NR: Do you have a favorite role you've played so far?

JB: A favorite role... Hmmm, I don't know. I'm fond of Toby in Sweeney Todd. I've done that a couple times. I think my favorite show that I've ever done is Floyd Collins.

NR: Somebody just asked me about that. She says she's a "self-proclaimed Floydee" and she wants to know if you had fun. I have to be honest... I never heard of it. So, can you tell me something about it?

JB: Sure. It was a piece written by Adam Guettel and Tina Landau, who actually both went to Yale. They were years before me. So, there was this whole "Yale connection" and it was kind of nice when I auditioned. And it's basically a musical based on the true story of this guy who gets trapped in a cave in Kentucky in 1925 and it becomes one of the first media spectacles. If you remember when baby Jessica got trapped in a well? It was kind of similar to that. People from all around the nation were focused on this thing - "Will he survive? Will he survive?" And this carnival atmosphere occurred on top of the area. People were hawking things. People from all over the world were reporting on it. And it's an incredibly heartfelt, spiritual show. It's Adam's first musical that he's written. He's the grandson of Richard Rodgers and the son of Mary Rodgers, so he's sort of ... people talk about the hot young new composers and he's always mentioned at the top of the list. And Tina, is the most artistic person I have ever worked with. And she relies on her actors so much creatively. I was one of the three reporters and we were kind of the "city element." Our number, which is sort of like the "funny number" in the show - we choreographed ourselves. Basically she sent us off to a room and said, "Come up with five gestures for writing, three for listening, and three walks." Something along those lines. And I was with Matthew Bennett and Brian D'Arcy James who are two amazing actors. And you know, we would just sit in the room and kind of play. For any young performers who've been to drama camps... you know that sense of spirit and adventure and collaboration ... it was really taking place on a professional level. And a lot of times you don't get that opportunity for the actors to use their full artistic theme to collaborate.

But the show itself - it was an incredible company. We kind of had bad timing. We opened two weeks after Rent opened downtown and that was already declared the off Broadway hit that was going to go to Broadway. So, what we've gotten is this cult following. And I know people who think it's just one of the most moving things they've ever seen and I'm just proud to have been a part of it. It was also my first big break into doing new shows. Before that I had done a national tour and I had done regional summer stock, but this was working on a new show and that's really what I've done since then. And, it's much more fun to work on new pieces.

And one of the nice things about this, you know I came in to replace Gilles (Chiasson), but when we changed it I got to sort of recreate a role.

NR: OK, we'll get back to that. You have a band called "Five Floor Monica". Can you tell me about it?

JB: I have a vocal band. It's all people I went to college with and we all did a capella singing groups in college. But, four of us were in this group called the "Whiffenpoofs," which is an all senior men's group of 14 guys singing old standards in white tie and tails. So, this guy John Alger, who graduated a year ahead of me, wanted to come up with the idea of no instruments but it functions like a band where he writes the music but we riff and we kind of come up with arrangements ourselves, the way a band would setup arrangements. And it's sort of pop/funk.

NR: Do you perform?

JB: Yeah. In the past year we've basically been mixing our album. Because we have our first CD that we're producing ourselves. But I guess we started around 3 years ago. The first 2 years we sang a lot around town. Unfortunately my schedule has precluded me from doing some of the gigs. I think they've had somebody fill in for me a couple of times. Actually my first week here, my very first week doing the show, on Saturday night, a two show day, I raced up to a gig to do the second half act of the gig and it was absolutely exhausting! Because you know... your first week, your head is spinning...

NR: Wow! Well, you'll have to tell us if you're performing.

JB: Yeah, I will. Right now we're focusing on getting this CD out. It looks like it will be out in February. I'm really proud of the group. It's really smart, fun music, all original music. The guy who writes it, this guy John, is terrific. It's four guys, one woman, which is also unusual. The only group that's similar is the "Bobs" and they have three men and one woman They're a little quirkier. John hates the word "a capella" because it kind of denotes a certain "dorky quality." He wants us to be really much cooler and "downtown hip" and that's why he calls us a sort of a "vocal band" so it will have a hipper quality to it.

NR: Well, you know you have a built-in audience to get the word out.

JB: Exactly, exactly. Well, once I can get the CD I'll get it out to the website.

NR: Absolutely, because everybody's asked me about it.

JB: Oh, great.

Interview conducted and photographs by Nancy Rosati.