Guttenberg plays himself in \u201cTales From the Guttenberg Bible.\u201d (Adam Wingman)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Now a brand new stage adaptation, \u201cTales From the Guttenberg Bible,\u201d is playing through May 21 at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Guttenberg plays himself in the show, in which he explores his career, his Judaism and much more.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a tradition and as a culture, [Judaism\u2019s] been a huge part,\u201d said Guttenberg, who was born in Brooklyn in 1958 and raised in Massapequa, on Long Island. \u201cMy family didn\u2019t observe Friday nights, but my father was kosher\u2026 I was bar mitzvahed, and then when I went out to California when I was 17, I found the temple to be a great respite for me, especially from the loneliness.\u201d <\/p>\n
For years, Guttenberg regularly attended the Stephen Wise Temple in Los Angeles, and later joined Kehillat Israel in Pacific Palisades. <\/p>\n
The show features four actors playing 90 different characters, including the Jewish movie producers Allan Carr and Robert Evans, the voiceover actor Michael Bell (who is Guttenberg\u2019s godfather), as well as Paul Reiser, Merv Griffin and Kevin Bacon. It covers Guttenberg\u2019s life from age 17 \u2014 when he famously snuck onto the Paramount Pictures lot, set up an office and sometimes claimed to be the stepson of then-Paramount executive Michael Eisner \u2014 through his late 20s. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been such a great career, and I\u2019ve really enjoyed it,\u201d Guttenberg said. He said that Julian Schlossberg, the veteran producer of movies and theater, read the book and told him that he thought there was a play in it. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo I started writing it into a play,\u201d he said, and Schlossberg thought they should bring it to \u201ca great regional theater.\u201d <\/p>\n
Guttenberg is not new to the stage, having made his Broadway debut in the early 1990s, and later appearing in \u201cRelatively Speaking,\u201d the Schlossberg-produced, one-act anthology that played in 2011 and 2012. Guttenberg appeared in the one-act play written by Woody Allen, while the other two were by Ethan Coen and Elaine May. <\/p>\n
But the actor\u2019s relationship with Schlossberg goes back much further. One of his first movie parts was in the 1978 thriller \u201cThe Boys from Brazil,\u201d which was about a Jewish Nazi hunter (Laurence Olivier) tracking Nazis in South America. Schlossberg, hosting a radio show at the time, proclaimed Guttenberg a \u201ctalent,\u201d on a broadcast that Guttenberg\u2019s mother happened to hear, leading her to call in.<\/p>\n
Schlossberg, author of a recent memoir about his own adventures in showbiz, described Guttenberg as a \u201cnice Jewish boy\u201d in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency earlier this year. <\/p>\n
Although he was seen more recently on TV in \u201cThe Goldbergs,\u201d \u201cParty Down\u201d and \u201cDancing with the Stars,\u201d Guttenberg mostly stepped away from acting for about five years to care for his ailing father, who passed away last July. That, along with the pandemic, had put the play on the back burner. <\/p>\n
When asked which of his movies he\u2019s asked about the most, Guttenberg names \u201cShort Circuit\u201d (a 1986 sci-fi comedy) and \u201cThe Bedroom Window\u201d (a 1987 thriller) in addition to \u201cThree Men and a Baby,\u201d \u201cPolice Academy\u201d and \u201cCocoon.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Can\u2019t Stop the Music\u2019 gets a lot of play. And of course, \u2018The Day After,\u2019\u201d he said, referring to Nancy Walker\u2019s 1980 musical comedy and the groundbreaking 1983 TV movie about a nuclear apocalypse. Guttenberg said he was \u201clucky enough that I have five or six or seven old movies that people ask about.\u201d <\/p>\n
Guttenberg has warm memories of Leonard Nimoy, the Jewish actor and \u201cStar Trek\u201d icon who directed \u201cThree Men and a Baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a person, he was a ball of fire inside an iceberg,\u201d Guttenberg said of Nimoy, who died in 2015. \u201cVery stoic, but extremely warm and loving. The first time I met him, he asked if I had his mother\u2019s stuffed cabbage\u2026 a terrific artist, an incredible acting teacher, a well-versed writer, photographer, and director.\u201d <\/p>\n
While \u201cPolice Academy\u201d \u2014 about an inept bunch of cops \u2014 is a rare franchise from the 1980s that has never had any kind of remake or reboot, Guttenberg said that there have been about \u201c10 scripts developed\u201d over the years, including from such big names as Jordan Peele. He added that Taika Waititi, the Jewish director of \u201cJojo Rabbit,\u201d is \u201cdeveloping one now, or thinking about it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Even though his acting took a back seat in recent years, Guttenberg noted that he enjoyed his run as a science teacher on \u201cThe Goldbergs.\u201d The long-running, soon-to-conclude ABC series about a suburban Jewish family is set amongst the popular culture of the 1980s \u2014 so it has touched on several of his movies. <\/p>\n
\u201cI like [creator Adam F. Goldberg] a lot, and I think any time that we can give support to shows that have Jewish culture in them, that, as a Jewish person, you\u2019ve got to lend your name to it, especially with all that\u2019s going on,\u2019\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
After the New Jersey run, Guttenberg will bring the show to Sag Harbor\u2019s Bay Street Theatre in August, and, he and the producers hope, other engagements beyond that. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a great play, and I think we\u2019re gonna be able to play it all over the country and in different cities, and one day back in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
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