Talking With Brent Barrett – October 2, 2023

Ira Sternberg: "It's one thing to work at the same office or factory for 40 years. You might have enjoyed some or most of it, but my guest has spent 40 years on Broadway. He's Brent Barrett, and he's performing 'Brent Barrett: My 40 Years on Broadway' in Myron's at the Smith Center this Wednesday, October 4th at 7 pm. For ticket information, go to thesmithcenter.com. And for everything about Brent Barrett, that's two R's and two T's, you can go to brentbarrett.com, and you can follow him on Instagram. And Brent, welcome to the show."

Brent Barrett: "Thank you, Ira. How are you?"

Ira Sternberg: "Good, thank you for coming on."

Brent Barrett: "Yeah, it's a pleasure. I want to know, I want to nail you down right in the beginning: your favorite show that you performed in because you have been in so many."

Ira Sternberg: "Good job."

Brent Barrett: "Oh my god. Um, I think, um, probably, uh, oh my God, that's such a hard question. It's probably a toss-up either between 'Chicago' the musical or, uh, or 'Camelot.'"

Ira Sternberg: "Ah, okay, interesting. Now, you started, you made your Broadway debut as Tony in the 1980 Revival of 'West Side Story.' Now, here's the thing, and for our listeners, those who are not viewing us, okay, you've been 40 years on Broadway, you look like there's no way you'd be 40 years on anywhere. In other words, what I'm doing is it's a compliment in the sense of how you look versus me, who I've been 40 years on something, but I look like I've been there 40 years in the coal mine. You look like you haven't worked too hard in the last 40 years, but clearly you have because of what you do. So, what's…"

Brent Barrett: "Well, that's very sweet. I guess, I mean, the first thing is I have very good genes. My mother just passed away this year at 105."

Ira Sternberg: "I'm sorry to hear that."

Brent Barrett: "At the same time, 105 is wonderful. 105. It was 20 days short of her 106th birthday. So, I and my father passed away when he was 82. So, I mean, I come from good stock out there, you know, in Kansas. Um, but I think part of it is, you know, I never thought of this, my career as work because I love doing what I do. So, I think that also helps. And when you are in this business, you know, you gotta do what you gotta do to keep yourself looking good for… We're, um, the four Phantoms are going to be shooting their PBS special in March, and so it's like, okay, well, it's like, let's, we gotta get camera ready."

Ira Sternberg: "When it is your passion, clearly it's a different situation than if you're just doing drudge work. But even so, when you think about what it takes to, besides the talent side, what it takes to perform on Broadway, that's a lot of work. It's a lot of discipline."

Brent Barrett: "You have to… that's a better word for it, yeah. Yeah, because, you know, everything in your life is scheduled for your show because you go through your entire day, and then you go to work. So, you have to be careful what you do during that day. And sometimes, if I mean, when I was younger, you know, you're running around doing auditions all day, and then you go and you're doing your show at night. So, you know, you have that energy. Now, at this point, I tell people, I said, 'I don't think I'd want to do eight shows a week because you have no life.' You have one day off a week, and that you spend that, you know, running around doing errands and whatever you do that you can't do what you're supposed to do during the week. And, you know, I thought when I was 32, I thought, 'Oh, I will never do anything else, and it's like, I'm gonna live in New York for the rest of my life, and I'm gonna do theater. I'll just die on the stage.' But then, you know, when I came out to Vegas to do 'Phantom' in 2006, and I realized, because I mean, I'm from a very small town in Western Kansas, so my dream was to go to New York and be in New York. And so, the thought of living anywhere outside of that was totally foreign. But once I got out of there, after living there for over 40 years, I realized, I think I've paid my dues. I had enough, and I wanted to get out and have an entirely different way of life."

Ira Sternberg: "What was the town that you were raised in? You mentioned a little town."

Brent Barrett: "It's called Quinter. Population was 900 when I was growing up, now they're down to 750. It's one of those towns that are probably 12 blocks each way, out in the middle of the wheat fields of Western Kansas. It was so… I, you know, when I look back, it's like, I go, 'How did I ever get out of there?' Well, my terrible joke about that, the town was so small that both city limit signs were on the same post."

