Jeff has played Mercier, one of Chauvelin's henchmen, since the show opened in 1997. I enjoyed speaking with him as he shared stories about his famous grandfather and working with Colleen Dewhurst.

NR: Where did you grow up?

JG: I was born in the Bronx, but I was raised in Westchester County in a town called Scarsdale.

NR: That's pretty local.

JG: I'm a New Yorker. In fact I'm a fourth generation New Yorker, which is pretty rare. Both of my grandmothers were born in the City of New York, and both of my grandfathers lived in New York most of their lives, as did my great-grandparents. There are a lot of artists in the family tree, so my family stories include names such as George M. Cohan, Flo Ziegfeld and Leopold Stokowski.

I was bounced on the knee of Leopold Stokowski when I was three years old and my grandfather, Samuel Gardner, was the First Violinist under him with the American Symphony. He was also in the pit orchestra of the original Broadway production of On The Town. At the end of his career, when he was teaching at Juilliard, my grandfather got a call from a music contractor for a show asking him to recommend one of his students to be the concert-master for this new show On The Town. They knew they were going to have a very demanding violin score. My father was to enter college at the time, so my grandfather needed a good gig for money. He said, "Would you object if I took the job myself?" They were delighted to have him, but it would have been a terrible insult to ask a violinist of his caliber and stature to be in the pit of a Broadway show, as he was a soloist with the many of the great Symphony Orchestras for most of his career.

NR: It sounds like you've always been involved with show business.

JG: Since I was a small boy, the theater has been a big part of my life. By the time I graduated high school I had been in forty amateur plays.

NR: Is this a career that you would recommend?

JG: No. First of all, there's no money to be made in the theater, even if you're successful at it. I've never really had to have a survival job for any length of time in the seventeen years that I've been in the business, but I don't have much of a savings account either, and I'm reasonably successful. I'm 36, I've done five Broadway shows, but I don't have a "name factor" so there aren't people just dying to offer me a job. Unless you are very, very successful, it's a hard life. Most people can't survive not knowing where their next meal is going to come from. I'm used to the instability. Most people don't have the stomach for it.

NR: Are there good parts to it that keep you going?

JG: I love what I do. It's great. Tonight I get to do a Broadway show. It's what I dreamed of as a small boy. I love the theater. It's what I do. It's where I fit, it's home. There's nothing better than an opening night of a Broadway show. That's crazy, exciting. There are a lot of people who would lop off their left arm to do what I have done. When it's good, the rewards are wonderful.

NR: Have you done TV or film? If so, how do you compare them to the theater?

JG: My film and TV experience is limited but the difference between film and theater is easy to define. Film is a director's medium and the theater is an actor's medium. In film, you shoot it and then it's up to the director to make it work. In the theater, the director is in charge of the rehearsal process and then it's up to the actors to make it work. The director turns it over to the actor. In a film, the actor turns it over to the director.

From the audience perspective, a film can be seen many times and it's exactly the same every time. The theater is ethereal. Each performance exists only in the moment of its creation and in the memory of those who were in it or those who saw it. This is why theater is the stuff of legends and dreams. You can say "Oh, I saw it the night when this happened" but there isn't any proof. Whereas, in film, you can look at a little moment, and you can run it fifty times. You can talk about it and analyze it, but that's not true with the theater.

NR: I understand you worked with Colleen Dewhurst. What was that like?

JG: Yes, when I was nineteen. The name of the play was The Queen and the Rebels and it starred Colleen Dewhurst. It was at the Plymouth Theater in 1982. On the first day of rehearsal...we were supposed to be a bunch of prisoners and it was supposed to be very hot. I asked the director if I might have a thermos of water that I could work with. He thought that was fine. So, I was sitting on my box, doing my sensory exercises, (I was just out of acting school) pretending to pour the water, taste the water, smell the water, etc. Colleen Dewhurst was just going through the text one page at a time, seeing what happens. I didn't have any lines in the scene, but she sat down next to me in the middle of her scene with someone else. I looked at her, and I was holding this imaginary cup. I didn't want to be a coward. I said to myself, "Be strong and do it, or you don't really deserve to be where you are." So, in the middle of her scene with someone else, I offered her my imaginary cup of water. What I thought was going to happen was that she would pat me on the head and say, "That's very nice, but please don't interrupt me when I'm working. What are you, right out of school?" Instead, she took the cup of water. She walked across the stage, and while she was working her scene with Peter Michael Goetz, the other actor, she took a few sips of the water. She drank the last drop, and, at just the right moment, she jauntily tossed the imaginary cup across the stage back to me, winked, and continued on. At the end of the day, she stopped me and she said, "Thank you for handing me that water. That was very helpful." The message was, "Don't be afraid of me because I'm famous. That's our work." She was a real theater artist and she was letting me know that even though I was young, it was right of me to take that risk. She was encouraging me to be creative. Now, the prop man was watching the whole thing, so the next day, on the prop table was a thermos with some water in it and a cup, and the bit was in the play. It came out of the rehearsal process and so I shared a "moment" with Colleen Dewhurst that was my own creation. That's a memory that will stay with me, and it will remind me that if I ever get really famous, people will be intimidated and I should help them not to be intimidated. I think it's a sign of real greatness and generosity. That's a theater memory that I'll keep with me for the rest of my life.

