He’s Only In One Scene, But He Steals It
Performers
Songwriters
In She Loves Me, comic character actor Peter Bartlett reaffirms that there really are no small parts
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Peter Bartlett has wanted to play the Headwaiter in She Loves Me since he was a teenager. Okay, perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration. However, the septuagenarian actor says he memorized every word of the original 1963 cast album of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s effervescent chamber musical when it was released, and he knew he wanted to be in it. He just wasn’t sure which character he could play.
“Oh I don’t know, I probably had my eye on that role, even at 19,” he admits with a chuckle. “I’m one of those performers who people always told, ‘You’re going to work when you’re older.’ And I assure you, I did not like hearing that! But it was actually true. Despite coming to New York in 1968, I really started to work very late. Once I got into character roles in my forties, I never stopped.”
In She Loves Me, Bartlett doesn’t appear until the very end of Act I and then not again until curtain call (“I keep saying that I better find some elaborate craft to do backstage!”), yet he’s put as much work into creating the Headwaiter as if he were a lead role. “God bless Scott, he’s given me a lot of free rein,” Bartlett says. “You know I just play, and if it’s too much he lets me know. Even the other day I said to him, ‘I think I’ve taken too much time there. I’m going to pull that back.’ You don’t want to lose the story of those two people, Amalia and George, so that’s important. I’ve done these sort of parts before, but the quality of this piece allows me to lean into these moments. I guess I work on instinct after all these years in the business… just last month I realized that I’ve had my Equity card for 50 years. 50 years! I couldn’t believe it.”
Does that mean he’s planning on quitting soon? “I’m happy to be working!” he says “Retirement does go through my mind at this age but then I think, ‘What precisely would I do?’ I’d rather show up at the theatre.”
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Photo of Peter Bartlett in She Loves Me by Joan Marcus
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