JoeRegalbuto

TV aficionados will clearly remember that during the era of Bush the First, the number one comedy show at the time was Murphy Brown. Candice Bergen played Murphy Brown, a TV newsperson on a show called FYI, surrounded by a group of charismatic and wacky characters who kept the show going from 1988 to 1996 winning enough golden Emmy statues to start their own mint.


The cast of Murphy Brown

No one was more charismatic or wacky than Frank Fontana, a first rate investigative reporter who never met a skirt he didn’t like, but ran faster than a speeding bullet when the talk of permanent relationships came up. Joe Regalbuto, recipient of Emmy gold for Best Actor in a Comedy Series, brought Frank Fontana to life every week, allowing the character to grow and develop much more than most TV characters had done in the past.

Regalbuto himself grew and developed his art and was soon taking a turn behind the cameras as a director, managing to helm 33 episodes of Murphy Brown throughout the run. Now, he regularly directs episodes of the George Lopez show and has directed many other shows including several episodes of Veronica’s Closet.

It was our good fortune that we managed to take up some of his valuable time for a brief chat, as he directs a new version of Romeo and Juliet at the Art Works Theatre which opened on February 10, 2007.

JR – I loved doing it. It was a great time to be involved. I loved the show and had a ball doing it.

JR – I did. I started about halfway through and really enjoyed it, and they started giving me more and more episodes to direct, and I loved it. After Murphy, I continued doing it and added it to what I do.

JR - Yes! I do the George Lopez Show, which is a lot of fun. We’ve been doing that for a number of years, and now the show is in it’s sixth year and we just have a ball. I’ve known George for many years. He’s a good friend and a wonderful actor and the show has just gone crazy! It’s changed his whole life.

RP – Wasn’t he a disk jockey?

JR – He was a stand up – and still is. He’s a brilliant stand-up comic and he’s just great.

RP – You’ve been with him from the beginning?

JR – Yeah – I don’t do every single show – but I do quite a few.


Joe Regalbuto on the set directing George Lopez

RP – Was there ever any apprehension like – here’s this Hispanic comic – is his show going to go anywhere – that sort of thing?

JR – Well - for them more than anything else, because it’s the longest running Hispanic comedy show on TV. It’s been a real challenge because they’ve tried to represent George’s family, his life and those traditions that he had growing up. The show’s evolving - it’s gotten better over the years.

RP – Yes, I noticed. I watch it as often as I can. – But let’s talk a little about your current project you are directing which will open at the Art Works Theatre.

RP – That’s exactly what I was going to ask , why Romeo and Juliet and why again?

JR - Why Romeo and Juliet - again! Yes. Well, first of all, I think if you really look at Shakespeare’s plays, many of them are well, let’s just say that the idea of saying that a play is universal is a cliché in some ways, but it is true that they are universal. We can relate to Shakespeare right now. He touches on so many things that are apropos and topical for everybody – everybody! Period! And Romeo and Juliet also happens to be a beautiful love story. Now I haven’t checked, but I don’t think love stories have gone out of style. People still want it – it’s something we all strive for, and because of the richness of the text and everything else, I’ve been able to set it in modern day in a Los Angeles type of town called Verona.

JR – I’ve cut away a lot of the older references – the arcane references, and I’m going to do the play in one act – an hour and forty minutes.

JR – Well, that’s because the story drives from beginning to end. You know, it’s the usual thing - it’s love - sex and violence. So the story doesn’t stop - it runs its whole course and I also don’t think that in 2007 people necessarily want to sit for a three and half hour Shakespeare play.

JR – So there are a lot of things that I’ve considered, and by putting the two families – the Capulets and the Montagues under the backdrop of Red States and Blue States, Republican and Democratic, it’s amazing how pliable the story is. You can go in that direction easily. It’s not that we’ve changed any language or dialogue of any kind. We’re using all of Shakespeare’s words, but we’ve placed it in this background of an electoral climate with real bickering and fighting and in-fighting.

