When Robbie Benson got his break in 1973 with the film “Jeremy,” he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, but acting was only part of his contribution to the film. At 16, he says he also had a hand in the script.
“I had a man, literally, say to me, ‘well, what would your character say here?’ and I would give him the dialogue.’ Then he would say, ‘what do you think she would say?’ and I’d give him the dialogue and he’d type it,” Benson recalls. “Then I realized, except for the typing part, I was writing this thing and it won an award at the Cannes Film Festival.”
Benson sold his first screenplay, “One-on-One,” to Warner Bros. Studios at age 18 and hasn’t slowed down since. The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) lists Benson as having acted in 63 films, including “The Godfather II” and the voice of Beast in Disney’s animated feature “Beauty and the Beast.”
In 1994, Benson moved to Park City to raise his family and commuted to L.A. for six years. During that period, IMDB lists Benson as having directed 19 shows, among them six episodes of “Friends,” one episode of “Dharma and Greg” and 25 episodes of “Ellen.”
He is now a full-time faculty member at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and is awaiting the release of his new book, “Who Stole the Funny?” due on bookstores in August of this year. His family now lives in the mountains of the northwest tip of North Carolina.
Beginning Friday, however, for one brief run, Benson will return to display his talent in Park City by directing his off-Broadway debut musical, “Open Heart,” on the Egyptian Theatre stage.
Benson wrote the play in 1999 for his wife, Karla DeVito, whom he met as a fellow actor during the 1980 Broadway run of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera “Pirates of Penzance.” After they were married, DeVito divided her time between work and home to care for their children, Zephyr and Lyric.
“He fell in love with me while I was singing on the set of ‘Pirates of Penzance,'” says DeVito, who claims, though she knew Benson was a famous film actor at the time, she didn’t go to the movies much. Before settling down, DeVito kept busy, in part, touring as rock ‘n roll’s glam rock crooner, Meatloaf.
But, “then when we got married and I had done other things off and on,” she says. “He just wanted to see me singing again that’s what started him off writing a musical.”
DeVito says her husband has been composing songs since he was five, playing guitar and singing for the New York Musicians Union.
This is not the first time the couple has collaborated in their 25 years of marriage. They wrote a song for the John Hugh’s film, “The Breakfast Club” called “We Are Not Alone,” a tune played while the high schoolers decide to turn on music and dance in the middle of their Saturday detention in a library. The couple also co-wrote the track “Nobody Makes Me Crazy” sung by Diana Ross on her album, “Swept Away.”
“Open Heart” initially premiered at Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City in 2004 with a full cast, but for this particular revival at the Egyptian, DeVito will to take on 11 roles along with co-star Stan Brown. The Park City Singers will sing the chorus parts.
“When we talked to [Egyptian Artistic Director Dana Durbano] we decided to do a concert version, which is something that is very good for our show,” Benson explained. “Karla and Stan Brown will completely morph and change into all the characters that they play just acting right in front of people and bearing their souls In the past, that has actually been the more successful version, because it’s just so much fun to watch actors change and become those different characters.”
Benson will join his wife and Brown on stage as the lead, Jimmy, a workaholic on a television series called “Open Heart” who rediscovers life’s priorities after the death of his son.
“I wanted ‘Open Heart’ to be a show that was supposedly a family show being written and worked on by people who not only didn’t have families, but if they did, they never went home to them. Yet, they were writing the template of what America sees watching this show,” Benson says.
But Open Heart’s story is not autobiographical, Benson insists, aside from the fact that he and DeVito love each other and have children.
Benson says this performance will serve as an important workshop for the show a chance for him to revise the book one more time.
In 2004, he didn’t quite have the opportunity to refine his script, he says, because of a real-life obstacle he’s been battling his entire life: a congenital heart defect called a bicuspid aortic valve.
“I was born with a valve that has only two flaps instead of three,” he explains. “It needed to be repaired in my late 20s and unfortunately, the valve they put in only lasted a couple of times I had my third open heart surgery two-and-a-half years ago.”
He will undergo his fourth open-heart surgery soon, he says. A press release for the Egyptian performance says his experiences as a heart patient and his desire to perform with his wife has served as additional inspiration for “Open Heart.”
“One of the things open-heart surgery changes is how much you realize that you’re lucky and how every moment does matter,” he says.
A self-described “romantic,” Benson assures that while “Open Heart” stays true to the romantic comedy genre, it avoids the pit-falls of melodrama.
Terrance Goodman, who first met Benson on the Greenwood, Mississippi set of the 1976 film “Ode to Billy Joe” will portray the role of “Open Heart’s” Stage Manager, leading the chorus, and providing the sound effects.
Goodman returns to the Egyptian after performing as part of the company’s production of “Urinetown” last summer, and a recent role in the Pioneer Theatre’s production of the musical “Chicago.”
“I saw the first draft of his movie ‘One-on-One’ that he wrote and I knew from then on that this man is going to have a tremendous career as a writer, director and producer,” Goodman recalled.
“I think this musical is extremely well written and I think it’s going to be a real treat for everyone in Park City to see Robbie perform.”
“Open Heart” will run Friday March 30 through April 1 at The Egyptian Theatre located on Park City’s Main Street.
Tickets can be purchased at the box office at 328 Main Street from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on non-performance days or 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on performance days or by calling 649-9371.