When I first met Stephen, I was impressed by his warm, friendly personality and his charming ability to laugh at himself. But once he started explaining how he understudies 21 different characters, from ensemble roles to Bounders, I realized that his approach to his job is "all business." No matter what role he is covering, he seems to do it with such joy that you actually look forward to finding one of those little white slips of paper in your Playbill, and knowing that Stephen will be on stage.

NR: Where did you grow up?

SH: I grew up all over. I was born in Savannah, Georgia. I spent three years in a little town called Pembroke, Georgia, right outside of Savannah. The majority of my family are all in southeast Georgia. My parents were in college so I went from Pembroke when I was about three to Macon, Georgia where my father graduated from Mercer University and my mother graduated from Wesleyan University. Then when I was in third grade, we went to Gainesville, Florida, for my dad to get his doctoral work done. He got his PhD at the University of Florida. In 1970, we moved to St. Louis, so that he could do post-doctoral work at Washington University, and then in 1972, when I was a sophomore in high school, we moved from St. Louis to Louisville, Kentucky, where they both were working at the university. Now, they're back in Gainesville working at the University of Florida, but I went from Louisville to Cincinnati, Ohio, where I went to CCM (College Conservatory of Music), and then from there to New York.

NR: So, when did you decide you wanted to act?

SH: Wow. When did I decide I wanted to act? I don't think there was ever a decision there. I always knew that I loved doing it. We did the living room shows, the backyard shows, things like that where you go out and you play a dog...the breezeway shows, this is what it was. I guess I was in St. Louis where it really happened. They were doing a production of The Wizard of Oz in junior high school, and they had cast the people. One of my best friends had been cast as the Cowardly Lion, and I think I had been cast as a Munchkin because I could do the Munchkin voice. And he said that he didn't want to do it, that he wanted me to do it. I look back on it now and it is such an amazing thing, that somebody in eighth grade did that. It's an amazing thing. I don't remember his last name. His first name was Kermit, and he was a good friend as far as I was concerned. Well, I don't know, I probably mugged my way through it and did everything under the sun. I remember my parents rented a costume that had a big lion head on it - a paper mache lion head and of course it was totally wrong. It wouldn't work. There was no tail, which was totally wrong, and I remember my parents making a lion mane with ears, and they took my mother's bathrobe tie and dyed it and made a tail out of it. There was all this involvement of the family. I must have done a pretty good job because I remember getting a lot of laughs. Well, that was the beginning. That was the beginning of the end I think. The real moment came in high school. The musical was Camelot, and I was lucky enough to get to play Arthur. One night after the show my father came up to me and he said, "This is what you need to be doing." I think I'm a pretty fortunate guy. Instead of my parents saying, "Be a doctor, be a lawyer, be an engineer, do anything" he said that. My dad's a scientist, and we're talking LOGIC here. I didn't lean towards any of that. I always leaned more towards music and literature. But, that point was it, and from there on out, no matter what I did, I always kind of gravitated back to theater.

NR: Can you explain the difference between an understudy, a standby, and a swing?

SH: These are the differences as I understand it. First of all, an understudy only understudies principal roles. I am a swing and an understudy. Jimmy Van Treuren is a swing and an understudy. A swing covers generally all of the ensemble and as many roles as they want to, however they want to divide that up. A standby is a different thing altogether. As I understand it, a standby is somebody who is ready to go on only for the lead. They would not necessarily be ready to go on for anybody else but the lead.

NR: So that would have been Nat Chandler, or now Bryan Batt?

SH: Yes.

NR: So, the standby is not in the show unless they're doing that part?

SH: Right.

NR: What type of rehearsal time do you get?

SH: It depends. When I first started, back in January a year ago, they rehearsed me one entire week, and then I followed pretty much for that second week. At that time, I was thrown on as Ozzy. That's just the way things happened. And so, the first part I did was a great part. Very different, I was a different kind of Ozzy, and Ed (Dixon) was a tough act to follow. But, now we can rehearse up to 12 hours a week, understudies and swings. Sometimes we rehearse both Thursdays and Fridays, sometimes it's just one or the other.

NR: Most people assume that an ensemble player would rather have a lead. Do you feel that's true?

