Giving His Regards to Broadway
by Jason Eness

BRYAN BATT

In every life are insignificant-seeming moments that turn out to be life-altering. For Bryan Batt (A&S '85), one of these moments occurred in his senior year at Tulane.

During this period, Batt found his acting dreams being tested. "I had a feeling I was thought of only as this musical-theater guy," he says. "I kept trying to prove myself."

Finally, he had an opportunity to show the Tulane community what he could do with a serious role when Professor Buzz Podewell cast him in Edward Albee's chilling two-man drama, Zoo Story.

Batt recalls, after the production, "Buzz threw his arms around me and said, 'You really are a good actor.' When someone you respect, especially a professor, gives you that kind of encouragement, it frees you to say, 'Yes, I can do this!' "

Since then, Batt's career has grown to storybook proportions, including successful stints on Broadway, where he currently has the lead in a stage production of Saturday Night Fever. This production, his fourth consecutive appearance in the same theater, makes Batt one of the few actors, if not the only actor, to appear in more than three consecutive productions in the same Broadway theater.

And recently at Sardi's, the New York restaurant known for its walls adorned with caricatures of notable Broadway figures, a sketch of Batt was added. "It's a big honor; I'm overwhelmed," he says. "All the legends of Broadway have portraits up there."

Despite the accolades, "There is a part of me that would like to believe we don't need approval," Batt says. "Knowing you do your work well--that should be enough. Reviews and approval should not matter. If you are doing a show for an audience, that opinion, even though it is just an opinion, is valid.

"The critics, though--I will not give them that much power."

Batt is passionate about this point, not in response to any poor reviews he's received but, rather, in rejection of the positive reviews he has gotten for Saturday Night Fever. The play received negative reviews overall in the New York Times--except for Batt's performance.

"It is very hard when you get good reviews and the rest of the cast does not," he says. To Batt, what's more important than any professional review is that in this current production, the audiences jump to their feet at the end of the show and dance out of the theater. "That is approval enough," he says.

In those moments, Batt sees the cast's hard work finally pay off, but until that moment the work of a Broadway actor is a true labor of love.

"I think young people who want to act see the glamour and the fun, and they don't realize the hard work and sacrifice that goes into it. You really can't have a normal life, especially in the theater because the hours are ridiculous. I go to work at seven, I do eight shows a week, I work weekends with a day off on Monday. I've missed a lot."

The hardest part, Batt says, is being away from his native New Orleans. "I love New York, but my heart and soul is in New Orleans," he says. "All of my family is there, and it kills me even now--I'm missing so much with my nieces growing up. I talk to them on the phone, and my niece Bailey wants me to come to her house to play. It breaks my heart."

But for now, the show must go on for Batt. "I love this work, but it is hard. Any work that is worthwhile is going to be hard. I'm glad I get to do what I love to do."

Following his dreams: Paul Michael Glaser
Path to glory: Harold Sylvester
Stars of (back)stage and (off)screen: The Lincecums
Close a door, open a window: Rebecca McFarland