Stephen DeRosa on Jumping Into BOOP!'s Cartoon World and the Best Advice He Ever Got from Stephen Sondheim

A character actor’s career inevitably has ups and downs, but Stephen DeRosa’s staying power can be measured by the list of directors he has worked with over the past quarter century: Jerry Zaks, Jack O’Brien, Michael Mayer, Michael Arden, John Rando, Walter Bobbie, Mike Nichols and now, in BOOP! The Musical, Jerry Mitchell. Unrecognizable as Grampy, Betty Boop’s inventor grandfather, DeRosa shares a romantic subplot with Tony winner Faith Prince that straddles time periods and complements the story of Betty (Tony nominee Jasmine Amy Rogers) finding love in 21st-century Manhattan.

A native New Yorker, DeRosa pivoted from an interest in politics as an undergraduate at Georgetown to a graduate degree from Yale School of Drama, which led to his Broadway debut at 32 in Zaks’ 2000 revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner. Before joining BOOP!, he enjoyed an extended off-Broadway run as Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors and played Kristin Chenoweth’s father in the Boston premiere of The Queen of Versailles. In conversation, DeRosa exudes an appealing mix of joy, gratitude and vulnerability and is clearly proud of what he calls “the sophisticated, detailed work that has gone into our show.”

What have you enjoyed most about being part of a big Broadway musical like BOOP!?

Oh, I love old-school musicals: I love the love stories; I love the splashy numbers; I love the songs that you can hum and tap your toes to; I love how they make you forget your life for a couple of hours. Our show is not just entertaining, it feeds your soul and your heart, which is what the great musicals of the 1930s did. Audiences could not love this show more.

You and Faith Prince work so well together. As she told us, “He’s Mister Positive and I’m Elaine Stritch.”

Faith is one of the great broads of Broadway, and it feels like a huge triumph when I can make her laugh. We’re both cut from the same hammy vaudeville cloth—we both find scenery very delicious. [laughs] I’m inspired by her. She’s not only kind and generous on stage, she is a colossal talent, and really smart. Not to get too woo-woo about it, but making a new musical is as intimate as you can get, so when you find someone who is a kindred spirit, there’s something spiritually magical about that. You have to thank God, or thank your angels, when you get to be part of something like this show.

It’s always a treat to see a Tony-winning star like Faith come back to Broadway.

I could tell you a couple of stories that I don’t think she will mind me sharing. [Composer] David Foster told Faith he was going to raise the key on one of her songs [“Cure for Love”], and she looked at him and said, “Mmmmm, no you’re not.” He said, “What?” And she said, “I’ve got four big notes, and you’re going to get all four of them. I know what I can do eight times a week, and I’m going to knock it out of the park for you.” She said it with a smile. During previews, David came down after the number and said, “You were absolutely right. It’s the perfect key for you, and the number is sensational.” I remember thinking, “Here’s an actress who knows herself—and someone from the pop world who trusted her.”

What’s the secret to playing a character created for a cartoon?

You have to ground it in truth and in love. I can’t say enough good things about Jasmine [Amy Rogers as Betty Boop]. She had to bring a cartoon [heroine] into the real world, in an original musical. That’s the genius of her performance, and it’s also what I’m trying to do. Grampy barely talks in the cartoons, so I took the few words he had and built my character from that. Jasmine and I have a theatricality, as does Faith—we love larger-than-life people—but we also want to ground [our performance] in truth, and I think audiences can feel that.

Is it fun to undergo such an extreme physical transformation?

Here’s a story about that: I went to see another show not long ago and sat next to a real theater fan who couldn’t stop giving her opinion about all the different shows. I turned to her and said, “I hear there is a Betty Boop musical.” She looked at me and said, “Have you seen it?” And I said, “No, what did you think?” I was girding my loins. And she goes, “I loved it! Oh, the [use of] black-and-white and color was so brilliant, and the dancing and the singing! I’m going to go back.” I said, “You make it sound so good, I’m definitely going to have to see that.” [laughs]

It must be satisfying to have worked with a Who’s Who of Broadway directors, including Jerry Mitchell.

My joke, although it’s not really a joke, is that I only work with legends. This business can be really tough and depressing, but I have to remind myself how lucky I am to have learned from so many great people. Stephen Sondheim, may he rest in peace, said something to me during the run of Into the Woods. [DeRosa played the Baker in the 2002 Broadway revival.] The show got something like 13 nominations, and I was not part of that. He could tell I was heartbroken, and he said, “Don’t worry about that stuff. I don’t even think about awards.” I said, “Because you’ve won so many?” And he said, “No, because early in my career, I felt snubbed by the awards.” Isn’t that funny? You remember things that hurt you when you were young—even the greatest musical theater composer of the 20th century. He reminded me to just love doing the work.

What do you wish you had known when you were the age of the young actors in BOOP!?

Most of the kids in the show are younger than I was when I did Into the Woods in this theater [the Broadhurst] in 2002. You know what I would tell my younger self? It’s the same thing I try to tell my older self: There is no timeline or deadline about what you achieve. Beautiful Jonathan Larson, may he rest in peace, is another person I knew—I was there the night of the Rent dress rehearsal, and he passed away the next day—and I think of his line “no day but today.” I have a lot of Catholic guilt, all the guilt, of regretting the past or worrying about the future. What I wish I would do more is enjoy being in the right place at the right time.

Speaking of the future, will you re-join Kristin Chenoweth on Broadway in The Queen of Versailles?

I’m going to let the universe do its thing—that’s all I’m going to say about that. So many things are unpredictable. Regardless of whether I’m in it, it’s a magnificent piece of theater. Kristin Chenoweth is one of the great talents of all time, and so, of course, are [composer] Stephen Schwartz and [director] Michael Arden. I was grateful to be part of it. Right now, I’m grateful to live in this joyful world of BOOP!