The only word to use when describing James is "joyous." It's a word that he uses often and it just seems to fit his outlook on life. As an added treat for our interview, James took me up on the roof of the Minskoff to take his picture. He's spent three years in this theater and you can see that it feels very much like home to him.

NR: Can you tell me where you grew up?

JD: I was born in Chicago. That's where I got most of my training. I studied in Chicago with several teachers at the Fine Arts Building and for a bit at the Goodman Theater as well.

NR: How long have you wanted to act?

JD: I think probably since I was a child. I would go to the movies with my family and I was always performing and having fun with the kids in the neighborhood. We'd put on a show in the backyard and do all that kind of thing. As I got into high school it was time for me to start making some decisions, and a girl, whose sister I was dating, said that she was studying in the Fine Arts Building - downtown - with professionals. So, I thought I'd go and explore and see what classes were available in terms of singing and acting and dancing, and I got a scholarship. I started studying as soon as I got out of high school, and working shortly thereafter, in Milwaukee in a nightclub revue called Hits of Broadway and doing summer stock in Kansas City at the Starlight Theater. So, work started happening for me early on, but I was really dedicated to the learning process. I didn't have any training prior to that and being that I had been given the opportunity of having a scholarship, I figured I'd better do my best and learn as fast as I could.

NR: Was it what you expected it to be?

JD: Yes, and more.

NR: That's great. And it's just grown since?

JD: Absolutely. I think there's always a need to keep exploring, to keep learning more if you're an inquisitive person and you want to know the hows, the whys, you'll finally come up with some wonderful things based on what you've put into your brain, through the classes and your studies. I've been very blessed with some really wonderful teachers - people who gave me a terrific set of ground rules and some wonderful training and techniques that I'm able to call on.

NR: What kind of ground rules? Like, if you wanted to advise someone who wanted to become an actor, what would you say?

JD: You know what I'd say? Something that a character actor said to me when I was a young man working in summer stock. His name was Joseph Macauley and believe it or not, he was in the original Three Musketeers. He was a character actor and would do all of the shows at the Starlight Theater in Kansas City. Week after week he'd change his persona to be yet another character and he was very secretive about what kind of makeup he used and what kind of putty he put on his nose and what kind of wigs he chose. I remember it was my first season of summer stock and I said to him, "What do I have to do to work in the theater, to be a successful actor like you've become?" He said, "Never forget this. Chance favors the man/woman prepared." So, that's been my motto, to keep learning and to keep growing. And then there comes a time in your life when you feel that you have to pass that knowledge on. I've been teaching here in New York City at AMDA - the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, and I've taught some master classes and audition technique workshops for the Kennedy Centers College Theater Festival at several of the regions around the country. I've also done some freelance coaching and workshops in different parts of the country, so I'm able now to take many of the things that were taught to me as a young man, and hopefully pass on some of the knowledge and years of training in the theater to others.

NR: Is this the longest you've stayed in one show?

JD: No. I played Andy Lee in 42nd Street for a year in Los Angeles at the Shubert Theater, and then I toured with it for two years, one thousand plus performances.

NR: Do you have any trouble keeping it fresh after that long, or is it still fun?

JD: It's always fun, especially with a show that has a big cast because the interaction between the actors that happens every performance on the stage changes ever so slightly based on so many variables. There's also the fact that you're doing a Broadway show. I believe less than one percent of our actors' union is working on Broadway at any one time.

NR: That's amazing. What a frustrating statistic!

JD: Yeah, and I think less than fifteen percent of Actors' Equity Union is working at any one time in regional theater all over the country, so I have to say that keeping it fresh is not a problem. You really have to remember that we are the privileged few to be able to be out there "on the boards" doing our thing.

NR: That's true and it's a great attitude to have. What's your favorite role that you've played so far?

JD: (laughs) Oh boy, do you want a list? There's so many wonderful roles. I'd been living in Los Angeles for nineteen years where I did a lot of work in regional theater and civic light operas and some television and film work as well. Just before I came back to New York City in 1996, I auditioned for Trevor Nunn to be a replacement in Sunset Boulevard. I got a telephone call from Vinnie Liff, the casting director for Johnson-Liff and Associates and he said, "James, this is your welcome back to New York call." I said, "What do you mean?" and he said, "How would you like to come and do a role in Sunset Boulevard?" I said yes, and three years later, I'm still here at the Minskoff. Just prior to that, in Los Angeles, I got the opportunity to play one of my dream roles, which is the King in The King and I. My Mrs. Anna was a woman by the name of Dale Kristen who played Christine in Phantom of the Opera in Los Angeles for several years with Michael Crawford. We played a big beautiful theater in Thousand Oaks, California - 1700 seats, (as big as the Minskoff), with sets from the last Yul Brynner tour, wonderful new costumes, a cast of thousands and a thirty piece orchestra. It was truly a joy, a wonderful, wonderful role.

