Jerry Slutzky has had many auditions in his life. But none was more grueling than the one where he eventually found his future fiancée.
A lawyer and financial advisor who works right off State Road 54 on Sterlington Drive, Slutzky had maintained a profile on the website Match.com almost since the beginning of the site’s existence.
Helen Techler, an audiologist out of Dunedin, posted a profile, and received 100 responses. She didn’t want to go through it, and instead tasked her daughter to pick out three. One of them was Slutzky.
“I was nervous, but I would go into any meeting like this just looking for someone who enjoys doing things, and being someone who shares that interest,” Slutzky said. “With Helen, I got the rose.”
But he did have a bit of an advantage. Slutzky has been auditioning his entire life, finding a home on the stage for many popular productions like “Music Man” and “Kiss Me Kate.”
Slutzky was born into a family of Chicago lawyers, and would become one himself. But there was something about the stage that always fascinated him — and the theater bug was something he could never cure. So much that even today, with a busy work schedule and a full personal life because of Helen, he makes the time to appear on stage, like the starring role in the upcoming production of “La Cage aux Folles” in Largo.
“In high school, I played trombone, and our orchestra always played for the spring musical,” Slutzky said. “I would be in the pit orchestra, but it always looked like more fun to be on stage than in the pit.”
That prompted Slutzky to audition for the next play, hoping to make it into the chorus. Instead, he was cast as the lead — a trend that would continue for the next two productions as well.
“The next three shows after that, however, I didn’t get the part,” Slutzky said. “That brought me back down to where I needed to be. Otherwise, who knows, I may have skipped law school to pursue acting, and I may have ended up as your waiter somewhere. The concept of a starving actor is just not for me.”
“La Cage aux Folles” is probably more familiar to audiences through its comedy film adaptation “The Birdcage,” which starred Robin Williams and Nathan Lane in 1996. Slutzky plays Georges, a character similar to Williams’ Armand Goldman, the owner of a gay nightclub, who suddenly finds himself entertaining a visit from the very conservative family of his son’s fiancée.
“The storyline is the same as the movie, but it’s a totally unique experience,” Slutzky said. “People will laugh until their sides hurt.”
Slutzky openly invites friends and clients alike to his performances, but still gets surprised looks from some when they realize who’s on stage.
“People think that because I’m an attorney, I must be conservative, quiet or boring, but that’s not the way many of us are at all,” Slutzky said.
Performing in shows is a huge time commitment, so great that Slutzky limits himself to one production each year. But even with a grueling schedule, the stage is where he feels he belongs.
“You know that feeling you get when you’ve worked inside in a freezing cold air-conditioned office all day, and your car has been outside baking in the sun?” he said. “You get in, and you get that wonderful feeling of heat that warms you down to the bone. That’s the feeling I get when the spotlight hits me.”
Slutzky’s all-time favorite role is Harold Hill in “The Music Man,” but now that he’s 60, he’s not exactly the right age to play the part anymore. That has opened the door for other characters, including Tevye, the Jewish father and milkman who sings his way through oppression in “Fiddler on the Roof.”
“You experience every emotion in that role, and that’s particularly meaningful for me,” Slutzky said. “My heritage is Russian Jew, and at the time the story is set, that could’ve well been my family being thrown out of Russia.”
After more than 40 years on the stage, Slutzky said he’s still excited to see younger people in the audience. Newer generations have so many ways to be entertained, and going to the theater usually isn’t high on the list.
“I was worried a few times that it was a dying art form,” Slutzky said. “But now I see a whole new generation who do have a love for Broadway musicals, and I am very happy.”