JR – Well, think about it. What the hell do many of us do? We hate people! We hate people for reasons we don’t even know about. I might look at somebody and say – "You know, I hear the guy’s a Republican – I hate him." So I want to explore - what is it that we get into with this hate? And what’s the other side? Well, the other side is love. These kids in the play, they don’t give a damn about what party their parents are with. They don’t care about who’s what or where. They are after something that is much more supreme. And that’s the act of falling in love, which is fresh, it’s young and it happens every day and it’s something we can all relate to. I want to explore what makes us hate certain people without ever really knowing why.

JR - Well, I might have my whole list of prejudices about people . . . just by looking at them or seeing them. Just for example, one might say "Republican". I look at a Republican and I don’t like him. I don’t like the way he thinks, I don’t like the way he talks – I just look at the guy and I put all my prejudices on him. The guy might be a great guy, it’s just that he happens to be a Republican. Then he might say the same thing about me - "Those frickin’ liberal jack asses who flip-flop and say they want to help and save the world and give everybody our money," and so forth. He has his whole set of prejudices and what we see and have seen in any really good production of Romeo and Juliet is that people overcome their prejudices. In the play their love conquers all, so to speak, and because of this hatred and these petty disagreements and in-fighting we have this passion and we spill blood. Over what? Over the fact that your family says this and my family says that?

JR – There have been times in this country where we have gotten very close to being so divided that we just can’t see any merit on the other sides’ point of view.

JR – West Side Story wasn’t politically set. They deal with the two families and the racial differences. They changed all the words and the dialog and stuff and came up with their own brilliant script, but that theme was the Puerto Ricans and the Whites – you remember – the Jets and the Sharks and the question was, why are they fighting? Why do they have these fights? Why does one gang hate another gang? Because of some rules or some laws? That’s how they brought that play through their – what was it, early 1960 sensibilities.

JR – You do a play like Romeo and Juliet, you can do it traditionally and be in Verona, Italy and do it that way . . . or, like I said, the beauty of these plays is that here in 2007 we can still do them and they’re still viable, as long as we don’t get into some of the traps often seen with the plays of Shakespeare. These traps, in my mind are about seeing Shakespeare performed in certain ways.

RP – Speaking of traps, what challenges have you faced in mounting this production?

JR – I think the biggest challenge is getting everybody on the same page in terms of actors and sets and so forth. For the actors – for American actors doing Shakespeare, there are some real issues –

JR – Well, I think that’s one thing to overcome. You want to make sure that, especially in the production that we’re trying to do, everybody is contemporary. That they are using the words as written and these words become part of the vocabulary they use every day. I don’t want to view Romeo and Juliet as some museum piece that we’re dragging out. I want these people to be living, breathing human beings that have every type of normal thing going on within them. It's about getting people to completely befriend the words, to really make those words their own and speak them without effort, without proclamation. It’s easy to fall into that trap. It’s much more difficult to keep playing the reality, the honesty and to know those words so well that they own them. The beauty of it is, when people speak those words properly you may not catch every single one, but you can understand the meaning clear as a bell.

JR – Oh yes! Well, I didn’t quite get thirteen year olds. There’s no thirteen year old I know of who is going to get the full meaning of the play.

PR – I’m sure they’re out there, God knows there must be somebody. I picked the ages that are all close. They’re young people playing young people, older people playing their roles.

JR – Mercutio is there. All of the characters are there – as I said, all of Shakespeare’s words are there. The most we did was to cut certain sections just to shorten it. We got rid of archaic references and other similar things so that it could be set whenever and wherever you want.

RP – So how did you get interested in this. Did someone bring you the project?

JR – Somebody brought me the project. The person who brought me the project is my daughter, Gina, who is playing Juliet.

JR – She’s a wonderful young actress who said, "I want to do something with you. I want to work with you if I can." So I said, "I’d love to work with you. On what?" And she said "Romeo and Juliet". And I go, ay – ay – ay , Romeo and Juliet?

But I said, "Juliet – yeah, that’d be nice". A couple of little love scenes – how hard can that be? And I went and re-read the play, and though "OH S**T – this is a big, big, big play!"

