Roger Bart: He Who Helped Hercules Go the Distance
When filmmakers hire an actor to voice an animated character who also sings, a second actor is often hired to provide the singing voice, and the filmmakers have to make a completely seamless transition between the two different voices on screen. This happened a lot at Disney throughout their “Renaissance Period,” in the 1990s, and in this blog, I wanted to tell you about one of the actors who lent his singing voice to two Disney films: Roger Bart.
Roger Bart was born in Norwalk, Connecticut on September 29th, 1962, though he grew up in Bernardsville, New Jersey. He earned his BFA in Acting from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 1985 and made his Broadway debut two years later in Big River, as Tom Sawyer. (replacing John Short who had originated the role). Next, he starred in touring productions of The Secret Garden (from ’92-’94) and The Who’s Tommy (from ’93-’95), and in 1996 he starred in the very first national tour of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (which also starred Ralph Macchio).
In 1997, Roger Bart made his official film debut when he was hired by Disney to provide the singing voice of the young teenage Hercules in Hercules (1997). Joshua Keaton was the speaking voice of the teenage Hercules and Tate Donovan voiced Hercules as an adult. Keaton originally supplied his singing voice for the character, but Disney decided to use Bart instead. For the film, Bart recorded the song “Go the Distance,” which earned an Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Song, though it lost to “My Heart Will Go On,” in Titanic (1997).
In 1999, Roger Bart starred in the Broadway revival of the musical You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, which earned him the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as Snoopy. He starred opposite Kristin Chenoweth, who also won a Tony for her performance as Charlie Brown’s sister, Sally Brown. The show played a total of 149 performances at the Ambassador Theater.
Two years later, Bart was hired by Mel Brooks to originate the role of Carmen Ghia in the first Original Broadway Production of The Producers, starring Nathan Lane as Max Bialystock and Matthew Broderick as Leopold “Leo” Bloom. Bart was later cast as a replacement for Broderick in the role of Leo Bloom, though the role of Carmen Ghia earned him his second Tony Nomination. The show played for a total of 2,502 performances at the St. James Theatre and Roger Bart later reunited with Nathan Lane for revival of a musical called The Frogs in 2004 in which Lane both starred in and co-wrote the book. Bart also reunited with both Lane and Matthew Broderick for the 2005 film version of The Producers again playing the “Ghia” role. (The film was directed by Susan Stroman who had also directed and choreographed the Broadway version.) Two years later, he reunited with Mel Brooks and Stroman for the Broadway musical adaptation of Brooks’s comedy classic, Young Frankenstein, in which he played the role of Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, the role originated by Gene Wilder in the film.
The same year that he starred in The Frogs, Roger Bart was hired by Disney to sing as Scamp, Lady and Tramp’s rebellious son, in the direct-to-video sequel, Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp’s Adventure (2004). Scamp has a female love interest in the film, a dog named Angel voiced by Alyssa Milano, (though her singing voice was done by Susan Egan, a reunion of sorts for Bart and Egan since she provided both the speaking and singing voice of Megara or “Meg” in “Hercules.”)
Aside from his many film and theatre credits, Roger Bart also had numerous roles on television: Desperate Housewives (2004-2012), Revenge (2011-2015), Perception (2012-2015), and the Disney Channel Original Movie How to Build a Better Boy (2014). He is currently on the Freeform series Good Trouble (2019-present).
Roger Bart is a very talented actor and singer, and had it not been for his exceptional voice, “Hercules,” wouldn’t be the underrated classic that it is.
