Danny Pintauro - Joey - 11/31/2000

The Velocity of Danny

by Francesco Sedita

The role of Gary is a demanding one. For ninety minutes, Danny stands in front of his audience, sometimes in nothing more than leopard print underwear, as he tells Gary's story.

When you first see twenty-four-year-old Danny Pintauro, you're not sure if he at all resembles Jonathan Bower, the bright-eyed, nerdy kid from the 1980s sitcom Who's the Boss? With his messy hair and plastic-framed glasses, he doesn't look much at all like the reptile-collecting kid we all knew and loved. Instead we see a dedicated New York actor. The former child star now lives in Brooklyn and has a boyfriend. He has just completed a year of back-to-back-to-back theater stints. He starred in James Still's off-Broadway one-man show " The Velocity of Gary (Not His Real Name)" and then in Paula Vogel's "Hot 'n' Throbbing" in Washington, DC, followed by Moises Kaufman's "Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde" in North Carolina.

It was while in his agent's office in New York that Danny met the award-winning director . Mark was working on "The Velocity of Gary (Not His Real Name)" and had yet to cast the title role -- a young down-on-his-luck street hustler, whose mantra is "Anything can happen." The two talked and Danny landed the role of Gary. "I didn't officially audition for it. They had been looking for an actor for over a year. They gave me a script and I thought it was awesome." In the summer of 1999, "Velocity" played for a month at the Duplex Cabaret, the oldest continuing cabaret in New York City's West Village.

The role of Gary is a demanding one. For 90 minutes, Danny stands in front of his audience, sometimes in nothing more than leopard print underwear, as he tells Gary's story. He adopts different characters in the telling, from Kid Joey, a deaf drag queen, to Valentino, an insightful porn star who teaches Gary how to get in touch with emotions.

"When the audience first walks in, I'm on stage stripping. I had no intention of setting out to shock people -- it wasn't about trying to help me to get rid of the image of Jonathan Bower. It was just taking on a part. What probably shocked them more was my performance."

And shock it did. The New York Post said the show was "endearing, intriguingly off-center and always very much alive. Pintauro teases us, seduces us, draws us closer, and he shines." And LGNY called the production, "highly poetic, subtle and at times, breathtaking. Mr Cannistraro has orchestrated the 90-minute piece so that it never lags, carefully balancing Gary's energy, choreographing the dichoromy between Gary's longing for contact and the distance he must maintain as a hustler. Get to this show with all due velocity!"

This September, "Velocity" plays at San Francisco's New Conservatory Theater as part of their sixth annual Pride Season. Danny is looking forward to his time on the West Coast. When asked where he sees himself in the future, after Gary, he smiles and says, "I'm at a place right now where I haven't a clue what I want to do with my life. [New York] is so specific on you being something and having your life going on that I get sort of lost in the crowd. I came here specifically because I wanted to try acting. New York is basically a drama department."

In twenty-four years, Danny has managed to lead the lie of an actor, but taking breaks along the was to stay grounded. "I'm like any other twenty four year old I have no clue what I want to do with my life." But like Gary's "Anything can happen," it seems as it anything can and will happen for Danny. As a child, he got roles for being cute, charming, and perfectly blonde. Now, his work comes to him for having talent, an eye for good projects, and maybe a little bit of luck.

"The Velocity of Gary, Not His Real Name," starring Danny Pintauro, runs from September 6th to 30th at the New Conservatory Theater Center in San Francisco. Tickets range from $18-$30, and are available by calling the New Conservatory Theater Center box office at (415) 861-8972.