I met with Douglas in his dressing room before the December 11th performance. The entire interview is quite lengthy and appears in the "Spotlight On" section of Talkin' Broadway. Below are only a few excerpts ...

NR: OK. So, last year, after 20 years, you made it to Broadway ... and not in the ensemble but in the lead. Was the reality anything like the perception?

DS: It's more challenging even than I'd hoped it would be. I use everything I've ever learned. There's like a child stuck in a well and you dig with everything you've ever learned to get the child out. That's pretty much how it feels.

NR: I'd like to go through the first year. Real quick, just tell me what these felt like to you. The first opening.

DS: It was very exciting. I was ready for it. I had been preparing for it all my life. No one was asking me to do anything I couldn't do. There was a LOT of pressure - both self-imposed and super-imposed. There was a lot of money on the show.

NR: The Tony Awards

DS: Frustrating. There's SO much activity going on before the Tony Awards. SO much is demanded of you in terms of publicity and appearances that the idea that you're trying to concurrently play the lead in a play which is more strenuous than any single person should undergo in an of itself, and on top of that you should look great and appear at these things and be charming and interesting and available - it's very hard. So, it was not particularly enjoyable. It was chaos.

It was very disappointing to be honest with you. I don't know why but I had allowed myself, despite all predictions, to think what if, what if. I don't see how you can't if you're human. But it was really a pleasure to share the stage with other really strong shows in a really strong season, when audiences felt so strongly about the other performances and the other shows. The big thrill I think for me was having my parents be alive to be able to be there.

NR: Then you were on the verge of closing and Cablevision came to the rescue. How did you feel about that?

DS: I was tired. I wanted to go home. Because of this incredible opportunity I had been given, I felt it necessary to do everything I could for the piece and for those who were devoted to the piece. And I did. I literally spent my entire life. I forsaked my existence for the show - including my health. And, that was voluntary. And I'm not sorry I did it. But, it definitely aged me - no question about it. So, I was ready to go and when Teddy Forstmann came to me and said he was interested in having me stay, I said, "Teddy, I've got to be honest with you, I'm not. I've done it now - for my art and for my career. There's nothing left for me here. So, I'm flattered. But, you're going to have to come up with a reason for me to stay 'cause I can't." So, we came up with a reason for me to stay.

NR: OK, we'll get back to that. Tell me about October 1st (the last performance of the old show). What did that feel like?

DS: Oh ... like a rushed wake. You know, you need a mourning time and we didn't have it. Exciting, scary, overdue. I'm sure glad we had a closing night event. It was sad. I miss things from that show, very much. Regardless of what anyone says, the empirical truth is that the success that we enjoy today is inexorably linked to that show. And I mean EVERYTHING. Even the things that are no longer in the show, that have better things in their place, have arrived with those better things BECAUSE of what was there before. I've heard people say, "Oh, there was no other show. This is the beginning." That is not my feeling about it.

At this point, we were joined by Douglas' dresser, Jennifer Griggs, and his hairdresser, Alyce Banny. Later in the interview he directed some of my questions to the two of them.

NR: Let's talk about the ad libs from the first show. I'm trying to picture how this worked. You're the "new kid on the block" and here's Terrence Mann, "Broadway legend" and suddenly you're throwing him surprise lines that make him laugh.

DS: They weren't surprise because Terry and I work the same way. We knew that we both came from the same school of training.

NR: But, when did you think of them? On stage, in the shower in the morning, while you were frozen on the pedestal during "When I Look at You?"

DS: Nothing was ever, ever thought of before the moment occurred.

NR: Isn't that dangerous? Couldn't you suddenly say something you didn't mean to say?

DS: What else is there? What are you buying a ticket to see? Danger. That's what you people that are coming back more than once want to see. Is Douglas going to fall on his face? Yeah, it's dangerous. I think that's the whole point. I think that's why I'm doing it and I think that's why people came to see it.

Yeah, it's dangerous, but you can't do it without the implicit or at least spoken understanding of the other players. And Terry was amenable. That tonality was established in rehearsals.

NR: How do you compare the two versions and how has Percy changed?

DS: Let's do the second part of it. Percy is much more human, much more flawed, more angry. He's less air-brushed, he's the guy next door. He's pissy sometimes and wakes up ugly and yells at his friends and is mean when he's hurt.

NR: How does the script feel from one version of the show to the other? - The overall atmosphere?

DS: The script is probably clearer and more spare. The esthetic coming down from the director is more clear. There's a very specific thumbprint style-wise on the show. It has a style. That means the dancing - and there IS dancing, and the dancing has a certain sensation to it. Bobby [Longbottom] was very clear, "I want this show to look EXACTLY the same, and feel EXACTLY the same without variation EVERY NIGHT of the week."

NR: You talked before about not being sure you wanted to do this. Here's a quote from you...From Newsday - "If I'd known how difficult it was going to be, I might not have done it. But this sort of thing had never been tried before and it was like a piece of cheese in a mousetrap to me. I couldn't resist." I want to know what you couldn't resist.

