- Brad Oscar has been a fixture
in the New York theater community
for the better part of three decades.
An audience favorite and a Tony nominee.
Let's send it out to Paul Wontorek.
- Brad Oscar has nine Broadway credits to his name.
Can you name them all?
- Yes, "Aspects of Love", "Jekyll and Hyde",
"The Producers", "Spamalot", "Addams Family",
"Nice Work If You Can Get It", "Big Fish",
"Something Rotten" and "Doubtfire", is that nine?
- Sure.
- What did I miss?
- We're gonna run through them all.
But this one, let's start right here.
We're actually at The Stephen Sondheim Theater,
the now very poignantly named Stephen Sondheim Theater.
- Yes.
- You're in Mrs. Doubtfire.
- Yes.
- You play Frank.
- Yes, the brother.
- You're the brother?
- Yes.
- And you got to really flesh out this character
for the musical, like in amazing ways.
- Yeah, it's nice.
They've expanded both,
I have a husband as well.
I think he does in the film,
but you know, they're not seen together as much,
but in the show here,
J Harrison Ghee who plays my other half in the show,
yes, they have expanded our roles a little bit
in the course of the story and yeah.
And what I love is that we always appear on stage together.
I joke that we're doing "Sideshow "because we are never,
J and I are never apart for the entire evening,
from our dressing room to the stage.
- [Paul] You will never leave him.
- [Brad] Exactly.
- This Theater District is a place, you know well.
- Yes.
- We're gonna get a little cardio
and we're gonna walk sort of through your resume.
Are you ready?
- I'm ready.
- All right, let's hit the road.
- Let's go.
(upbeat music)
- Brad, the St. James Theater.
- The St. James Theater. - So many Brad Oscar triumphs.
- The St. James Theater, it changed my life.
And ironically, it's the first Broadway house
I was ever in as a kid,
as an audience member. - Seeing what?
- On the 20th century,
the original production of the 20th century
at the St. James and then yes.
- So you were in a little show called "The Producers".
- I was in a little show called ""The Producers"".
- What a fascinating journey you had with that show,
first of all,
because originally you were not one of the leads.
- Correct. - Out of town.
- [Brad] Correct.
- [Paul] You took over the role of Franz.
- [Brad] Correct.
I was the crazy guy on the roof with a crazy Nazi.
- And then you ended up playing Max Bialystok a lot.
- Yeah.
- You came in and out of the show.
- Yeah, it was, it was the gift that kept on giving.
You know, it was an extraordinary experience.
Yeah, I played Franz for the first year
and then I took over Max and played it here
and then on tour and then in London, it was crazy.
It was amazing.
- And then you did another show here that I love.
"Something Rotten!"
- Dear old "Something Rotten!"
- I might have loved it more than "The Producers."
I mean like.
- You know what's interesting
is that everybody expected "The Producers" to be good,
at least all those people coming together,
it was gonna be special.
Nobody knew what "Rotten!" was.
Nobody knew what "Something Rotten!" was.
The name alone is like, "What the hell are they thinking?"
And so the audience response to that show was so joyous
because they were so taken aback and surprised by it.
It was such a celebration of the musical comedy
that in some ways, yes, the reaction and the response
and that experience was just as terrific.
'Cause I thought nothing would ever top "The Producers",
but in many ways it equaled that
in its own sort of special way.
(upbeat music)
- [Paul] This is The Broadhurst Theater.
- Yes.
- You made your Broadway debut at The Broadhurst.
- Broadway debut in a year called 1990,
in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Aspects of Love."
- Right.
- Yes, I was a swing.
- That followed "The Phantom."
- [Brad] Exactly.
- "The Phantom" is still running next tour,
"Aspects of Love" is not.
- "Aspects of Love"
did not have the love. - I loved it.
- "Phantom" had. - It's a beautiful.
- A lovely score. - Beautiful,
romantic, musical.
- Yes.
And it was, you know, it was my Broadway debut.
So it will always be obviously very special to me.
But no, we ran for about a year here at The Broadhurst.
- And you were swinging?
- I was swinging,
so I was covering one or two of the principal roles.
And then most of the character men in the ensemble.
- Humble beginnings, you were a swing,
but you always had the eye on like being a headliner.
- Well, you know, I just wanted
to be a working actor really.