SH: Yeah. But, also I think there are varying degrees of that too. There's a lot of responsibility with a lead. Everybody in this ensemble has done a lead part. A lot of it involves the ability to be creative, to be out there and hold the stage on your lonesome. What a challenge! It's an extremely wonderful feeling to be out there on stage on your own. So, yeah, I think that's true.

NR: How DO you keep all 21 characters straight in your head? How on earth do you do that?

SH: (laughs) I don't do it well sometimes. I've had quite a bit of experience in small TV roles and film things and the best way I can explain it is ....first of all they are all 21 different characters. They are 21 different people and therefore they want 21 different things. If I'm playing Bill Evans (Hastings), that particular character as written and as directed wants very different things than Elton wants. (Note: Stephen uses character names and actors' names interchangeably.)

NR: Which is exactly my point. Are you saying that makes it easier?

SH: They're different persons. Then you have the purely technical things. In "The Rescue," Hastings does this and this and this, and in "The Rescue," Elton does this and this. So, I approach them as if I were doing it for television or a film - this scene is the only thing that I can focus on at this point. And therefore, this is what I will focus on, and I will make my way through that, and then we'll move on to the next one. But, as far as what the character is doing, or is achieving, I think I make decisions before I go on that this is kind of how I think I want to approach the character, and then I have to follow that. And, I've gotten into trouble that way too.

NR: Is it difficult to switch back and forth? Suppose you do one in a matinee and another one at night?

SH: It's only a little...it can cause a little anxiety. For instance, yesterday we rehearsed all afternoon. In that rehearsal, I played Tussaud, I played Farleigh, and I played assorted French people. Last night, on as Hastings, I had to really pay attention because every line that's being said up there is a cue for another line, and if you're not really focused you can start to say someone else's line. Or, as I said, the time that I was doing a split track and there was Ken Land, and he was going to do one thing, and I suddenly did what Ken was going to do, and what I was going to do. I just did everything. (laughs) I went and I got the stool and I just kicked it across the stage to myself. Several cast members have said I'm always good for at least one good laugh.

NR: Do you ever have to switch voice parts?

SH: Well, Ron (Melrose) and I spoke about this a couple of times. I have a comfortable baritone track that I sing in in pretty much all cases. There are a couple of people that I cover, Craig Rubano is one of them for instance, that have other tenor parts, or if we're going to be down too many tenors, in which case then I have a tenor track that I'll follow.

NR: So, your range is big enough that you can do that?

SH: It's big enough but it may be a different kind of voice. It may not be my normal belt chest voice. I may have to do falsetto, but I have a very strong falsetto on top of that. So, yes, sometimes I have to change voice parts too.

NR: How about the choreography? I look at "Creation of Man" and you're in a different spot on different nights.

SH: There are two ways to approach this. It's easier to do "Creation of Man" now than it was before.

NR: Why is that?

SH: We're all doing the same thing.

NR: So, it doesn't matter where you are?

SH: It doesn't matter where I am as long as I get in the right spot, and generally, if I get lost, all I have to do is look for the hole. (laughs) So, in that case, the hard thing is realizing that in "Creation of Man" a couple of times we have to do this, and in "Into the Fire" and in the ball, we mirror each other, so you have to remember which side you're doing, and make sure that you're doing the right hand and the left hand doing this, OR the right hand and the left hand doing this. (indicating opposite gestures)

NR: Now the ball is very, very intricate...

SH: "The Gavotte" is very, very intricate. Well, it depends on who I'm doing.

NR: It seems to me it would be hard for someone to know what they're doing in that even if they always play the same character.

SH: The thing about the swings, and I have to say, this is an amazing group of swings - Jimmy and Drew (Geraci) and Sarah (Knapp) and Jennifer (Smith) are extraordinary. I think we're very fortunate that it's just a good core group of people. You can only know so much. You can't know the intricacies of every part. You can strive for that, but you can't. So, you have to think, "What is it that I have to achieve in this scene?" and you do it and get out of the way. In "The Gavotte," you say, "OK, I know I have to do this part, and I have to find this person." This is my partner, this is my partner, and this is my partner, and hopefully, the steps are ingrained in your body enough so that you only have to worry about the side that you're doing, and then knowing who you have to go to. And the members of our cast are so giving. They will grab you and bring you with them.