Ira Sternberg: "Basically, yeah, yeah. No, but you, it's amazing when you think about, you come from a small town, how do you end up on Broadway? I want to talk about some of the shows you're reading, and obviously your current show at the Smith Center, but how did you end up? What was the path you took that you knew that you had that kind of ability to do that?"

Brent Barrett: "I, um, I guess when I was a junior in high school, I did my first musical, and it was like, 'Oh my God, this is what I want to do.' So, there was a town just 55 miles west of where I grew up, it's called Hays, Fort Hays, and there was University, Fort Hays State. So, my senior year, I transferred to Hays High and went to college and went to high school in the morning, finished my last three classes, and then I started my college classes in the afternoon. So, I did that for a year to finish high school, then I stayed there for a year. I was a voice major; it was a little liberal arts college. And basically, you went there if you wanted to be a teacher. And I had some great instructors there, and they suggested Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. I looked it up, I filled out all the paperwork, submitted it, and they called me to come audition for the program. It was their first year of musical theater. Of course, this was back in 1975-76, and there were only about two or three musical theater programs in the entire country. Now, every university has a musical theater program. So, I was accepted into the program. There were only 10 of us in that program, there were 60 in the acting department, but there were only 10 students in musical theater. And we got a cross course in dance and music and acting. And I was there for three and a half years. Then a casting director came out to Civic Light Opera in Pittsburgh, which we were doing Summer Stock, which is where you rehearse during the day and do shows at night. And so, the casting director, Barry Moss, came out from New York. He auditioned everyone in the course because they were looking for a Riff. Now, I'd only had two and a half, three years of dance training, so I had no illusions that I was going to be Riff. When I thought, well, maybe I could be one of the Jets. Two of us were invited to come up to New York to audition for the Broadway company. And there were a couple of auditions that I had to go to. And then, sometime in October, I got the call because I was finishing, obviously, you know, with my senior year at Carnegie Mellon. And I got the offer to go to New York and do 'West Side Story.' So, I did. I was the understudy for the role of Diesel for the tour, and then six months on Broadway, and then I took over the role of Tony. I mean, it was just… I was really lucky, but just, you know, being in the right place at the right time with the right tools."

Ira Sternberg: "When you got the call to go to Broadway, has a magic… were you instantly aware of that magic when, A, you got the call, and B, you actually got to Broadway and went on stage?"

Brent Barrett: "I was, um, I was kind of in shock, basically. I was stunned. I, you know, you… when you're young, you do whatever you need to do. And I stayed with a friend from Carnegie Mellon who graduated and was living in New York. I slept on his couch for the entire rehearsal process. Then we went out of town, and then when I came back in, I was sharing an apartment with somebody that I'd met on tour before I got my own apartment. But during the rehearsal process, most of the kids, I would say probably 80% of the Jets and the Sharks, had done previous Broadway shows. There were probably a handful of us for whom it was our first Broadway show. And so, I was just kind of a sponge. I would just sit and listen to all their stories of doing 'Peter Pan' with, you know, and everything. And I was just thinking, 'Okay,' because I felt, you know, I have nothing to contribute to this conversation at this point. So, about, uh, well, it was Joe's set in college, but you know, it's… but did you pinch yourself? It was a magical time. You know, it was also 1979, and you wouldn't walk down Ninth Avenue during the day because of the pimps and the prostitutes and the drug dealers. At night, you know, there were two peep houses that were operating on 42nd Street, and the rest of the street was dead. I remember so vividly walking, turning the corner from Broadway on 42nd Street, walking over to the subway, and there's a tumbleweed just blowing down 42nd Street at midnight. You know, that's how much the city has changed since. And then the difference between the magic of the Broadway stage and, as you say, you walk a block or two, and all of a sudden, reality hits you on the other side. So, you're able to experience both worlds, enjoy the one on stage, obviously."

Ira Sternberg: "So, did the magic stay with you, Brent, over all these shows that you performed? And some of the shows, just for our audience who may not know, in addition to 'West Side Story,' 'Phantom of the Opera,' 'South Pacific,' 'Annie Get Your Gun,' 'Chicago,' 'Grand Hotel,' 'Kiss Me Kate,' 'Camelot,' 'Closer Than Ever.' That's a long list of Broadway hits. And did the magic stay for you throughout each production?"