Pacific Overtures was an extraordinary experience. I've enjoyed playing Guido in Nine. I played that at the Salt Lake Acting Company. Jigger in Carousel is another favorite. Also while in Los Angeles I got to play Tom in That Championship Season, and Tristan Tzara in Travesties, a Tom Stoppard play.

NR: Were they the ones that you enjoyed the most?

JD: Well, when you're working on a role and you're really digging and trying to find new things and nuances, (because so many of the things that you do in regional theater and civic light operas have been done and done and done, time and time again), so what you try to do is explore a new facet of what that role might be or how you can personalize it to truly make it your own, so that you're not doing a "stock" performance.

NR: OK, now what's the worst one (laughing) that you did, that you wanted to get off your resume as soon as possible?

JD: (big laugh) I don't know if this is one of the worst ones, but I'll tell you. I'm kind of glad that I did this show because it was a wonderful experience when all was said and done. I did a show in the first new theater to open on Broadway in 33 years. It was a show called Via Galactica which was at the Uris Theater and directed by Sir Peter Hall. The stage was six trampolines (laughs) so we rehearsed for about five or six weeks, we previewed for two weeks, and after we opened, played for just a week. I made a home movie "The Making of Via Galactica." The opening AND closing party are on the last reel. (laughs)

NR: (laughing) Within a week.

JD: Within a week. We had wonderful people in the show. A fellow by the name of Gian Carlo Esposito who's doing wonderful work in films and television now, Raul Julia, Virginia Vestoff, Keene Curtis, and a young little girl named Irene Cara.

NR: What was it, some science fiction show?

JD: It was a kind of musical space odyssey.

NR: I don't remember it at all. (laughs)

JD: No, but it was ground breaking. (laughing) We literally broke ground at the Uris Theater, which is now called the Gershwin. Like I said, I did a super-8 home movie. It was before videos so it's a silent film and I added a soundtrack. Some wonderful things like - after a few weeks of rehearsal on those trampolines, people started to fracture little fingers and other body parts, so I have people walking up the stairs into the rehearsal room with braces and canes and different things on, and my soundtrack has Mary Martin singing "Climb Every Mountain." (laughs)

NR: Which do you prefer to work in - stage, TV or film?

JD: Each medium has its own kind of magic to it. The theater's wonderful because you get an immediate response. Films and television, you have to hit the mark and you get a chance to do it over and over until it's right, and not necessarily because you're doing it wrong. Other things may happen that go wrong with the shot and you get a chance to do it over and over again. While I was on vacation from the show, I happened to go to Florida, and I called a woman who had cast me in Miami Vice. I had two nice scenes with Don Johnson many years ago when Miami Vice was on. I called her to tell her I was there for a week and she told me that they had just lost an actor and she asked me if I wanted to read for the director. I got a wonderful role in a network cable series. I had four really nice scenes.

NR: How did it feel coming back to the Minskoff after Sunset Boulevard?

JD: I love the Minskoff, and everybody connected with the Minskoff - the crew, all of the people out front, the wonderful ushers, our house manager and his assistant, the ticket takers, the backstage crew, carpenters, prop men. It really is a terrific crew here at the Minskoff. It's been a terrific time for almost three years now.

NR: What's the most challenging part about playing the Prince and Robespierre?

JD: I had the good fortune to have Steve Beckler, (our company manager when we started the show), be at our first understudy rehearsals to guide me through the part and to prompt and help me with specifics of what we thought would work with the Prince of Wales and Robespierre. I think probably one of the things I was grateful for was that I didn't have to copy what David Cromwell, who's such a wonderful actor, does. I can bring my own Robespierre and my own Prince of Wales onto the stage of the Minskoff. I truly loved the Prince of Wales when I got to do "The Creation of Man" number - when I would put on the big padded stomach and the costume and be a part of that number. That was great fun. Also, there was a third character at the time, the Fisherman at the seacoast. I have photographs of all three of them.

NR: David's not out that often.

JD: David's a trouper. I've played the roles about 25 times.

NR: Is it hard to remember it then?

