Credits:

1. Rent

2. Cabaret (national tour)

3. Juno and the Paycock

4. Thou Shalt Not

5. The Last Five Years

--Roles in Rent:

1. Understudy for Mark and Roger (although once he almost had to play Angel)

2. Squeegieman

3. Roger

--Last Show:

Evening of December 6th, 1998

--Hometown:

St. Louis, Missouri

--Age:

31

--High school:

Bishop DuBourg High School (He sang in the chamber singers choir)

--College:

Webster University- degree in theatre

--Pets:

Norbert has a dog which is temporarily living in upstate NY while he is touring, and he had a cat, Franklin, but had to give it away.

--Family:

Norbert has a wife, Sydney, and a 2-year-old daughter, Clara.

--Thoughts on Rent and playing Roger:

"When I am up there, I do not think about how sad it is. That would translate into self-pity. I try to think of Roger as a good friend of Jonathan Larson's. Jonathan was a struggling songwriter, like Roger, and I am, too. I try to think about the hope in this role."

--The Rent playbill bio:

NORBERT LEO BUTZ (Roger) a St. Louis Native, makes his New York and Broadway stage debut in RENT. Regional: four seasons with Alabama Shakespeare Festival (Hamlet, St. Joan, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Balm in Gilead); Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (Galileo, The Matchmaker); Hope Summer Rep (Boys Next Door, Man for All Seasons).B.F.A.,Conservatory at Webster University: M.F.A., Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Love and thanks to his wife Sydney, Elizabeth, Mom and Pop, and the crew back home, Michael, thanks for the light. Jonathan, thanks for the candle.

--The Cabaret playbill bio:

NORBERT LEO BUTZ (Emcee) a native of St. Louis, Norbert is stupidly happy to be a part of this wonderful show. He comes to Cabaret from the Broadway company of Rent, where he's been playing Roger Davis for the past year, and as a swing in Rent he played more roles than he can rememeber. Norbert moved to New York 2 1/2 years ago with Sydney, his loving and courageous wife from Montgomery, AL, where he earned an MFA and spent 2 years in the company of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Favorite roles there include the title role in Lizard (also at the Olympic Arts Festival in Atlanta), Dauphin in St. Joan, Joe in Balm in Gilead, and the title role in The Flying Doctor. He appeared in the John Welles' pilot film, "The Adversaries" and the soon to be released indie film "Went to Coney Island on a Mission from God". He recently recorded two songs for the soundtrack fo the indie film "Looking for an Echo". A guitarist and songwriter as well, he is currently working on a demo of new songs. He would like to thank Mom and Dad, Rob and Cynthia, Sam Mendes and Alan Cumming for inspiration and the great awful jokes. For my beautiful daughter, Clara Virginia.

(Collected from the NY board and other various sources)

1. After Marcy sang "Someone to live for, unafraid to say I love you" Norbert said "YOU NEVER SAID IT EITHER!"

2. Norbert gave Marcy his jacket by mistake in La Vie Bohome, and then put on her jacket and danced around in it.

3. Norbert said "I gotta go. Oh nooo. Oh fuck."

4. Once, Norbert was having trouble with his headset, so during Happy New Year he went upstage and took off his jacket so a techie could help him fix it. When his line "Bolted plywood, padlocked with a chain..." came up, he was upstage without a mike, so he kind of threw his hands up in despair and Marcy looked around and jumped in with his line.

5. During La Vie Boheme (as Mark,) Norbert messed up and said "And Maureen Johnson, back from her one night engagement at the Eleventh Street Lot will uh...um...sing, um, on a thing, which she has never played..."

6. One time during Finale A, the film wouldn't go out, so Norb was laughing at that. He said his line as "I think a little bird told her... Hahaha!"

7. Norbert forgot to plug in his guitar, so Anthony had to say, "And if Roger had remembered to plug in his guitar, that WOULD have reminded us of Musetta's Waltz

8. As Mark, Norb has fallen off the end of the table more than once.

9. One time when he was sick, he came out during Christmas Bells with his scarf tied over his head.

10. At Cabaret, Norbert flashed the man he was dancing with. He then started to crack up.

11. And of course, there's the classic moment when Norbert dropped the Stoli at Anthony's last.