Steve Guttenberg: Landing a Role in Broadway’s ‘Relatively Speaking’ “is something a little divine”

Thanks to blockbusters like Police Academy and Cocoon, Steve Guttenberg was a force to be reckoned with during the 1980s. However, you wouldn’t be able to tell that when looking at his commercial output in the past 20 years or so. As he explained in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, the 53-year-old actor hopes a role in legendary director Woody Allen’s latest Broadway production will put him back in the spotlight.

“I’ve played at the small ballpark. But now I want to be at Yankee Stadium. I’d rather be a batboy on the Yankees than a power hitter on the Blue Jays,” said Guttenberg, comparing the American League baseball teams to where he is and wants to be in his career.

In Relatively Speaking, a three-part series of one-act plays partially written by Allen, Guttenberg plays a father who falls in love with his son’s soon-to-be wife. It marks a comeback of sorts for the actor, who has mostly appeared in made-for-TV and other below-the-radar films since his ‘80s heyday. Relatively Speaking isn’t quite the silver screen, but Allen’s name certainly lends it credence.  

“I really think there is something a little divine about it,” Guttenberg said about struggling to land a role of this magnitude again. “It was kind of like being in a hurricane and all of a sudden an ice cream truck goes by. You can’t help but get emotional about it.”