JD: Well, we do have understudy rehearsals most every week. I'm not called every week, but most every week and I'm always on top of what it is. For awhile there it got a little tricky because bits and pieces of some of the dialogue were changed and switched around, so you would say something at one point, or answer it a certain way, and then you wouldn't. Or, one of those two lines were cut and given to another actor, like Grappin would say something, so you really have to be on your toes and know which version you're doing. (laughs) It's been great fun and I would be surprised sometimes because friends would come to see the show unannounced. I didn't know they were coming and they didn't know I was on that evening and they would tell me that they didn't know that all those three characters were me.

NR: And, most people do not know that you're the Executioner in "The Rescue."

JD: No, they don't know that because what has happened is...(laughs) this is sort of funny. In the original version, I didn't wear a hood. With the second version, they decided that the Executioner would look more menacing all in black with a black hood, but I think it's because...(big smile)...being that Jessup and the Executioner are one, they didn't want people going out of the theater saying, "The butler did it."

NR: (laughs) What's your favorite memory of the past year and a half?

JD: Fun times together with the company, whether it be at a party or an after-show get-together. This has truly been a wonderful, wonderful family.

NR: Everyone tells me that. It must really be true and not just a story.

JD: Right from the get-go. Right from August, 1997 when we first got together at the Julliard School to start our rehearsals. Everybody just clicked and it's truly been great fun. I've had some joyous times with these people and certainly an awful lot of laughs. There have been wonderful things that have happened. There have been wonderful mistakes that have happened on the stage. (laughs)

NR: Tell me one.

JD: Let's see. There have been a few but one that comes to mind is in the second act, Tussaud's wine cellar got stuck and we had to stop the show for about ten minutes or so. (laughing) Douglas (Sills) went out and entertained the audience and brought Terry Mann out and, last but not least, Douglas brought out his dog, Lucy, our mascot. Lucy did a few tricks and "walk arounds" on the stage. (laughing) We're laughing a lot, aren't we, Nancy? This has been a laugh-filled interview.

NR: (laughing) Of course! We always end up laughing a lot.

Have you ever experienced anything like the League before?

JD: No, not at all. The League is extraordinary. It has changed the whole kind of support group. I never saw when I worked in the theater before...well that was quite awhile ago. I'd been living in Los Angeles for many years, but coming back, I see that this has kind of happened with different shows. I suppose it's because of the way we're able to communicate these days through email and all of those kind of connections that we have. The communication is easier and simpler and we're able to get messages out. Thank God for the League because they've certainly kept The Scarlet Pimpernel going on so many levels.

NR: What type of levels?

JD: Well, I think that just because the League has believed so much in the show, and in all of us, the Pimpernel family, it makes us know that we're on the right track.

NR: It's certainly broken down barriers. The way you all talk about the cast being a family - we've all seen that. I've even found that I've met people in the League who will be my lifelong friends.

JD: What an extraordinary time it's been in terms of the League coming about two or three times and just showering us after the show with all of those flowers on stage, just showering us, throwing them from the audience on us.

NR: Is there anything else that you'd still like to accomplish personally?

JD: I enjoy teaching. I hope to continue doing that. I've been doing some writing. I've had three short stories published. As a matter of fact, I've been keeping a journal from Day One of The Scarlet Pimpernel. I've written different things that have happened, on stage and off. I've kept a journal and have manila envelopes filled with all kinds of clippings and photographs. Maybe I'll write a book. (laughing)

NR: That would be fascinating.

JD: So much has gone on during rehearsals and in times when we've been here through different kinds of changes and different kinds of directions. I think it's very interesting and the public doesn't know about them and maybe they should be put down somewhere, sometime.

NR: I think it's a great idea. Theater fans are so interested in this sort of thing.

JD: I'd like to do some producing. I have a couple of projects that people have shown interest in and I think that's a possibility. Also, creating a terrific role in a new show would be great. I'm always preparing, always learning more and new things, new material, new monologues, new songs, because I'll never forget what Joseph Macauley once said, "Chance favors the man prepared."

NR: That's great. Thank you very much.

JD: Thank you, Nancy. It's always a treat to see you.

It has been an absolute pleasure to get to know James and see him perform, both as Jessup and as the Prince/Robespierre. I wish him the best of luck in the future and I hope he does write that book, because I will be first on line to read it.

Questions suggested by:

AJ Jacobsen, Frank Boemio, Susan Luchey, Amy Lovett, Nicole Albertson, Thom and Colleen Rosati, Gillian Girvin, Jimbo Diego, Lisa George, Andrea Galeno, Megan Marod, Leona Hoegsberg, Dee, Talia Krispel, Nancy Duchnowski, Renee Girard, Anna Wilson, Evan Gadda, BarbaraAnne, Stephanie Henkin, Lauren Teweles, Anne Teitelbaum, Josie Smith, Kate Scibal, Jan Kolb