Steve Guttenberg's 'Tales From the Guttenberg Bible' comes to Long Island

If you ask Steve Guttenberg a simple question like "What is your play 'Tales From the Guttenberg Bible' about?," don't expect a simple answer.

"The play is a story about family, it’s about believing in yourself. It’s about ambition. It’s about Hollywood, it’s about my father and his son. It’s really mainly about what it takes to become something in this world. Whether it’s an actor or a doctor or a street sweeper, you’ve got to have your loved ones, whoever those loved ones are — friends, associates, your blood family — behind you," Guttenberg said.

Or putting it more succinctly, it's all about Steve.

And, as expected from someone who starred in such popular '80s comedies as "Short Circuit," "Three Men and a Baby" and the "Police Academy" films, it's first and foremost funny.

The show, which the North Massapequa native adapted from his 2012 memoir "The Guttenberg Bible," runs through Aug. 27 at the Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts. In the book, the actor recounted his experiences from L.I. to L.A. Those stories are played out for laughs in the stage version, in which Guttenberg, 64, stars as himself while three other actors each take on 30 characters, including his dad, Stanley Guttenberg, who died last year, and his mom, Ann.

"A lot happens in our house on Wyoming Avenue in North Massapequa. My mom and dad are always there. That’s their headquarters," Guttenberg said.

While Long Island plays an important role in the show, there's also plenty of show-biz stuff, starting with his arrival in Hollywood at 17, a scene that could have easily come out of a Mel Brooks movie: Guttenberg gained entry onto the Paramount lot by pretending to be the son of the studio's then president Michael Eisner and set up a pretend office at the studio. The ruse worked, and he soon caught the notice of casting directors.

There's also plenty of name dropping as celebrity characters including Laurence Olivier, Tom Selleck, Leonard Nimoy, Ted Danson, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy and many others make cameo appearances.

The unusual set looks like a throwback to the '60s TV series "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," a wall of windows that characters pop in and out of while also changing costumes and wigs at a moment's notice.

"It gives us a great amount of freedom to have all of these characters talking and engaging with the other characters," Guttenberg said. "I’m sort of like the stage manager in 'Our Town.' I’m in the play and I’m telling you all about the play. I’m the Greek chorus and I’m the narrator and I am a character in the play."

And Guttenberg takes pride in the fact that his character is himself, a young Jewish male with plenty of chutzpah to fight back against the anti-Semitism he encountered from agents and studio executives early in his career. "The first thing they wanted me to do was change my name because it was too Jewish," he said. "The typical movie star is more like Brad Pitt as opposed to George Segal. All through my career, I’ve had agents and casting directors make sharp and offensive comments about my looks and that I'm too Semitic.

"it made me dislike my looks and made me want to be as far from Jewish as possible," he continued. "And then I realized, no, I am the only guy who looks like me. I’m the only Steve Guttenberg and the only actor I can be is me."

FROM PAGE TO STAGE

Guttenberg hadn't even thought about turning his autobiography into a play until eight years ago at the urging of his friend, producer-director Julian Schlossberg. The idea didn't begin to come to fruition for another three years when his father became ill.

"I sat next to his bedside and I wrote about 300 pages and I sent it to Julian. He said, 'This is great, but it’s not "Nicholas Nickleby." So we had to shave it down. And he looked around the country for a great regional theater," Guttenberg said.

The one he found was George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Artistic director David Saint liked the play and arranged for "Tales" to have its world premiere in April. “It was a joy working with Steve on this script focusing on his remarkable life," said Saint, who directed the show. "The best discovery was finding that Steve is one of the most decent, nicest guys in the business. There is a reason why he’s played so many likable guy next door characters in movies through the years: because they are a reflection of the genuine person he is.”

The show opened to enthusiastic reviews (Broadway World called it "humorous, insightful and excellently performed"), and everyone involved became anxious to share it with Long Island audiences.

"When I was a teenager, a Jewish kid from Connecticut in the 1980s, Steve Guttenberg was my idol," said Scott Schwartz, artistic director at Bay Street. "What a thrill it is to now be able to bring him and his hilarious show to the Bay Street audience. And what an extra thrill for me personally to get to know him and spend time with him here in the Hamptons. I can tell you, he's a real mensch."

LOVING LONG ISLAND

Though bringing "Tales' to Long Island might seem like a homecoming for Guttenberg, who spends most of his time on the West Coast, in reality, he's never really left.

"I go home all the time," Guttenberg said, to visit family and friends. Those trips home always include stops at some favorite Massapequa haunts like Pappalardo's Pizza Cove ("the best pizza on Long Island," he said) run by his best friend, Joey Pappalardo. And Guttenberg still gets excited thinking about the tuna on toast and assorted ice cream flavors at Krisch's, one of his go-to places from his youth.

Once "Tales" finishes its Bay Street run, it may be a while before he gets back to Long Island. Guttenberg said he'll be taking the show across the country and around the globe. He's also working on a new book called "Time to Think," which deals with caring for his dad in his final years, that is set to come out sometime around Father’s Day.

While Guttenberg wishes that his dad could have been in the audience for "Tales From the Guttenberg Bible," he hopes the play also serves as a testament to his dad.

"It’s all the memories I’ve had since I left home at 17," he said. "It helps me with my grief, where I can work out my relationship with my dad and how his death affected me. It is very relatable whether you’re a sophisticate or a one-time play visitor. You’re going to get a lot out of it."