Brent Barrett: "Yeah, I guess I'm a little simple, Ira. It's always there, and the nerves are always there. You know, there's always… I mean, rarely you go out on stage because it's live. It's a live performance of whatever you're doing, so anything can happen. So, there's always this little bit, to a greater or lesser degree, kind of fluttering, going, 'Okay, take a deep breath,' and you go. And, uh, but I… yeah, I don't think I've ever lost that feeling of excitement for what I do. Even though I don't live in New York anymore, I still love… I love going to the theater, and I love performing."

Ira Sternberg: "Some of the shows or productions were clearly written, composed by people who are no longer with us, but a few had composers and lyricists that were around at the time you started. Did you ever get a chance or an opportunity to meet any of the lyricists or composers of any of the productions?"

Brent Barrett: "Um, yeah, I… well, Leonard Bernstein conducted our opening night performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Can't get any better. And then there was… I, you know, I… our paths crossed a couple of times, but I was just… I was always so intimidated. Um, one night, before I took over the role of Tony, the… they were throwing a cast party for us, I think it was called some place called El Morocco, and Ruthie, uh, Ruth Mitchell, who was our producer, who was, uh, had been Hal Prince's right-hand man, right-hand person for years, and she came over, said, 'Oh, Lenny's coming in. Right, come on, I want you to come and sit and sit, you know, and talk to him.' And I'm going, 'Oh, [expletive].' And but fortunately, it was really loud, and so we couldn't have much of a conversation anyway. Um, uh, then, you know, I auditioned for Stephen Sondheim several times. Um, I did Alan Jay Lerner of Lerner and Loewe. I did his last Broadway show, so I knew him.

Ira Sternberg: Um, uh, did you ever get the sense from meeting some of these people that you were touching Broadway history or interacting with Broadway history?"

Brent Barrett: "That might be… Oh, yeah. Oh, definitely. I mean, Broadway history from, obviously, a time when you had the Golden Age and as of the Great American Songbook, and you had all these amazing composers and lyricists during a short period of American history. But yes, you knew they were royalty, but not by the way they acted, just because you knew their history. When I first went to New York, my friend Chris Denny, who's been my musical director for 40 years in New York, he was doing a show with Josh and Heather Logan. Now, Josh Logan was a big film and theater director back in the '40s. He directed the original 'South Pacific.' So, he and his wife were doing this little, kind of, 'I Remember It Well' show, and they needed a young woman's, a female singer, and a young male singer. So, I did a few of the gigs with them, doing all the classic stuff from 'Oklahoma!' and 'South Pacific.' And he, yes, he was larger than life."

Ira Sternberg: "He's a very well-known and respected name in that world. Did you ever think about it? I know this is out of your wheelhouse, but since you had an opportunity to meet some of these great names in Broadway history, did you ever think about getting a chance to sit down with them and record an interview like we're doing now, just get a chance to record a conversation with them?"

Brent Barrett: "You know, no, I… that was not something that crossed my mind when I was 23 years old, you know. When you're working with somebody, it's… I guess you're just focused on the work and what you're doing and trying to tell the story. And because there were… I never really… it wasn't… we were working together, but we weren't spending a long time outside of the workspace, going to dinner or whatever. And because I was young at that point, and they were all much older, it wasn't… those weren't the people that I was hanging out with."

Ira Sternberg: "No, I understood completely. Did you think about, uh, what we call today a selfie? Did you think about getting a picture with…"

Brent Barrett: "No, and it kills me. You know, doing this, doing this 40th-anniversary show, I know there's a picture of the Jets on opening night. We rented tails, and we're standing around like holding cigars with the tails, and it's like, I know I've seen this photo, and I cannot find it anywhere. There's also one of 'Closer Than Ever,' where we're all there, and Bea Arthur had come to the show, and it's like, I've got that somewhere, and I have no idea where it's at."

Ira Sternberg: "Oh, frustrating."

Brent Barrett: "Oh yeah, it's crazy. Well, let's talk a little bit about your show at the Smith Center. Again, it's called 'Brent Barrett: My 40 Years on Broadway.' It's in Myron's at the Smith Center, and it's this Wednesday, October 4th at 7:00 PM. How did you structure it, and how did you work it so that people get a taste of all of those elements of your career?"

