on my resume. That’s huge for a musical theatre performer. As it turns out, I had a blast doing it, but it was also a wise move, because people get pigeon-holed. If casting people think of you as a singer, then you won’t get called in for a play.

It works a little differently the other way. If they view you as an actor, they’re more likely to call you in, because with the style of today’s musical theatre, audiences are demanding better than just a good voice. People want to see a really good actor first, and then a really good singer. Sometimes in a musical, the voices aren’t that great, but their acting is great, and it’s forgiven. In the old school, someone like Ethel Merman had a fantastically huge voice, but she wasn’t known for her acting ability. So, it makes perfect sense that Doug would say that. If someone asks me, I tell them I’m an actor.

NR: And now, your big Broadway break has finally come. It almost came a few years ago ...

AG: Yeah. That was kind of rough. The climate was so perfect a couple years ago. After the 2000 election, everyone had had it up to here with politics. They were ready for that kind of a story. You feel guilty for being sorry that you’re out of a job because so many people died in such a tragedy. After you get over it, you realize this is life. Despite September 11th, this could have happened anyway with any show, like what happened with Harmony.

NR: This is a show that’s definitely a gamble.

AG: Yes, this is truly a gamble.

NR: You have people who absolutely can’t wait to see this show, but you’ll also have many who will be offended by it.

AG: This is the trick, and this is what lies in the hands of the producers. There are enough people in New York who will keep it open for however long it’s going to be open. Beyond that, if you’re John and Jane Doe getting off the bus from Ohio, are you going to see Millie, or are you going to see Assassins? You know what I mean? It’s a hard sell. It’s not your everyday Oklahoma!. I do believe the show is so well written, that if they can get the word out there to the harder-to-reach people, then it can stay open.

NR: There are very few people who’ve seen it. The CD liner notes say that the total wouldn’t even fill half of a stadium.

AG: I saw it. I didn’t really get all of it. I was pretty young. I remember the theater being very small. It’s interesting - I think the story now has so much more resonance than it did back then. Maybe that’s because of all that’s happened since then. The last time it was open, the Gulf War was happening.

NR: We’re another ten years removed from the Kennedy assassination. Although many people still remember that day clearly, it’s 40 years now instead of 30.

AG: Sure. It’s the story of the American Dream gone wrong, sort of. But it’s not about glorifying those people. That’s the hardest thing to get across. That was a big criticism of the show the first time - “They’re taking these villains and putting them on pedestals.” It’s not really about that. It’s showing these people in the perspective of what the show is about. You take it as it is. It doesn’t make them right, and that’s the trick.

NR: And you’re playing a guy (Hinckley) that we all still remember.

AG: Yeah, and he’s been in the news lately. I haven’t had time to go through them yet, but I’ve saved a bunch of articles on my computer. I’m going to go through them and start reading.

NR: That must be tricky for you. People have actually seen him and know how he looks, and how he talks.

AG: I’ve never portrayed an actual person before on stage, so that’s challenging, but it’s heightened. We’re doing a musical. It’s not an impersonation of John Hinckley. The scene in the show takes place in Hinckley’s basement but Squeaky (Fromme) comes in. You’re bending reality. You also run into John Hinckley in that scene in a very frantic state because someone has invaded his space and he’s talking to the picture of Jodie Foster. It’s a heightened dramatic situation. It’s not like “everyday John Hinckley.” That allows you room to play.

NR: How much work are you going to do to get into his head?

AG: I don’t know. I want to do research to find out as much as I can about him, but we’ll see. I’ll get as much knowledge as I can and let that influence what I’m doing.

NR: Have you worked with Sondheim before? I know your father has a number of times.

AG: We worked on the reading of The Frogs together with Nathan Lane at Lincoln Center. I had a great time. It’s fun, but hard music.

NR: Isn’t his music always hard?

AG: Yeah, but the choral stuff in this is really hard. Into the Woods is tricky but that score is so ingrained in my head. I music-directed it and conducted it in college so it’s really ingrained in me. Frogs is one of the scores I didn’t know as well, and I know most of his scores pretty well from growing up with them. It’s great, it’s thrilling. When it was right, it was thrilling, but it’s a challenge. They’re going to do it this coming spring or early summer.

NR: You’re opening up in Assassins in the spring, right?

AG: Yes. We start previewing in March and open in April. Rehearsals start February 17th. I’m getting ready. I’m very excited.

NR: Have you worked with your father before?

AG: Just on The Frogs. We have a great relationship, so we’re just thrilled, like any father and son would be to work together.

NR: You seem to be walking on air.

AG: I am, but I never take it for granted. First of all, because of the show and what happened the first time. Also, I could name dozens upon dozens of friends of mine who are out of work and can’t get a job. That’s me right now, technically, until I sign my contract. That’s the way it goes, but yeah, I’ve been very lucky and very blessed. To get this job two years ago was spectacular.

NR: There are a lot of people who are no longer with it for different reasons.

AG: Yes, they’re doing other stuff. We got most of the other people back, which is good news. We did a reading December of 2001 with Doug and Neil (Patrick Harris), John Dossett, Raul Esparza, Denis O’Hare, and it was very bittersweet. It was a two-day thing, one day to rehearse music and we did it the next day for some backers. It was great but it was so bittersweet. Everyone in it was so charged to do it. Everybody - Joe (Mantello) and Dad. Steve (Sondheim) and John (Weidman) were practically frothing at the mouth because they were so excited.