NR: What's the most memorable role you've played so far?

JG: Most memorable? Well, they're all memorable in their own way. Each part is unique. Two of my favorites to play are Don Quixote in Man of LaMancha, which I've done a couple of times, and Tevye from Fiddler On The Roof. Those are roles that you can play over and over again for a lifetime and in each performance try and find your way deeper into the material. Those are two roles in musical theater that I'd like to play again.

NR: Do you have any dream roles that you haven't played yet?

JG: I'd like to play Mayer Rothschild in The Rothschilds. I've played his eldest son Amshel twice, but I've never played Mayer and that's a great role in a great show.

NR: I heard that last Sunday you were sort of Coupeau and Mercier at the same time. Can you tell me about that?

JG: One actor was on vacation, T. Doyle Leverett was injured, (we wish him a speedy recovery.) Timothy Eric Hart was sick, and the swings were playing several different things, so the easiest way to track the show was if I played both roles in one scene. It was amusing and I was glad to help out.

NR: I heard you took a lot more abuse from Chauvelin.

JG: Well, the two of us usually get beat up, so I got beat up twice.

NR: What was the funniest thing that's happened to you in this show so far?

JG: The thing that made me laugh was the night when Christine Andreas was supposed to throw her sword over the head of Percy Blakeney and into the ocean, and she didn't quite throw it hard enough. It landed tip down and stuck in the seascape with the handle up right behind him. Of course, he wasn't supposed to be able to grab the sword and there it was in reach. We all sort of looked at each other and shoulders started to heave because it was just a miracle. Of course I had a friend in the audience who asked me, "How do you get the sword to land so perfectly straight up and down in the seascape?" as if we'd rehearsed it a million times that way and it was some kind of special effect. I think that was the funniest thing.

NR: Is there anything you miss from the old show?

JG: I actually miss Douglas (Sills) riffing with the audience. We had a lot of holes in the old show covered up by camp. But the entertainment value of the campiness was very strong. People laughed so hard when they came back from intermission that it was worth the $75 admission price just for those ten minutes. I think a lot of people would say that was the funniest night they ever had in the theater and they laughed so hard their sides split. But, in the new version of the show, some of the holes in the storytelling were closed up and therefore the need for the amount of camp was diminished. I miss some of those campy moments that were really hysterically funny, but are now unnecessary.

NR: What do you think was the best change into the new version?

JG: The storytelling is much tighter. I think both versions have merit, but the problems were in the storytelling, and those problems were addressed. The story is told more efficiently now than before. It is important to remember though, say what I might, I have not seen the show. I did not see the first version and I have not seen the second version. I can only tell you how it feels, but as to how it plays, I have no idea.

NR: Do you have a favorite memory from the show?

JG: The best thing about this show is that it's been the happiest work environment I've ever experienced. It's been a happy dressing room. There's a bunch of zany, intelligent people in the dressing room. I really will come away from this one with new friends, and that's not often the case. Shows come and go and casts mingle and work together, but I think I'm going to keep a lot of the relationships. Peter Hunt set the tone for that originally. He cast people who fit together into an ensemble. That's the greatest challenge for any director, to create a unit, and we really have one. Everyone gets along. That's the most special thing. Also, these are spectacularly talented people and that's not always the case. I'm so glad that I have had the opportunity to work with Douglas and Rex (Smith) and Rachel (York) and all the understudies and all of the ensemble - top to bottom. There isn't anyone that I wouldn't recommend as having the highest degree of talent.