I mean we all want to be able to show what we can do
and do more.
And so yes, to have finally had that opportunity
with "The Producers" actually was great.
But no, my dream was just to walk
through a stage door eight times a week,
'cause this was always fantasy land.
(upbeat music)
- Brad, there are a lot of mega hit musical covers
on your resume.
I feel like all of them are on your resume
and here at The Shubert.
- Yes.
- You were in a big one not "To Kill a Mockingbird."
- I was in "Spamalot" but I'll tell you,
one of my favorite things about being in "Spamalot"
was being on stage at The Shubert.
I mean again, you're talking about temples.
I mean it's The Shubert Theater, right?
Over the many years, all the shows that have played here.
- Yeah.
- It's a great house.
- And you were a replacement in which role?
- [Brad] Bedevere.
- [Paul] Okay.
- [Brad] Bedevere.
- Right, okay and you're sort of on the short list
when like there's a hit musical comedy running
and they need people to come in.
- Well.
- 'Cause you've originated a lot of roles
and then you've replaced.
So just open. - Yes.
Yes, no, I've been very pleased to be in the pool,
as I like to say is yeah, is a terrific thing.
And yeah, and then to get to go
into a show where all the work has been done, right?
They've had all the rehearsals and the crazy
and the changes and the this and the that, and yes.
And you get to just sort of go into an existing situation,
can be wonderful.
And a little nerve wracking.
(upbeat music)
- So you don't have many murder, mystery,
thriller musicals on your resume.
- Murder, murder.
I remember that murder, murder.
So we're talking about "Jekyll and Hyde."
- We are.
- That happened here at The Plymouth,
which is now The Schoenfeld.
- Now The Schoenfeld, but The Plymouth to those of us-
- What was it like being in "Jekyll and Hyde"?
"Murder, Murder" was an actual ensemble number
that I'm assuming you took part in.
- Yes exactly, I did take part in.
Well, you know, I mean my God audiences
loved "Jekyll and Hyde".
You know we got slammed,
we opened, the reviews were not good at all.
You know, we were in a season
with no other real big hit musicals,
but they still decided that, you know,
we would be the goat in that way.
It was us, "Titanic", "Steel Pier" and "The Life."
And we didn't even get nominated.
- I don't know you rattled that off.
- Well, because you know, these are formative years.
We didn't even get nominated for best musical,
mind you, we outran all of those shows by years.
(upbeat music)
- [Paul] "Nice Work If You Can Get It."
- [Brad] "Nice Work If You Can Get It."
- [Paul] That was nice work.
- Oh my God it was amazing work
because I literally just came in for two months
while Tony Award winner Michael McGrath was having
some knee work done.
And so yeah,
I got to come in for eight weeks,
play with Matthew Broderick again,
my dear chum from "The Producers" and for half of it,
I was in rehearsal for "Big Fish" during the day
'cause we were going to Chicago to try out.
- [Paul] Wow.
- So I was living my best, most exhausting life.
(upbeat music)
- So is Uncle Fester,
the most iconic character you've played?
That's a pretty, Uncle Fester,
everybody has an image of Uncle Fester.
- Exactly, yes.
- You got to be Uncle Fester in the musical
of "The Addams Family" here at The Lunt-Fontanne Theater.
- [Brad] I did.
- [Paul] How was that?
- It was fantastic.
I had a ball.
It was again, you know, you're inhabiting this,
this character that so many people
are familiar with and love.
And it's so nice when an audience, you know,
that curtain went up and that audience met you halfway.
Yeah, I had a ball.
- Not your sexiest term.
- No, perhaps not, but hey, you know,
that's usually not one of the adjectives I'm going for.
I think.
(upbeat music)
- Tell me about that show, "Big Fish."
I love that movie and I was so excited
and the musical made me cry, just like the movie did.
- Beautiful show.
Thankfully lives on
because there's a wonderful cast recording that we made,
but I'm very proud of that show.
And it was a wonderful thing to be a part of.
Again, it was a great company.
It was a beautiful story to tell.
I feel like a Make-A-Wish winner
because it was all I ever dreamt of.
And so yeah, to be a part of the theatrical life
of this neighborhood in this city,
especially now, coming back,
I couldn't be happier to be a part of of this resurgence.
(upbeat music)