NR: It was still the right choice to pull it then. Everybody was just numb at the time.

AG: Absolutely. They made the right decision and everyone knew that. They could have gone on with the show but it would have closed in five days. You want to look at the show without anything else going on.

NR: That’s true. You couldn’t really look at any show then without 9/11 hanging over it like a cloud.

AG: I was lucky. Joe Mantello called and said, “We’re not going to do the show” which was tough. He was very upset and I was very upset. I’m sure everybody was. The next day I got a call to do Zorba up at North Shore. One of the guys couldn’t get back from overseas and they asked if I was free. I went right up and it couldn’t have come at a better time. I got in my car and drove up to Beverly, Mass, and I tell you, there has not been a closer cast than that group of people. Most of us were from New York, and that cast was so close. We all wanted to be around each other all the time.

NR: You seem much more hopeful for the show’s success this time.

AG: It’s going to be the first show at Studio 54 after Cabaret closes, which is so intelligent of them. People will come just because it’s at Studio 54. People will come by to see if Cabaret is still open. I’m serious - I guarantee you someone who was in New York six months ago is bringing their friend to New York for the first time. They’re going to say, “We should go see Cabaret.” I guarantee it. You think I’m kidding, but I’m not.

It’s good it’s at 54 because it’s not on the main drag of where everything else is. I think that’s good for this show. Just like this version of Cabaret, it was smart that it wasn’t at the Majestic. It’s in its own trendy thing on its own block. I go back and forth thinking it’s going to be a hit or not. Of course, I hope it’s a hit.

NR: Is it an open-ended run to begin with?

AG: No. I think it’s similar to what they did with Nine. That’s how Roundabout is because they’re a not-for-profit organization.

NR: Do you have any dream jobs you’re looking forward to?

AG: There are shows I’d love to do in my lifetime. I have to do Sweeney Todd before I die. It’s my all time favorite show. One of my most thrilling experiences was last Thanksgiving when my dad was doing Sweeney Todd at the Chicago Lyric Opera and I got to go out there. I had never seen it live. I’d only seen the tape with George Hearn and Angela Lansbury. I’d listened to the recording about 800 times. To see it live on stage was just ... And of course the orchestra was around 50 members and they just blew you away. The director was fantastic, so was the set. I sat in the sixth row and it just blew me away. I’ve always wanted to do it, but never so much as after watching that.

So, that and Harold Hill probably some day.

NR: You’ll be just the right age for the next revival. (laughs)

AG: (laughs) That would be nice. I just want to keep working because I enjoy it so much.

NR: You’ve had some amazing opportunities, and it sounds like you’ve appreciated them.

AG: Oh yeah. It’s easy to get bitter in this business fast. I know people in their 20s who are done with the business. I hear them bitch more than anything else. These aren’t necessarily people who aren’t working. I meet actors sometimes and all they do is complain about the job they have and I’m thinking, “You have a job.” I don’t know. I just feel that everybody’s had a show that they think stinks for whatever reason. Either the cast doesn’t get along or you hate the person you’re playing opposite, or the director makes you crazy, or the production quality’s not good, but it’s never as bad as not having a job. No matter how bad the show is. It just kills me when people complain like that. I want to tell them to just get out of the business and do something else. Who wants that negativity around the theatre? Who needs it? It’s frustrating. It’s so easy to get sucked into that in New York, going on audition after audition and not getting a job. Sure, you’re going to get a little bitter. That’s natural, like anything else. It’s like a real estate broker who can’t sell a house, it’s the same thing. Then he finally sells a house and goes on from there.

I learn this more and more every day - it’s show BUSINESS. When you go home, you can go watch your TV and leave your work at the office. It’s hard because, as an actor, what you’re selling is yourself, but it’s all a business, just like anything else. The more I think of it that way, the healthier I am.

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When asked about the anticipation of working with his son on Assassins, Paul Gemignani said:

Alexander and I have always been very close, even through the "difficult years." He has always been my best friend. As far as working together, we are both professionals, therefore we work together not as father and son but as artists dealing with the same set of circumstances. I am very proud of him and I am happy to say that I think he is wildly talented. He is a pleasure to work with in any production that may come my (our) way. We all are very happy that Assassins is finally being done. We all are looking forward to this production. It is a great cast with a wonderful director. We are all hoping for a long successful run. The other up side to this is that I will be able to have dinner with my son "the actor" on matinee days.

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Assassins

Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by John Weidman, Music Direction by Paul Gemignani, Musical Staging by Jonathan Butterell, Directed by Joe Mantello.

Featuring Neil Patrick Harris (Balladeer/Lee Harvey Oswald), James Barbour (Leon Czolgosz), Mario Cantone (Samuel Byck), Michael Cerveris (John Wilkes Booth), Alexander Gemignani (John Hinkley), Marc Kudisch (Proprietor), Jeffrey Kuhn (Giuseppe Zangara), Becky Ann Baker (Sara Jane Moore), Mary Catherine Garrison (Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme) and Denis O'Hare (as Charles Guiteau), and directed by Joe Mantello, begins previews March 26 at Studio 54 for The Roundabout Theatre Company. Visit www.roundabouttheatre.org for performance and ticket information.

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