NR: What do you do backstage with all that time?

JG: Read the newspaper. But you always have to have an ear open. You don't want to get too heavily involved in things and miss a cue.

NR: Are there other aspects of theater that you would be interested in, such as directing?

JG: I've done most of the other jobs in the theater. In fact, I would say that there's no job inside a theater that I have not done. There are front office jobs I haven't done. I haven't worked in advertising or marketing. I've never had a job in a box office. But, the actual physical manifestation of a theatrical project - I've done every job. I produced a play in 1996 in San Diego. It took two years to produce. I raised $70,000, developed a script with the writer from a one-act to a full length. It was a very long process. I've directed and produced. I worked as a make-up artist when I was in college. I've done some lighting - essentially everything

NR: Do you enjoy the stage time the most?

JG: It all depends on what you're doing. When I was working as a Supernumerary for the New York City Opera, it was pretty boring, although I was on the stage. It was, however, a good place to listen to the music.

NR: I saw in your bio that you taught speech at NYU?

JG: At the Circle in the Square Theatre School. I have filled in from time to time, when one of their regular staff works on a movie. In one case, Rick Ericson produced The Wind in the Willows on Broadway and I took over his classes for a semester. I coached Geraldine Page in dialects at the Mirror Repertory and coached Malcolm-Jamal Warner on The Cosby Show.

NR: Have you ever experienced anything like the League before?

JG: No. When I did my other Broadway shows, the Internet really hadn't been invented. Actually, it had been invented but it wasn't what it is now. Most of the time in those days, the people who would have been in a "League," were standing at the stage door by themselves thinking they were the only person in the world who loved the show quite so much, and felt lonely or secluded in that feeling. We have no idea whether someone was at Les Miz 25 times in 1988. Now, you go and check out the websites and you'll be guided for a movie, TV show, even a sports team. If you're interested and you have a computer, you'll immediately be hooked up with thousands of people who have the same interest.

NR: Do you think they've had any effect on the show?

JG: Well, it's always nice to have fans waiting outside and know that people care. That's always cheerful. It's always great when they spread the word. They're very good people We've had a good time. I like going to the luncheons and hearing what people have to say, but as far as impact, I really couldn't say. Even if there are 500 Leaguers, it's a third of one performance. If we have nearly 2000 seats, times eight performances, that's 16,000 people a week. The ripples of word-of-mouth certainly generate an awful lot of goodwill towards the show. One person telling another person about a product that they find satisfactory is the best sales tool that anyone ever has. So, there certainly has been an effect. How much of an impact have they had? You'd have to be a statistics expert to really know. But, there would not be a website if it were not for the League, I'm sure of that. I was on the radio show, The Dolans. I did an interview and I mentioned the website. That's coast to coast. The League certainly has had an impact, but you'd have to ask the Producers for a more specific answer to that question.

NR: What do you wish you had more time for in your life?

JG: Sleep.

NR: What would you like to do in the future?

JG: It's really funny when you get into a long run. Because we've been in flux for a year, I can't really project myself past May 30th. Ask me June 1st. I think I'm going to go to Florida. My folks have an apartment there. I'll just sleep for a week by the pool and then sort out what I'm going to do now. There's a novel kicking around in the back of my head that I'd like to take a stab at. I have a couple of ideas for musical theater projects that I can rustle up. I'm going to get my voice back in tip-top shape. I don't know. I don't know what's coming. I never know what's going to happen to me next. That's what I mentioned before about the vagaries of the show business life. I never know what tomorrow's going to bring.

I'd like to find a little romance. That's difficult to do when you're working a theater schedule. You're only going to meet people in show business because the rest of the world is at work, when you are off.

NR: Jeff, I think that's it. Thank you so much.

JG: You're welcome.

I hope Jeff gets that much needed rest, finds that romance, and then an exciting new project to work on. He's a very nice guy and deserves nothing less.

Questions suggested by:

AJ Jacobsen, Frank Boemio, Susan Luchey, Nicole Albertson, Mandy Shekleton, Gillian Girvin, Jimbo Diego, Andrea Galeno, Megan Marod, Talia Krispel, Renee Girard, Anna Wilson, Evan Gadda, BarbaraAnne, Stephanie Henkin, Lauren Teweles, Anne Teitelbaum, Josie Smith, Kate Scibal, Jan Kolb