Interview: Theatre Life with Robert Sella

Today's subject Robert Sella is currently living his theatre life onstage at Round House Theatre as he prepares to begin performances of Matthew López's epic play The Inheritance. The show is performed in two parts and will begin performances on August 27th running through October 19th.

This is not the first time Robert has performed in the DC area. His previous work here includes Design for Living, Don Carlos, and Mourning Becomes Electra at STC (Helen Hayes Award) and Angels in America and Bruinhaha at Kennedy Center.

Broadway credits include Flying Over Sunset, Sylvia, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, Sideman, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

On the West End Robert had the privilege of performing opposite Dame Maggie Smith in The Lady from Dubuque.

His off- Broadway credits include The Mystery of Irma Vep and Stuff Happens and regionally two of Robert's favorite credits are Private Lives and Amadeus which are both productions of Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

Youi might have also seen him on the big and small screens in Manchester by the Sea, Sleepy Hollow and New Amsterdam.

The Inheritance can be seen as a whole on select days or you may also split the experience up over two days if preferred.

With the DC theatre season starting to ramp up, please consider making Round House Theatre's epic production of The Inheritance part of your fall theatregoing. The cast is made up of some of the finest actors you'll find. One of which is Robert Sella who is living his epic theatre life to the fullest.

As a child, did you always know you wanted to be a performer?

I can hardly remember a time when I didn’t want to be a performer. I started at about 5 years old playing with puppets and taping quarters to the bottoms of my shoes to make them into tap shoes! I would write plays and songs and perform them for my family in the living room and even at school for my classmates.

Where did you receive your training?

I took all kinds of lessons growing up, but I think I really started to see acting as a craft when I took a summer intensive workshop with the great Stella Adler when I was 18. I then went to UCLA and The Juilliard School, which were both so helpful and meaningful to me

What was your first professional job as a performer? 

Annie Get Your Gun at the Windmill Dinner Theatre in Scottsdale, Arizona when I was nine years old. I played Little Jake, Annie Oakley’s kid brother.

Can you please give us a brief overview of The Inheritance and also tell us about the characters you portray in the show? 

The Inheritance is a powerful, sweeping story told with great insight and humor by Matthew López that looks at the lives of several gay men and their various friends and lovers. It asks an audience to think about the debt we owe those who came before us and encourages us to find a way to illuminate the way for those who will follow us. By using certain aspects of E.M. Forster’s great novel Howard’s End, Mr. López weaves a tale of passion, loss, love, and ultimately the kind of feeling of home and community that awaits us if we’re brave enough to really live our lives honestly and with grace. I play Forster, who appears as a kind of guide to the group of men at the center of the story, and I also play Walter Poole, a generous, thoughtful man who has lived through the plague of AIDS and the complications of being a gay man in America, trying his best to provide comfort and clarity to the people in his life.

The Inheritance is written in two parts. Each part is a full play unto itself. Can you please talk about what the typical rehearsal schedule would be for rehearsing two mammoth plays at the same time?

We basically began at the beginning of Part One and have moved chronologically through to the end of Part Two! We go back and forth between scenes and acts of both plays, discovering the best ways to bring this amazing work to life. Our director Tom Story and our movement/intimacy coach Britta Joy Peterson have been Herculean in their efforts as they guide us so deftly and brilliantly through the story.

Is The Inheritance the largest production you have worked on thus far?

I also had the great good fortune to play Prior Walter in Angels in America on the First National tour. I performed that exquisite play for two years. I’ve also been in a couple of Broadway musicals that have been fairly enormous in terms of company size and stage design. I’ve been very fortunate!

You were part of the Broadway musical Flying Over Sunset at Lincoln Center. Can you please talk about the experience of putting that show together and for those of us that saw it, can you maybe explain the meaning of the act two opening song about a male body part?

Flying Over Sunset was one of the most wonderful experiences I’ve had in the theatre. The creators, James Lapine, Michael Korie, and Tom Kitt are each so gifted and extraordinary that I almost had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming! The cast was overflowing with funny, talented, and dedicated people and I was proud to be among them. The play was about three well regarded, successful people who, for various reasons, were searching for meaning in their lives. That the people in question were Clare Booth Luce, Aldous Huxley, and Cary Grant just made the story that much more compelling. I played Gerald Heard, close friend of Huxley and confidant to Mrs. Luce and the musical explored what might happen if these characters took the drug LSD in an attempt to find the hidden, troubled parts of themselves. It was a gorgeous and fascinating production!

As for the “Rocket Ship” song, let’s just say that Cary Grant tried to work out his relationship with sex and his on screen image by focusing his attention on that part of the male anatomy most reminiscent of a rocket, and he sang a song about it! Give the original Broadway cast recording a listen. The score and the lyrics are exquisite.

The Inheritance is not the first time you have worked in DC. What do you enjoythe most about performing here? 

I believe the audiences here are smart and open minded. They are ready and willing to come on the ride. I have loved performing here over the years and I’m so excited to bring this play to this audience. I think they’re in for a remarkable experience!

After The Inheritance concludes its run in October, what does the rest of 2025 and into 2026 hold in store for you workwise? 

Our business has so many gifted people ready to work at any given time. I have added to my creative life outside of acting, and I’m working on a production I plan to direct of Exit The King by Eugene Ionesco and I’ve completed a full length musical comedy called Man Among Men (I wrote the book, music, and lyrics) based on Molière’s The Misanthrope, and I plan to play the role of Alceste myself in a workshop production in 2026. But right after we close the show at Round House, I will go back to my home in New York and back to auditioning and doing new play readings and seeing friends perform until the next role that’s right for me appears. It’s a wonderful life!

Special thanks to Round House Theatre's royal PR and Partnerships Manager Her Royal Highness Amy "Queenie" Killion for her assistance in coordinating this interview.