Musical Theatre Actor Interviews – Jason Forbach

I’m currently playing Enjolras with the Fresno Grand Opera after playing the same role on the 25th Anniversary National Tour of Les Miserables for three years and right before I begin rehearsals for the new Broadway revival of Les Miserables.

Would you say I have had plenty of Les Mis in my life?!

I trained classically. I studied piano and classical voice. I got my Undergraduate at University of Missouri and continued on to get my Masters in Opera at New England Conservatory in Boston.

My initial impulse in answering your question is to say “no”.

These degrees did not prepare me for the reality of life in musical theater. I didn’t learn how to structure a resume, how to get an agent, how to audition and how to endure long runs of 8-show-a-week jobs. I didn’t learn how to budget my finances and learn how to have a survival job when acting gigs were slim.

I had to learn all of that on my own and I had to learn the hard way. I had to learn all of that by just doing it, falling down and then picking myself up again.

But saying “no” isn’t completely fair.

The vocal training I had, while not an appropriate style for many musicals, has come to serve me a great deal. I learned professionalism, discipline, preparedness and crafted vocal technique that has allowed me to stay vocally strong when doing Les Miserables for years and years…and on the road!

It isn’t easy and I believe that it is my opera training that helps me stand up uniquely on my own, with my own distinctive voice that has led me (after many years of trying) toward a career that I have always wanted and dreamed of.

I think the craft of singing is greatly undervalued and under appreciated in musical theater students now. Kids have no idea what the rigors of doing a long running show are and many people ruin their voices trying to survive it.

I had so many terrible survival jobs in the city.

I hate waiting tables. Actually, hate isn’t a strong enough word.

As far as painful performing gigs, I think there were a few. I mean, I just wore a Santa suit for a Christmas concert I did with a symphony this past holiday! Absolutely hilarious and ridiculous.

I have one cringe worthy memory when I first started performing. I was doing a mini tour of abbreviated Shakespeare works for children in schools around the New York area. There were some mornings on the bus, scrambling to put a performance up in front of a bunch of rowdy kids where I wondered, “What the hell am I doing?”

You think this because you make so many sacrifices, you worry about money, you get no sleep, you take time off work to perform but it keeps you from doing what you’d really want to be doing, you worry about the audition you are missing because you are performing for a bunch of ungrateful, disrespectful 8th graders.

It is a hard profession.

I will say, when I first moved to New York City and was brave enough to start pursuing this, I remember walking to my very first rehearsal for a cabaret. I was doing the concert for no pay and I remember vividly how happy I was.

I think that vivid happiness is the exact reason why I stayed in the game despite all the cringe worthy moments that pop up over a career.

There are many different roads toward booking a Broadway show.

Typically you audition, whether it is through an agent or at an open Equity call. From there, you do rounds of callbacks before more and more of the creative team. You start performing specific material from the show. You are directed and noted and brought back again.

It can be as many as 7 callbacks or as simple as one audition.

Finally, you are in front of all casting and creative staff and, typically, head producers. They put the pieces of the casting puzzle together and either you book the show or you move on to auditioning for the next project.

I auditioned for the Broadway company of Les Miserables in performance as Enjolras in the touring production. There are no sure things. But, I have learned the best opportunities are placed before you at the exact moment when you are capable of accepting them and excelling at them.

You gotta have a little faith.

Glitter in the Air by P!nk.

I love singing What Is It About Her? but I imagine that is overplayed at the moment.

Up-tempo? What’s that?

Natalie Weiss always laughs at me at what I would consider an up tempo. She claims they are all still ballads.

Maybe I’ll say In These Skies from Ace.

I don’t really.

I probably pee about 20,000 times.

Can you call that a ritual or the result of nerves, I don’t know?

I’m a big fan of working out, steaming and serious lip trills.

They keep me from vocally warming up too hard too soon.

The Phantom of the Opera George Seurat from Sunday in the Park Bobby from Company John Wilkes Booth from Assassins Robert Kinkaid from Bridges of Madison County (I haven’t seen the show yet, but every song I hear from that show sounds like heaven) Billy Bigelow from Carousel

Listed above.

I doubt it would be a very civil dinner party, though.

Where to start?!

Les Mis is ripe with hilarious moments.

There is one moment that springs to mind. I performed ABC Cafe in it’s entirety with my front pant flap down. The guys in the cafe kept looking at me strangely and I could never figure out why….until it was too late.

I have been blest with many.

I would say the rush I felt the first time I bowed as Raoul in Phantom or as Enjolras in Les Mis.

There is no other feeling like it in the world.

Nasal rinse

Listerine spray

Hairspray

You Are the Best Thing by Ray LaMontagne

Train. Train hard and diversify yourself. Find many things you like to do.

Success in musical theater lies in solid dance, acting and vocal training. It relies on other talents such as acrobatics, different languages or dialects, mastering a musical instrument.

But above all, success relies on emotional honesty.

Knowing who YOU really are is paramount. Being strong yet humble, develop a thick skin yet remain positive and this infectious blend of charisma will make people behind the table want to cast you.

Wake up late, coffee, coffee, coffee, work out at the gym, shower, run a couple of errands, get to the theater, have fun for a few hours doing a show, get a drink with some friends, head home, watch some Breaking Bad, stay up late, pass out. Do it all over again.