He acted on dreams of Broadway
New World grad Erik Liberman made it to Broadway in a musical directed by a working legend, Harold Prince.
BY CHRISTINE DOLEN
Like so many mothers, Marsha Forsyth taught her children this valuable life lesson: If you want something, don't just wish for it. Work to make it happen.
Her son, Erik Liberman, absorbed that wisdom and first acted on it as a little boy. And by following that work-for-it philosophy throughout an eclectic career, the Miami-raised Liberman wound up making his Broadway debut last spring, playing 15 ensemble roles in LoveMusik, a new musical directed by Harold Prince (the Ghostlight Records cast CD is being released Tuesday).
How he got there began with Mom's advice and a children's typewriter.
''I had bought him a blue Snoopy typewriter, and he was typing at 5,'' Forsyth remembers. 'He was watching The Sunday Funnies [a morning kids' show] and said, 'I want to be on that.' So we found the name of the executive producer, and Erik wrote to him [and got hired]. I taught him if you want something, you've got to go for it. And he has never changed.''
A BORN ARTIST
Liberman, now 31, knew from the time he was tiny that he wanted a career in the arts. When his grandmother asked him as a boy what he wanted to do in life, he says, 'I pointed to the TV and said, `I want to be in there.' '
A voraciously curious kid, the actor showed an early gift for making significant professional connections. He became a member of Corky Dozier's Coconut Grove Children's Theatre, and that led to a starring role in the 1987 Emmy-winning WPBT-PBS 2 musical drama Sneakers. Singer Jon Secada, also in Sneakers, became Liberman's first voice teacher.
When Maureen Stapleton came to town to shoot Cocoon: The Return in 1988, she rented a house next door to Liberman's. She got him a tiny part in the movie, but more significantly spent many hours encouraging his dreams.
For high school, Liberman chose Miami's New World School of the Arts. David Kwiat, a New World professor and one of his teachers, remembers him well.
''He was precocious, a real showbiz kid,'' Kwiat says. ``He had the kind of personality that made you aware of him, such a strong personality. . . . He really wanted to be a player in New York.''
Liberman, who has twice come back to New World to share his experiences and work with students, is now based in New York, and his career seems to be heating up.
NEW ROLES
Since LoveMusik, he has played the lead role of Charley Kringas in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along at the hot Signature Theatre in Arlington, Va.; and participated in a workshop of the new musical Galois, recording tracks. Next month, he'll be in the workshop of 13, a new musical by Jason Robert Brown, and will have a callback audition for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Jersey Boys (that show, like many others on Broadway, is currently dark because of the stagehands' strike).
The way Liberman got to his goal, however, is anything but traditional, and it started with poverty and occasional homelessness in Los Angeles.
He skipped college for training at places like the Royal National Theatre and Theatre d'Complicite, creating his own post-high school course of study by seeking out top teachers and mentors, such as Judi Dench.
He didn't just act onstage: He danced with the Aspen-Santa Fe Ballet; choreographed the Obie Award-winning Mabou Mines production Dollhouse; coauthored Wisdom from an Empty Mind with his dad, Havana-born optometrist-turned-healer Jacob Liberman; appeared in the still-to-be released movie Goyband with J-Lo ex Chris Judd and Rent star Adam Pascal.
And in 2005, he was one of the winners of the Kurt Weill Foundation's Lotte Lenya Competition, which is how he met Prince (who was a judge of the prestigious singing contest) and then wound up in LoveMusik, a musical about the complicated relationship of Weill and Lenya.
When he decided to enter the competition, Liberman says, ``The one thing I kept envisioning was Hal shaking my hand . . . I'm not Juilliard-trained. I don't have a broad, operatic voice . . . So I spent every day at the library, researching the repertoire. I rehearsed six hours a day.''
At the finals, Prince coached him, and Liberman began learning from one of the great directors in musical theater.
'The gift he gave me is `less is more,' '' Liberman says.
RAVE REVIEWS
For his part, Prince remains impressed with the latest of many talents who owe their Broadway break to him.
''He's the real thing,'' Prince says. ``He's got all the equipment. You can't forget him once you've seen him. Now, it's all about luck.''
Eric Schaeffer, the Signature Theatre founder who directed Liberman in Merrily We Roll Along, says of the always-intricately prepared actor, ``I had strong ideas of what I wanted, and Erik had ideas as well. What was terrific was working with Erik to sculpt his performance from both of our ideas, to make it fresh and new.''
New World drama dean Patrice Bailey calls Liberman a ''fabulous'' teacher and adds, ``He's a very intense young man, and very disciplined. . . . When he's in a show, he doesn't talk all day.''
That's something Liberman's mother confirms.
''When he went to Broadway, I had to use the computer to communicate with him. We never spoke. He was all-consumed,'' she says. ``I felt such pride and respect that he had accomplished his dream.''
Still working from his mother's valuable advice, the focused Liberman is continuing to create his own opportunities. Whatever happens, he will be prepared and grateful.
''I don't know what's next,'' he says, ``but I'm excited.''
Christine Dolen is the Miami Herald's theater critic.