Brent Barrett: "Here, I started the show during COVID, and I did a small version of it at the Vegas Room, which was a little dinner club that opened up during COVID. I was the artistic, I was the entertainment director when it first opened, and they wanted me to do a couple of shows. So, I decided I'll take, you know, take this and do an anniversary show. And then we've expanded it. I start out, you know, there are some songs from shows that I didn't do, songs from shows that I'm using to kind of tell a story. But I do, you know, we have things from 'West Side Story,' 'La Cage,' 'The Wiz,' 'Annie Get Your Gun,' 'Kiss Me Kate,' 'Phantom.' We cover the big things. I can't cover everything because we'd be there all night."

Ira Sternberg: "Which is actually a good idea. I think you should try that."

Brent Barrett: "Yeah, an afternoon."

Ira Sternberg: "Yeah, because actually, you see the Brent Barrett Telethon, 24 Hours. Come on in when you can."

Brent Barrett: "I'm not sure how many people would tune in. I do something from 'Closer Than Ever,' and yeah, and then with this show, because with the Smith Center, we're going to be adding photos and some videos and some, and so it's going to be more of a multimedia evening than it ever has before."

Ira Sternberg: "Now that's a great idea. Are you working with any additional dancers or backup singers?"

Brent Barrett: "And, uh, we've got our combo. So, yes, Philip Fortenberry is my musical director. Don Meoli's on the drums. Dave Ostrem and Steve Flora are playing the reeds. Joan Sobel is going to do, is coming on as a guest star to do a couple of tunes, and Bernie Blanks is going to be there to do another duet."

Ira Sternberg: "How important is the, I'll use the word 'scripting' or the patter for the show? What I mean by that is you want to introduce these different songs to represent different things, so you're going to say something about each of these songs and how they fit into your career. I'm assuming, so you've scripted it a certain way. I'm again making the assumption that that's how you set it up."

Brent Barrett: "Yeah, of course. You know, some people are much better about just being off the cuff and just go out and talk, talk about. But I like to kind of have, I like more of a map through my journey. And I understand, understand. So, yeah, so I kind of write everything out, but then you let it go. You know, Bernie tells me, it's like, 'Brent, this is your life, so it doesn't matter what you say because it's your life.' But you know, you want to get all kind of the details and the points along the way that make the journey make sense."

Ira Sternberg: "Do you see this show as something that you could take on the road and present in different…"

Brent Barrett: "Well, yeah, we have. Philip and I played, um, we played Feinstein's at the Nikko in San Francisco. We did two performances of it in Sheridan, Wyoming."

Ira Sternberg: "Oh, yes."

Brent Barrett: "Well, it's a sweet little town. This wonderful couple have opened this gastropub, and they wanted to do kind of a supper club evening. So, there was a person up there, Gina Feliccia, who lives in Sheridan, who was in 'Phantom' and other Broadway shows, lives there with their family. So, I got a call from her saying, 'Would you be interested in coming up and doing this?' And, great idea. It was fantastic. And you wouldn't believe it. The first night, the whole audience, you could tell they had been to New York and San Francisco, Los Angeles. They were up, right. The second night was like we had moved to a different town. It was a totally different audience. It was more of a local's audience. Some of them, I would imagine, probably haven't been out of Wyoming. And it was fascinating, the reaction the first night and the second night, where they were just totally silent because they had no frame of reference to anything I was doing. But they enjoyed it, they loved the show. And that's what they're trying to do in Sheridan. So, I'm going back in December and doing three Christmas shows because it was so successful."

Ira Sternberg: "Well, when I said I've never been to Sheridan, I've never been to Wyoming. And I like small towns that actually have opera houses. Northern Nevada has several opera houses, and other kinds of presentations that work really well. It's nice to see that in rural areas. Are you from… where are you from originally?"

Brent Barrett: "L.A., and I've been in Las Vegas for a long time, since '78, I think it is."

Ira Sternberg: "So, myself being changed…"

Brent Barrett: "Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yes, yeah, as I age."

