Anthony Geary Goes Into the Woods

For nearly 35 years, Anthony Geary has been known as the colorful Luke Spencer on ABC’s daytime drama General Hospital, a role that has earned him six Daytime Emmy Awards, among other honors, and the lifelong devotion of millions of fans. But Geary’s true passion is the theater, having started acting professionally in the late 1960s opposite Jack Albertson in a national tour of The Subject Was Roses and later appearing in musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Now, after a nearly 15-year-absence from the stage, Geary is co-starring as the Narrator/Mysterious Man in Lucid by Proxy’s production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods at Los Angeles’ Big Art Labs. He recently spoke to TheaterMania about the project.

THEATERMANIA: How did this project come about for you?
ANTHONY GEARY: I started studying voice with Calvin Remsberg, who is directing this, about four years ago to get ready for the annual Broadway Cares daytime benefit, and I’ve been working with him ever since. I say I’ve been auditioning for four years. Then I saw this production of Sweeney Todd he directed, and I said to him, next time you do something, I want a shot at auditioning. This summer while I was in Amsterdam — which is where I live half the year — he emailed me and told me he was doing Into the Woods and asked me to do the part. I jumped at the opportunity. I haven’t been on stage since 1996, and this is just what I needed after being so comfortable for so long. I’ve been on General Hospital for a lot of years, and I always run the risk of being bored with it.

TM: Has the experience so far been what you expected?
AG: I am having an absolutely wonderful time. I really feel in very good company and this is such an interesting production. This theater is the perfect environment for the show — it’s an old warehouse that’s been used for art exhibits — and Calvin has directed it specifically for the venue. It’s also a darker approach, a more grown-up approach to the show than you might expect.

TM: You played Pseudolus in a production of Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum some years ago. What is it like revisiting Sondheim’s work?

AG: This show is really complicated, especially musically. That show was much more straightforward — here’s some dialogue; here’s some jokes, here’s a song. This one is like a mini-opera. I haven’t done anything this tough since I did Shakespeare.

TM: What’s been the single biggest challenge for you on this show?
AG: Ironically, it’s been getting the lines down — my colleagues are way ahead of me. It’s odd, because sometimes I can learn as much as 30 pages in one day for General Hospital, but I am also lucky that I have a lot of freedom there to work with the dialogue and put something in Luke Spencer vocabulary if I want. You don’t do that with Sondheim. And the Narrator part is all fits and starts, timed to the music, with a specific rhythm, so it’s hard to memorize.

TM: Your character in Into the Woods turns out to be someone’s father, and Luke Spencer is a father. Do you see any similarities between the two roles?
AG: Yes, in some ways. Lucky for me as an actor Luke’s not an ideal father; he’s much more of what you don’t what your father to be. I’d be bored playing the typical good father. I believe he is a good father in his way, just a non-traditional one. He’s prepared his kids to think on their feet and survive the situation. In this piece, my character is not a good father at all — and also, he feels he failed and doesn’t realize his son is a better man for having met him. But let’s say neither one is going to be named father of the year.

TM: Is there any chance they’ll let you sing something from the show on General Hospital?
AG: I think “No More” would work beautifully if you gave it to Luke and his son Lucky. I am actually trying to get Jonathan Jackson (who plays Lucky) to do it next year with me for Broadway Cares. He did Music of the Night last time; he has a beautiful voice.

TM: Is one reason, or at least benefit, of doing this show is that you might get to introduce some of your soap fans to Sondheim music?
AG: I sure hope so. I love musical theater — to me, it’s the most exciting theater there is — and dragging daytime fans into this art form would be the best. But I am trying to stress to them that this show is not about me. It’s the quintessential ensemble piece, and the entire group and the story are the most important things.

TM: Would you consider doing a Broadway show at this point in your career?
Yes. I am looking to do a show in New York. I have the time since my contract allows me about six months off every year. One of the reasons I do the Broadway Cares event is that I keep thinking someone will see me there and offer to put me on the stage in New York. I’d love to play the Engineer in a revival of Miss Saigon or the Emcee in Cabaret. At this point in my life, theater is really where I live to be.