USA: Actor Robert Newman turns to theatre as his soap opera career comes to an end

Record ID: 751410

  • Title: USA: Actor Robert Newman turns to theatre as his soap opera career comes to an end
  • Date: 10th August 2009
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 5, 2009) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROBERT NEWMAN, ACTOR, SAYING "I do fear that one day we'll turn around and one day all the soaps will be gone because they're difficult to produce economically, and we'll have all game shows and all reality shows and talks shows and that's all that there will be."
  • Embargoed: 25th August 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAEAICP2FGVE0N4QK0TDHBWMXYX
  • Story Text: "Guiding Light" star Robert Newman takes the stage in the new musical "Sessions." The actor talks about the psychology behind playing a shrink and how he's preparing for his 28-year-run on "Guiding Light" to come to an end.
    Daytime television star Robert Newman is singing the blues, as he portrays a challenged therapist in the off-Broadway musical, "Sessions."
    In the new piece written by Albert Tapper, Newman plays Dr. Peterson, a therapist undergoing a mid-life crisis. As Peterson's personal life begins to unravel, he is challenged by balancing his patients' needs with his own - all the while fending off advances from a very enticing female client.
    "As he falls apart, they are also falling apart. He helps them, they help him and somehow because it's a musical we end up with a nice resolve by the end of it," Newman says. He adds that there is "a lot of comedy and a lot of tragedy throughout the piece. Anybody who has ever been through any kind of therapy and I've been through all kinds of therapy and I know a lot of therapists. It's a fascinating piece to watch."
    Newman says his character is based on several therapists he knows. He has worked hard, he says, to examine and understand the boundaries between therapist and patient, in order to really understand the predicament Dr. Peterson is in.
    Says Newman, "Part of what Albert Tapper (writer) is looking for in this is to examine the way we put people like therapists, people like ministers and politicians fall into this category too, but they're people we put on a certain plateau and we don't expect them to make the same mistakes that an average woman or average man would make. We think that they are somehow beyond all of that."
    For 28 years, the actor has played Joshua Lewis on the CBS soap opera "Guiding LIght." But that is soon coming to an end, as the soap opera will conclude its 72-year-run September 18th. The show has run more than 15,000 episodes on television and radio and is counted by The Guinness Book of World Records as "The Longest-Running Television Drama."
    But the business is changing Newman says and scripted television is more expensive to produce than reality or game shows.
    "I do fear that one day we'll turn around and one day all the soaps will be gone because they're difficult to produce economically, and we'll have all game shows and all reality shows and talks shows and that's all that there will be."
    "Guiding Light" is being replaced by "Let's Make a Deal," a game show that had popularity in the 1970s and 1980s.
    Newman is sad about "Guiding Light" ending its television run, but "Sessions" has helped keep him busy and focused on new endeavors. While he is sure to say "never say never," Newman says it's time for a change and he won't likely return to daytime television. For now, he says, he plans to focus on theater work.
    "Sessions" is playing at New York's Algonquin Theater.
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