Justin Bartha Has Theatre Chops, Will Travel

Art

Hangover star Justin Bartha leaves New York and dives headlong into theatre with a lead role in The Sunshine Boys at the Ahmanson in LA

Justin Bartha is an actor whose name you may not recognize, but whose face instantly rings a bell. Best known for his role as Doug, the beleaguered husband in The Hangover franchise, Bartha’s a kind of everyman’s man—which may explain his seemingly random career trajectory: “How I get most of my parts throughout my career,” Bartha explains, “is they go through everyone else, they hire someone, it doesn’t work out, and then at the last minute they scramble for someone and I’m like, ‘Hey—I’ll do it!’”

"How I get most of my parts throughout my career is they go through everyone else, they hire someone, it doesn’t work out, and then at the last minute they scramble for someone and I’m like, ‘Hey—I’ll do it!’"

That’s precisely how he landed the role in The Sunshine Boys, a classic from the Neil Simon comedy canon, for its six-week run at the Ahmanson Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. (It might also explain his being cast as the scrawny and manic punk icon Stiv Bators in the film CBGB—more on that later).

Bartha and DiVito say their goodbyes after a long show.

It’s an hour before show time on the second night of the play in which Bartha plays Ben, the nebbishy nephew/agent of aging vaudeville has-been Willie Clark (played flawlessly by Danny DeVito). In a small, austere dressing room in the bowels of the Ahmanson, Bartha is relaxed, and reflective about his acting career thus far. “I was taking a little bit of a self-imposed hiatus from the acting thing for a little while,” he says. “Then some people called me and said, would you be interested in this?”

Why the hiatus? “It’s just kind of a disillusionment with the profession of acting,” he confesses, after a considerable pause. “Not being able to be fulfilled by jobs you’re offered, nothing interesting; and luckily coming off of certain things where you make enough money to try to be patient and explore other avenues. For me I’ve been doing a lot of theater in the past few years and that’s the only characters and material that has been really fulfilling and has creatively lifted me.”

Arriving at the theater, gathering credentials — passes, keys.

Empty dressing room during the first act.

A run-through with Danny DiVito before the show.

Reviewing changes after the first act during intermission.

Bartha spent a year doing off-Broadway shows in New York with fellow thesps Jesse Eisenberg and Zach Braff, but said he felt a little burned out by that as well. For a smart and obviously very talented guy who studied both filmmaking and theater at NYU, and got his start working “every job you could do on a set,” I ask if perhaps writing or moving behind the camera might be his next move.

“I wish it were that easy. I’ve been able to put together a couple of little projects in the past, and I’ll probably continue to try to do that. Unless there are some Jews in Hollywood that see this play…and there’s no Jews in Hollywood, and they don’t see theater!” he jokes.

Born in Florida and raised outside of Detroit, Bartha moved to New York to study at NYU in 1996. After moving to LA last year to star in The New Normal (which was unfortunately canceled after one season), he recently gave up his place in New York and decided to settle in LA full time. Like many ex-pats though, he still defines himself primarily as a New Yorker, and says he’s been affected and influenced more by New York City than by any other place he’s lived. Of course, that’s a New York that he notes, in many ways no longer really exists.

It’s that grittier, bygone era of New York that’s portrayed in CBGB, which premiered in New York City at the CBGB Festival on October 8th and opens nationwide on October 11th. Playing the Dead Boys’ vocalist Stiv Bators in the film was a fun challenge for Bartha, who lost 20 pounds for the role and sang all the songs (though he’s not sure if they ended up using his voice in the final mix). The role is a far cry from The Hangover’s genteel Doug. “When the director asked me, I thought it was a mistake, as I’m sure most people that heard that I was playing Stiv Bators hoped it was mistake!” he laughs. “But if you’re gonna do it, you’ve gotta really go as far as possible. I wanted to go further, actually, because Stiv—he was quite a showman.”  (One scene in the film depicts Bartha getting orally serviced on stage by a whipped-cream wielding fan). 

Bartha is both curious and clueless about where his career will take him next, but at least he seems to be enjoying the ride. “Part of this is just an experiment,” he says, just as a voice comes on the backstage PA to announce it’s 30 minutes until the show starts. “Theater in LA? Is that possible? This theater is one of the best on the west coast if not the country, and Neil Simon? Okay, I’m not a religious man, but Neil Simon is as close to a Jewish messiah as you could get.”