NR: What about costumes and props?

SH: I have my own costumes now. I was originally hired because I could fit in almost everybody's costumes. They had minimal problems fitting me into them. There were a couple of people - Don Mayo, I could never have worn Don's costumes. I couldn't wear Ed Dixon's costumes. But they had enough little bits and pieces so that they could put me in something. Now I have all my own costumes. It's kind of nice because I'm always kind of anchored. (laughing) Something is familiar. Nothing else might be.

NR: Are there prop differences?

SH: Props are always a little bit of a problem the first time you go on because it's like, "OK, I've got to get a lantern. Where do I get the lantern from? What do I do with it? Does it have to be given to someone else?" And that gets a little crazy. It was more difficult in a lot of ways in the other production because there were moments when you got a lantern from someone and somebody else took it and there was a lot of switching that was going on. Now, if you've got something, you keep it.

NR: Have you ever gotten on stage and thought, "Who am I?"

SH: Yes. I have done it. I did it actually with Hastings and I did the first move, and then I stopped. I couldn't make the distinction because I had been doing Ken Land (Ben) prior to that, and those two do a lot of the same stuff, but not all the time. So, that one little memory...and then I stopped and thought, "No, that's him." It happens. None of us are expected to be perfect in that sense, and this is an incredible group of people. The regular cast is incredible and the swings are great so we're just sharp and sometimes we have to make something up on the spot. For example, did you hear about last night?

NR: Yeah, I heard you had a problem with the canes last night.

SH: (laughing) It wasn't a problem. They just weren't there! Now, this is the sort of thing that you approach from the point that I can't ignore the fact that I have no cane. That's like saying, "Oh, there's no elephant on stage." So, now you spend the entire time thinking, "I have to hold my hand out, but I don't want it to look like I'm supposed to be holding something, so now I've got to do different things."

NR: There were three of you I believe?

SH: Yes, there were three of us. We didn't look at each other, because we were too busy thinking ahead. If we had we might have been in trouble. At one point, I thought, "Oh good, I'm going to be turning upstage...Whoa, there's a mirror there!" So I couldn't even just stop and break for a moment, because there's a mirror and you would see the reflection. So, you just do it.

NR: Now, the audience obviously knew that was a screw-up. Most screw-ups you can cover, but not that one.

SH: Exactly, it's like, how do you ignore the elephant on stage? "Wait a minute, everyone's got a cane except those three people. Hmm."

NR: Now, did you all approach it the same way, the three of you? Who were the others?

SH: It was Harvey Evans, it was myself, and Jim Hindman. I didn't throw any of them, I don't think. I think each of us may have had one moment when you had to switch hands, but there's nothing to switch hands with. How do you approach that? But not anything that was so outrageous. No matter what you do you're not going to look quite right anyway, so it doesn't make any difference.

NR: What's the easiest character and what's the hardest?

SH: The easiest track to follow would be T. Doyle Leverett's, because he's there for a very specific reason and his size is....all he has to do is be on stage and he's imposing. So, it's probably the easiest of the tracks to do. The easiest of the tracks to portray...probably the easiest character (I've not gone on for him in this production) was Elton because it was closest to me, and I'm still discovering within the new production all of those personalities, not necessarily the way these people do them but what I had to bring to them. They're all new and exciting now. That's a lot of fun. I just went on for Hastings and I found all sorts of great little things in there that did not exist in that track in the old show but are there now. So, it's all constant discovery.

NR: Is there one that's the hardest?

SH: I would say that probably the hardest one as an actor, and I haven't tried in this production yet, (I may never end up in that position), in the other production was probably Farleigh, because he was so removed from me. When approaching Ozzy, we approached him very differently so I didn't have to try and do what Ed did. And of course the age, I couldn't play the age and we didn't even try that. He was a very happy go-lucky kind of character when I did it, so that wasn't so difficult. Farleigh was... the way the character is written, his sense of humor, what little there is, is very dry. In the other production, he was so bombastic and Allen (Fitzpatrick) was a bass, and I am not a bass, so when he says it that way, it works, and when I say it that way, it doesn't work. One really good point within this production, the way Ken Land and Jim Hindman can say "fabric" and it works every time, it doesn't work with me, and it's turned into the bane of my existence. When I say it, it comes out sounding like that's the way I'm supposed to say it, so the bit doesn't work.