DS: A dare. Somebody was daring me. They were saying, "Do you think you could do this again? Could you recreate something, but have to go back with a new director and re-fire it?" Especially since 99% I had nowhere to go but down. So, it was a dare, it was a big dare. "I dare you. You know, is it the reviews you're in love with, or is it the work? I dare you to go and do it for the work's sake." That's what I was saying to myself. And to stay on Broadway.

NR: It's so exhausting now - what you're doing...How do you keep up the energy? And how do you do it when you're having a bad day, and you're tired?

DS: My dresser Jen puts up with it. She's sort of my buffer between me and the world. And my hair lady, Alyce. It's exhausting, because you know ... I think, because you know it's finite. I know it's going to come to an end. And I want to be able to say "I gave 175% EVERY day, as many days as was humanly possible until this was over." And then I'll collapse. So, I try to take care of myself - I mean I do the obvious things - sleep and eat, have quiet time, have therapy, try to work out, voice lessons. You know I have to be responsible. I can't go out, I can't drink, I can't eat a lot at night, I can't play, I can't smoke, you know there's a lot of things that you can't do. These are the responsibilities when you're trying to do something Olympian in size and scale.

NR: OK. I want to talk about the League. Why do you think they've been so loyal? And what do you think their contribution's been?

DS: I guess they've been loyal because it's a product that they like and enjoy going to. I mean, why do you order eggs benedict twice? Because you like it. So, they like it. And they feel regarded. I think those two things are sort of important.

NR: How do they feel regarded?

DS: I don't know because I only see what I do with them. But, I assume they must feel regarded, otherwise why would they come back? So, I certainly try to regard them. And that means make time, if someone has a special occasion and I know that person I'll try to make time for them backstage, make exceptions to the rules, make the boundaries of my personal life flexible so that I will talk to them afterwards, make eye contact, remember their names, remember what they're doing in their lives. You know, whatever it is. So, if you try and remember them as you would want to be remembered if you were making repeat visits. I think that's why they come back.

And, what effect have they had on the show? Well, they've certainly kept our spirits up in difficult times. They are the conduit through which the audience response is most easily manifested. I think they've had incredible word-of-mouth and I think the Internet and the League was one way of circumventing that unbalanced geometry (between public and critics). I think that's the main contribution. They showed other producers that you could theoretically bypass the critics, not bypass, but you can have a show run in spite of.

NR: You can pick whatever order you want to answer these, but what's the best part and the worst part of your job?

DS: The worst part of my job? Fatigue, drain, strain, the strain it has on my life, other than my professional life. That I don't have time for my personal things. My personal relationships have suffered. My relationship to my environment has suffered, if you want to call my spiritual relationship has suffered. My health has suffered. My ability to encounter other professional projects has suffered. All as a result of physical and mental strain just trying to keep up with the demands of the piece.

The best part of it is... The best part of my job... (laughs) Oh, God, that's really tough. What do you guys think?

JG: I know you like sharing. I know you like having the chance to speak to people and maybe give them a little guidance 'cause you've often mentioned "I wish there was someone in my past like me who said 'OK, here's a pitfall and here's a good way to go.'" I think it's kind of nice that you're in a position to do that.

DS: That's true. Yes, that's probably true. The nicest thing is helping friends, and new friends, but mostly old friends succeed, get work, get out of debt, whatever it is I can help people do as a result of this position that I've been put in for a little while. That's probably the best part. But there's many things that run a very close second.

NR: What do you do when you're off, or on vacation, if that ever happens?

DS: Well, I try to regenerate but I also have to take care of my life. It's hard. I just try and keep up without drowning - whether it's taxes or returning phone calls or whatever it is I just don't seem to have enough time in the day to even get the little, just the minimum done. I'm drowning usually - drowning in paperwork, drowning in scripts to read, drowning in rehearsals or publicity events to go to.

NR: What do you want to do in the future?

DS: I want to do a production of Hamlet. I want to be in rehearsals for a production of Hamlet by the time I'm 40.

NR: Have you decided if you're leaving on March 7th?

DS: I would consider staying. That's the last conversation I had. I don't think I'd consider it in a very, very positive way, but I certainly told them that I would consider it. I do feel quite sincerely that there is a law of diminishing returns between an actor and a role. And I think I hit that wall six months ago.

NR: You don't think you've moved past that?

DS: I think that there was a period of re-excitement, re-energizing with the new show, but, no, I think that especially with the new parameters of the show, about variation, it comes back quite quickly. So, I sincerely feel, and I mean this in all sincerity, that for the best thing of the show I wish they could find someone who is fresh and had what I had a year ago for the show, because now there's a form, and they could REALLY soar. So, it's not that I won't consider it, I will consider it. It doesn't seem likely. For everyone involved it seems like I should go, or at least not stay on much longer than that. You know, if they said, "Well, could you stay on six weeks? It would make a huge difference to us." Well, of course I probably would. But, I think right now, my inclination is to say "You know what? It's a great day. It's a great time to go."

NR: Other than Hamlet, would you like to do films, more TV?

DS: Well, I look at careers of people like Ms. Close and Mr. Kline as models for what I would like to do. I would like to be able to move with ease between genres - that's an ideal career for me. To be able to move between television or television movies, feature films, plays and musicals with some ease has always been my ideal.