Josh Stamberg
Age: “Just qualified for AARP.”
Hometown: Washington, D.C.
Currently: Starring off-Broadway opposite Cynthia Nixon as a husband and father struggling with his son’s and possibly his own ADHD in Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Lisa Loomer’s Distracted.
Getting Schooled: As the only child of esteemed broadcast journalist Susan Stamberg currently of NPR’s Morning Edition and Weekend Edition, Stamberg experienced an immediate—and sometimes overwhelming—exposure to the arts. “I got dragged from a very early age to museums, which I hated,” he says with a laugh. Fortunately, much of his cultural education involved theater, something the actor says he never had to be coaxed to attend. “When you see Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman for the first time, even as a kid you go, ‘I wanna do that!’” Because of his mom’s job, Stamberg had direct exposure to the great names in theater, from Uta Hagen to Ed Kleban. “She’d come home [from co-hosting All Things Considered] and say, ‘I’m interviewing Elia Kazan. What you want me to ask him?’ I was 13! I’d be like, ‘Uh…what makes a good actor?’ And he gave these huge answers, because it was Elia Kazan.’”
Around the time he was receiving advice from theater legends, Stamberg got his first taste of the stage when he was cast in a student production of Fiddler on the Roof at D.C.’s Murray School. “Being an only child, I was suddenly surrounded by a family and, well, girls,” he says of high school theater. “It was the best thing ever.” Bitten by the acting bug, Stamberg eventually decided he wanted to pursue performing as a career—though not without input from some lofty mentors. “My mom was close with [Tony Award winner] Linda Lavin. We went out to dinner after a show and I remember her saying, ‘I wouldn’t want to [begin acting] now. It’s much harder—and I don’t recommend it.’” Despite the blunt feedback, Stamberg felt such admiration for the “amazing, fulfilled” creative artists he knew, he decided to plunge in anyway.
A Little Advice:
The L.A. Guy: After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with majors in theater and philosophy, Stamberg built his career at small theaters including the Actors Studio and the Atlantic Theater Company’s apprentice program. “It felt like such a long, slow burn—tiny theaters in Chicago for four and a half years, then eight and a half here in New York,” he recalls. A big break came in 2003, when he was cast as a sexy gay paintballer on HBO’s Six Feet Under. His character only played a two episode arc, but Stamberg made an impression, landing roles on shows like HBO’s Over There, NBC’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and films like Fracture with Anthony Hopkins. Now back in New York, Stamberg says he’s still getting his bearings.. “Suddenly I’m ‘L.A. Guy,’ which feels so uncomfortable. All I know is theater is my first love and it’s the thing I want to do most. [Screen] acting is a new love, but I want the immediacy of live theater.”
Staking Out the Role: While living in L.A., Stamberg caught the world premiere of Distracted, starring Rita Wilson. A fast-paced, offbeat psychodrama wrapped in laughs, the play tells the story of two overwhelmed parents trying to root out their son’s alleged ADHD while dealing with their own overstimulated lives. Though he wasn’t a father then, Stamberg and his actress wife, Myndy Crist, are now the parents of 10-month-old Vivian. “I remember watching Ray Porter, who played my role, and this little actor’s flag went up and said, ‘That's my role! That’s a good role for me.'” So he was floored when news came that director Mark Brokaw whom Stamberg had auditioned for years ago was eyeing him to play Cynthia Nixon’s husband in an off-Broadway mounting of the play. “We sat down and had coffee, talked about Obama for an hour, and that was it. I thought, ‘I’m in love with this guy.’ And [Brokaw] was probably like, ‘What the fuck have I done?’”
Nixon’s the One: Stamberg minces no words about his Distracted experience thus far. “It’s hands down, without trying to sound like an ass-kisser, the best time I’ve ever had in the theater,” he exclaims. The company? “They’re a bunch of badasses! Cynthia is the best actor I’ve been on the stage with. She’s able to just roll with whatever and be there. This is the best job ever.” As for the play itself, the actor declares, “You can’t watch the show and not be touched by it, whether you’re a parent or not. It’s deeply relevant, and yet it’s so cool that it remains such an entertaining show.”