NR: How did you get "lucky" enough to be the Broadway Cares person?

SH: I took over when we knew Bill (Bowers) was leaving. The way it was working when we were in rehearsal, and this was before I ended up going on as Neville, I knew the show and I knew the music, so it was a matter of just learning new staging. I was a swing. It was easy for me to have the time to take care of it. What ended up happening was I ended up going on so it became more than I cared to handle at that point. But, we did it.

NR: How has the League helped you out with that?

SH: The thing that the League provides to me is a constant... I look at my job from the inside out. I'm fortunate to do what I do. I love doing it. I'm on Broadway doing a job that I feel so passionately involved with and love. It's what I love to do. I don't want to do anything else in the world. But I'm on the inside. I think at times because of that, I forget how special it is. I also forget that we can create magic and the way what I do affects someone else. You know the old adage about if you see somebody on the street and you smile at them, and you don't know that person may have had a gun in his pocket to go and shoot somebody, but because you smiled at them it changed their day? We can forget that that's what happens. We can forget that walking into the theater, the lights go down and you're transported to a completely different world, and that's what the League does to me. It reminds me that I'm fortunate to do what I do and that what I do is important. That you can't belittle people that get up there, and we put ourselves on the line. We can fall flat on our face. Let's just not undercut what entertainment does, and making people laugh.

Now, on a practical side, the League donated an awful lot of money to Broadway Cares last year, they bought an awful lot of things, they have raised a great deal of money between the brunches and the Theater Patrons Cares auctions, so they've been invaluable.

NR: What do you like to do for fun?

SH: I'm pretty dull, first of all, and the things that are dearest to me are things like going out and walking in the woods by myself, but I live in New York City, so there ain't no woods around. I don't get that opportunity very often. I LOVE the computer. I love the World Wide Web. I can find more interesting bits of knowledge that are completely worthless, totally useless for anything except a game of Trivial Pursuit. It's right there and it's so fascinating. You get involved with talking to people in Australia. If you're in the Playbill chat room, there are an awful lot of Aussies in that chat room. I think because I was in there late and just because of the time difference, they would end up being in there too. It's just the way you start to view the world. More than any government is concerned, that is going to turn us into a worldwide society. So that's what I do for fun, and I know it's pretty dull and boring. I also do things like play the piano and write. Other people go out, not me.

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

SH: What I would like to do in the future is to be involved in originating a part in a show that's not a musical. When I came into the business in New York especially, because I could dance, there are not many male dancers and this gets into a whole philosophy thing. I've always viewed myself as being an actor first, and then a singer and a dancer. Doug (Sills) and I were just having this conversation. To communicate your way, it doesn't make any difference if you've got the most beautiful voice, because you're communicating and the notes are secondary. (Don't let Frank (Wildhorn) know that.) The communication is the most important. When I came into New York, I was fortunate enough to have the natural ability to dance, and there was a lot of ballet involved. It was a period of time when there was not a lot of classical technique being utilized so I didn't have to look like a classical dancer. Things have changed and I've studied a lot since then and you can't get it out of your body. It's great. I would say that anybody who wants to dance, you have to learn the basics, and ballet is a basic. But what ended up happening was that I got pigeon-holed into musical theater. I love it and it's been my life but I have not been able to do a play ever and I would just like to be able to focus only on doing that and not having to worry about whether or not I have the notes or my back hurts tonight or my hamstring is pulled. I also think that whether it's a valid point or not, it adds legitimacy to one's career.

NR: OK, thanks.

SH: You're welcome.

As much as Stephen is a masterful swing, I'm sure it would be even more enjoyable to see him in a regular role. I hope he gets that opportunity in the future.

Questions suggested by:

Linda Guenette, Stephanie Henkin, Mark McGrath, Naomi Solomon, Mandy Shekleton, Thom Rosati, Joanna Morton-Gary, Renee, Susan, Sing Your Li, Mary Helfrick, Davvy, Lois Colpo, Shovelin, Peter Williams