Rob Lowe: Daily Record Cover Story

Daily Record z FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018

Rob Lowe appears at Mayo PAC on May 12

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Bill Nutt

Special to Morristown Daily Record USA TODAY NETWORK - NEW JERSEY

Rob Lowe reflects on career, lessons learned in his one-man show

HAPPY ACCIDENTS

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sked to name people and performances that inspired him to become an actor, Rob Lowe cited Paul Newman in “Butch Cassidy and the

Sundance Kid” and Jack Nicholson in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” z Then, with a chuckle, he added, “I’m man enough to admit that there might be a little bit of David Cassidy, too.”

Referencing two roguish risk-takers and a teen heartthrob almost serves as a paradigm for Lowe’s own career.

Lowe emerged in the 1980s with a crop of other attractive performers in such films as “The Outsiders” and “St. Elmo’s Fire.” He has since forged a career that has juggled drama (“The West Wing”) and comedy (“Parks and Recreation”).

Currently, Lowe is taking on another role: himself. He is touring with a one-man show called “Stories I Only Tell My Friends Live” that will come to the Mayo Performing Arts Center on Saturday, May 12.

Though the tour shares its name with Lowe’s bestselling 2011 autobiography, he stressed that the show is not simply a live reading of selections from that book or its follow-up, “Love Life.”

“It’s the next iteration of the book,” Lowe said. “I’m telling stories. Some are funny. Some are sneakily emotional.”

Lowe said the one-man show has evolved since he started doing it about 18 months ago. “I have a better sense now of what works consistently and what works only intermittently,” he said.

His career has provided with him with plenty of material, from his acting gigs (including his current role on the medical drama “Code Blue”) to one or two notorious incidents that landed him in the tabloids.

At the same time, Lowe takes pride in his philanthropic acitivities, including raising money for breast cancer research.

Earlier this year Lowe was inducted into the Horatio Alger Association, which honors individuals who have come from relatively humble beginnings to achieve success. “I talk about that now in the show,” he said.

A native of Virginia, Lowe was raised in Ohio before

moving to California. One of his first roles was in the TV film “Thursday Child,” for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe.

In Francis Ford Coppola’s film adaptation of “The Outsiders,” Lowe was cast in an ensemble that included such relatively unknown faces as Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, and Diane Lane.

Lowe said, looking back on that experience, he learned a great deal from Coppola, but not as much as he might have. “It was my first movie,” he said. “I had nothing else to compare it to. So there’s a disconnect there.”

One lesson he did learn was to appreciate what he calls “happy accidents.” He recalled one scene in which the actors walking down the street when the wind blew off the hat of a cameraman. The hat landed in front of Estevez, who promptly put it on.

“That shot is in the movie,” Lowe said. “It was something that felt real in the moment, and Francis used it.

He was open to the process.”

Lowe said he is trying to apply that lesson as he directs a remake of “The Bad Seed,” with McKenna Grace, (young Tonya Harding in “I, Tonya”) as a sociopathic little girl and Lowe (in a gender reversal from the original play and movie) as her father.

Though busy with such film and TV projects as “The Bad Seed” and “Super Troopers” (which Lowe referred to as “a cult classic, 18 years in the making”), Lowe said he wants to continue to make time for his live one-man show.

“As an actor, it keeps my working on my chops,” he said. “I can’t really do a long run of a play, so this is a perfect way to still be able to perform live.”

Lowe said he also uses his show to express gratitude to his audience. “It means so much to me, to be in front of people who have supported me,” he said. “At every point, there were people out there, and this way I can say ‘Thank you’ to their faces.”

If you go ROB LOWE: STORIES I ONLY TELL MY FRIENDS LIVE WHAT: The actor (“The Outsiders,” “West Wing”) reflects on his career and life experiences in a one-man show.

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, May 12 WHERE: Mayo Performing Arts Center, 100 South St., Morristown TICKETS: $49 to $175 INFORMATION: 973-539-8008 or www.mayoarts.org