Robert Newman: The Music Man
We’re not just Joshin’: The multitalented Robert Newman has several songs in his heart a year after the end of GUIDING LIGHT. 
Soap Opera Weekly: What do you prefer: stage, television work or singing cabaret-style?
Robert Newman: I feel more at home onstage than I do anywhere else, and that includes all those years of television, but every experience is different.
Weekly: And you just wrapped Annie in North Carolina — and you shaved your head! Wow.
Newman: The North Carolina Theatre, they do a series of musicals through the summer, and I signed on, playing Daddy Warbucks. I was saying to somebody, “How often do you get an excuse to shave your head, when people won’t think that you’re crazy and going to take out a McDonald’s next week, or that you’re sick?” And I think this gave me a good excuse to do it. And Andrea McArdle played Miss Hannigan, which was a hoot!
Weekly: That’s awesome. Do you have anything else coming down the pike right now?
Newman: Well, I am working with the guys who did Sessions. They want to do a musical called National Pastime. So I’ve been a part of that whole process. We’ve been doing staged readings here and there to just get it moving along, get some backers in place and that kind of thing. We’re looking at a probable off-Broadway run. That’s working out nicely, and then I have been doing the So Long, Springfield appearances. And then I’ve also just been flat-out resting. And that’s been hard for me, when you’ve been on that treadmill of soap opera for so long! And it was a great ride, but now I’m just sort of settling in, relaxing, breathing and trying to be careful about what I do next and where I’m going to go from here. I’m giving myself time to make those decisions, and it feels good. I’m doing all right.
Weekly: I know it must be a huge adjustment, considering that doing a soap is such a consistent, day-to-day gig.
Newman: It is, and it’s out of character for actors to play the same role for such a long period of time. You normally go from role to role and job to job. That’s the normal actor’s life. To play the same thing for as long as I did is really an anomaly. And, in some ways, it’s not normal, so I’m sort of readjusting to a newer world of playing a series of roles over time.
Weekly: It must be hard to get out of that and realize, “Oh, I have to find a different way to work.”
Newman: I’ve been working hard at that for a while. I’ve been taking time off every year to go do theater somewhere. And I’ve also been doing a lot of different kinds of play readings and other readings in Manhattan. I always get my big toe in theater, because that’s where my roots are. That’s where I come from. I think it makes me a better actor, because even when I was doing GL, I felt like I was coming back rejuvenated. It made me more focused and committed to the work that I had on the show.
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