JR – But she had all the right reasons for doing it. She said, "I’m getting older – I want to do it. I’ve worked on it since I’ve been a kid – I love the part. I just would love the opportunity to do it on stage" So it was great. Here I have a daughter who has been working very hard at being an actress, and it wasn’t like "put me in a movie" or "get me on the George Lopez Show". It was – "I want to do Romeo and Juliet" Wow! So you have to consider something like that.

JR – I’ve worked with her but just to help her with this or that, but never really directed her. It’s a learning experience.

JR – Then I go read it and I thought, you’ve got to be kidding! I got seventeen actors in here – I got fricking fights, I got parties. It’s not just a little delicate scene on the balcony.

RP – So after you decided, what was your first move? Did you set out to find a theatre first? The actors?

JR – Well – I was completely overwhelmed. In the past whenever I’ve gone to work there’ve been producers in place, theatres in place you know, the TV is in place, whatever; they say, "Come on let’s do your thing", and you channel your support personnel. But here I am all of a sudden trying to do everything - find the theatre, get the people, do this – do that. I had no clue! I’ve never done that job before and I HATE THAT JOB! (laughing) I never want to do anything like this again. So after being into it awhile, when I started thinking, because I’ve been working on this for some time, I started to get overloaded. So I thought, "There’s no way I can handle this. I’m just not cut out for it." That’s when I found Raquel (Lehrman) and Theatre Planners who are great. Raquel is great! She’s used to producing and completely understands the whole equity waiver theatre concept – she knows Theatre Row and is just a miracle worker in terms of knowing the nuts and bolts. There is a lot to do!

RP - So now you’re doing what you really like, which is direct and forget about the other little details.

JR – Now I can just forget it. She calls me and tells me, "You owe me this much money." (laughing)

RP – But I’m sure that in theatre there isn’t that much money to be made, is there?

JR – No. Anything like this in a small theatre is not for making money, clearly. Besides you’re in LA, let’s be honest, people want to be seen if they can. But you commit your time, and an awful lot of energy to do a play of any kind, so it has to be for the fun of doing it, for the reward of doing it - you know, exploring it, deepening it – working on your acting, your directing and to work on your craft.

JR – I’ve directed over at Garry Marshall’s theatre, the Falcon in Burbank. It was a play called "Gretty Good Time" and most of the rest has been on Television.

JR – Directing TV comedy or when you act in TV comedy is the closest thing to being in a play. You have three or four days to rehearse and change, just as you do in a play. The only difference is that you shoot the show at the end, but you do it in front of an audience. You get ready and you have that opening night feeling in front of the audience every week, and you just shoot it, which is very exciting.

JR – (Laughing) – Right! I’m going to do all the classics – waiver theatre!

RP – If a person who goes to the theatre only four or five times a year sees your play, what would you like them to take with them after they see it?

JR – If we are successful, this play is going to put people through the wringer.

JR – Yeah, it’s going to put people through the wringer – if you did this play straight ahead and just worked on the moments in this play, people would definitely be affected. I’m not after something like – "this is what I want people to feel." My thing is more to execute what we want to execute as well as we can, and have the audience take with them what they want. So I have a theme and a focus and an emotional through line that I feel is in the play, but I can only do my work. I can’t tell the audience how to think.

JR – Just finishing up the last episode of George Lopez right now and working on this, and we’ll see what the future brings.

By now production people had been coming in regularly asking Joe different things about the costumes. He signed a couple of checks (not for us), and clearly was needed in the lobby of the Lounge Theatre where seventeen actors and a costumer waited his input. In spite of all that was going on Joe was absolutely focused on the interview, giving us his total attention – proof positive that besides being a real gentleman, he is an consummate professional.

In the pantheon of Hollywood celebrities, Joe Regalbuto will definitely be given a prominent place in the Chamber of the Decent Guys, and for sure will have a place of honor among the great comic actors of television.

You will have a chance to see the fruits of this directorial labor of love at the Art Works Theatre, 6569 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood, California 90038 (next door to the Hudson). You can reserve by calling: (323) 960-7846. (Click HERE for review of show)