Ira Sternberg: "So, I'm looking at Brent, and Brent looks great, like nothing's happened. So, there you go. But of course, he's a performer, so he's got to take care of himself, eat right. I was going to ask you too, but we were talking about your experiences on Broadway in productions. I imagine in the early days, after the show or shows, yeah, on Broadway, you guys would go out and party a little bit."

Brent Barrett: "Oh yeah, okay, yeah, yeah."

Ira Sternberg: "But now, I think you probably maybe for an hour and say, 'I gotta get home, get some sleep because I gotta…'"

Brent Barrett: "Oh no, unless… um, we'll probably go have a couple of drinks after the show on the fourth. Uh, but no, maybe once a year, we'll have a party evening, you know what I mean, when we stay out late, so dancing, and there's… but it's like, um, life is too short and precious."

Ira Sternberg: "Yeah, you're right. You gotta stay healthy. So, why… you know, I nailed you in the beginning about who your favorite production was, and I'd like to also have your focus on who your favorite composer and/or lyricist is in all the shows that you've performed in."

Brent Barrett: "Yeah, I mean, that's difficult too because it's, you know, it's such so apples and oranges with doing… um, and also, of this, you know, the style. I mean, I love Candor and Ebb. You know, 'Chicago' has been such an important part of my life, but their music has too because I was, when I was still in college, I did a Candor and Ebb revue, and then I did a revue of theirs in New York called 'And the World Goes 'Round,' which I did the workshop of, but then I went on tour with 'Grand Hotel,' so I didn't actually bring it into Broadway or into New York. Um, um, and then there's Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, who did 'Camelot' and 'Gigi' and 'My Fair Lady.' But then there's, you know, the seminal person of our generation's life is Stephen Sondheim. I mean, no one crafts lyrics like Stephen Sondheim did."

Ira Sternberg: "I like your answer because you can't give an answer of one person. You're so… there's such a wealth of talent in all those people you mentioned. And I can go further back, and I would mention Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin."

Brent Barrett: "Yes, um, is there… I mean, everything Berlin was… I mean, every song in 'Annie Get Your Gun' is a hit song when it debuted on Broadway. Every tune became a hit song. And Cole Porter, I love Cole Porter. Just, um, I do several of his numbers during, you know, for various shows, or, uh, and, uh, yeah, I know, I… I could go on forever with the talent that's out there."

Ira Sternberg: "Oh, what… looking ahead, we have about a minute left. Looking ahead for you, are you… is your main focus, as we just discussed, taking it on the road again once you've done it at the Smith Center?"

Brent Barrett: "Um, well, the thing is, I've got several projects that I do. One is called 'The Broadway Tenors,' which is what I produce. We're doing four concerts, two in November, two in December. But then I'm also involved with 'The Four Phantoms in Concert.' And so, mid-October, we're going to start touring through April. So, we have a pretty full schedule. But after my concert here, I'm going down to Mexico with Keith Thompson and Phil Fortenberry, and we're doing four singers, Nikki Scalera, Marin Wade, and Doug Carpenter, and we're doing a 'Broadway Goes to Hollywood' for this international music festival in Guanajuato. Guanajuato, um, that's like a packed schedule."

Brent Barrett: "It's kind of busy, and then, and then my husband Bernie and I are going to do our duet show called 'Islands in the Stream' December 1st at The Space. And basically, that's in Las Vegas as well, right? That's in Vegas, and basically, we're just going to be singing songs that, you know, um, and talking about our 20-year relationship."

Ira Sternberg: "Great, well, that's a great way to leave it. And by the way, for if you want to get more on Brent too, I'm going to mention his website again because he's won all these awards and all kinds of stuff which you can find on his website. I don't want to get too far into it in our conversation together because we go, as you said, like the Smith Center, we'll be doing this all night. So, my guest has been Brent Barrett. He's performing 'Brent Barrett: My 40 Years on Broadway' in Myron's at the Smith Center this Wednesday, October 4th at 7 pm. And for ticket information, go to thesmithcenter.com. For everything about Brent Barrett, go to brentbarrett.com, and you can follow him on Instagram. And Brent, thanks for being on the show."

Brent Barrett: "Alright, thank you so much. I so appreciate it."

Ira Sternberg: "Pleasure. See you next time."