NR: I'm trying to picture you learning the new "Creation of Man" while doing the old "Creation of Man," which was totally different.

RG: But that's the easy stuff. Because they're so totally different, you can't confuse them. The first version was so much about the Bounders singing individual lines and interacting with the Prince of Wales. You can't confuse that with this version because it's so completely different. The stuff that got confusing was the stuff that was similar but not the same. Doug Sills had to bear the brunt of that because there were so many scenes or lyrics where he was doing something that was so similar to what he was doing at night, but they were just a little different. That's the hard stuff.

NR: Elton changed a little bit each time. He's kind of evolved all this time.

RG: I guess he has.

NR: I think he got bigger.

RG: It just seems that way.

NR: It seemed to me in SP2 that Elton had more of a defined personality than most of the other Bounders.

RG: I've heard that from other people and they don't feel that way in this version. I think it's simply because there are fewer Bounders and they're more sharply defined this time, which is much better for the show. We had more bodies on stage but we had characters that basically didn't say anything or contribute anything to give them a distinct personality because the text didn't allow for it. Basically there were bodies that served the piece in having a certain number of people on stage, but the audience didn't get to know them. They didn't get the opportunity to find out anything about them. There was only a handful of characters that had enough of something to offer that the audience could go, "Oh, yeah, that one. Or Dewhurst - the friend." or me, I was the "butterfly guy." Nobody could remember my character name, but they could always remember that I was the "butterfly guy." Everybody has something now because now there are fewer, and you can see these more specific personalities.

NR: Have all these changes made it more interesting, since you've been here for a year and a half now? Has it gotten boring?

RG: No, it hasn't. I don't get bored doing the show. Actually, the changes do serve to make it more interesting. I've done long runs before. The last job I had before this was the Hal Prince version of Showboat. I was out on tour with that and about halfway through my tour we also did a downsizing. It wasn't as drastic. It was a huge production. We started out with 71 people on stage and I think we lost eight or ten people. Now, in a cast that size, no one would know, but you still have to make adjustments. I thought it was fascinating. I got new things to do and new things to work on, so it made it much more interesting for me a year and a half into the job. I loved that. I don't necessarily crave ever rehearsing this show again. I've now rehearsed this show three times in a year and a half. And yes, it's always a little different, and that makes it interesting, but I wish it would just stay one way now.

NR: Who came up with all the little bits that you do, like hanging over the side of the boat? Was that you, was that Bobby (Longbottom), or a collaboration?

RG: A lot of that's me. That's usually me and then Bobby will come see it and say, "Oh, I like that. Make sure you do that every night." Or he'll say, "I don't think that's appropriate. That's going a little too far." He's real good about that with me. We've worked together many times over the years. I trust him implicitly as a director. I will ask him if it's too much or too little. He'll always let me know.

NR: What do you do as dance captain?

RG: The general umbrella description is that I have to maintain the dance aspects of the show. I help at understudy rehearsals with the stage managers. I am basically responsible for teaching and maintaining anything that is set to music. In this show, since we have so much underscoring, or there is certain staging in the solos, duets, and trios, I'm basically responsible for knowing all of that movement, and teaching the new people and the understudies. The actors will get their blocking from the stage managers, but I will teach them everything else. Then I have to watch as much as I can given my situation. I have to give notes and maintain the vision that Bobby has as the director and choreographer, to keep things as best as I can remember and as best as I've notated. I have to keep them the way that they were set in rehearsal. Over the course of a long run, things change without people necessarily knowing that they've changed. They start doing something different without realizing that it's different. I'll go to them and say, "It's not meant to be like that. It's actually this." The standard response to that is, "Oh, but I've always done it that way." I'll say, "Please don't ever, ever say those words to me." Those are the words that no dance captain or anyone else in my position would want to hear.

NR: Peter (Flynn) told me you sat out recently to see it.

RG: In the year and a half that I've been dance captain, I've only sat out twice.

NR: The rest of the time you do this from the stage? Really?

RG: Yeah, and it's hard. It's not a good situation. The dance captain should never be in a role like mine. The only reason it's that way is because that's the way it was originally set up. When I came into the show, the spot I was replacing was the dance captain. It was Adam Pelty, who was also the choreographer. He remained in the show and was the dance captain. With him leaving the show, that spot became available and it was the whole package that was being offered.

NR: When you're in something like "The Gavotte," how can you watch what others are doing?

RG: It's hard.

NR: What about when you're changing your clothes? There has to be something going on while you're getting changed.

RG: It's hard. I have to rely on other eyes at times. I have to rely on the stage managers. I have to rely on other people in the company coming to me with things that they see or things that have become problems. That happens anyway. People will come up to me and say, "I'm having a problem here. Someone's in my way and it didn't used to be this way." That's easy enough to deal with. There are times when I'm on stage, and there's something going on behind me and I can't see it. People know I can't see it so they'll tell me about it. Then I'll just try to find out what the problem is or how we can fix it. But it's not a great situation because it doesn't really allow me to sit and watch the whole picture. I hope you never notice this, but there are many times on stage when I'm on with everyone, that I am watching exactly what everyone is doing as much as I can. I try to make it not look like I'm scanning or trying to take notes. It's a terrible situation because then my mind goes into that mindset, and I'm not taking care of my show, and that's when it becomes a real problem. That's the part of it that I dislike more than anything. I have to have both heads on at the same time, and it's not really fair. I feel like one will always suffer. A lot of times the dance captain will suffer because I would rather concentrate on the scenes and my role and where I fit into that. Sometimes I will see something, and think, "I have to tell so and so about that." That will take me away from the scene and then when the scene is over, I will have forgotten. I do the best I can but it's not good.

Interview conducted and photographs by Nancy Rosati.