In "The Addams Family': Gloucester's Steve Geary takes his flip to the stage

Steve Geary first got noticed for his talent at the age of 7, when he was walking on his hands outside the picture window of Tina's Dance Studio in the heart of Gloucester.

Tina LaFlam pulled him inside to have him teach his acrobatic technique to her acrobatic class. That was just the beginning of what would become a career on stage — dancing, singing and acting from Broadway to California.

This week, he opened at Boston's Shubert Theater in "The Addams Family" as one of the ancestors in the national touring show that began in New Orleans last year and is booked through this year. In the story line, the wonderfully weird and ghoulish family is back to its antics, which made it a favorite as a 1960s television sitcom.

Geary — who was always the kid known for turning flips around the St. Ann school yard — has come full circle. He makes his entrance in this show with a high kick, jump and a flip, landing in the center of the stage as each Addams family ancestor is individually introduced. He plays the role of a riverboat gambler, a dandy of sorts.

The son of Linda and Rick Geary, Geary attended parochial school here and then went onto parochial high school at Bishop Fenwick where he remained an honor roll student.

But instead of packing their son off to college, the Gearys dropped him off in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood after he graduated from high school. As a high school senior, he had gone to New York City for an audition, and returned to Gloucester with a place to stay, a job and a scholarship to a prestigious dance school.

"I think my parents thought I'd come back realizing that I should go to college. But I think they were shocked to learn about my arrangements to live in New York," he said in an interview this week on the shores of Plum Cove Beach near Lanesville center where his parents later moved. But Geary grew up downtown on Cedar Street where he could walk to school and roller skate to the dance studio. His father was a locksmith, and his mother worked in the retirement office at Gloucester City Hall.

Not long after his move to New York, Geary, at the age of 19, was part of the Rockettes Easter show at Radio City, which included costumes designed by Erte, a foremost stage and fashion designer of the 20th century.

Geary had some early experience in show business. At 16, he was twice flown out to Los Angeles for appearances on "Star Search" and later "American Bandstand" in the twilight of the show's run through 1989.

The only other job he had besides dancing was selling tickets one June at Gloucester's St. Peter's Fiesta.

In New York, he would find much work, both,in industrial films as well as on Broadway, where he has appeared in "The Producers" (O'Reilly/Sabu), "Aida" (understudy Radames), "Contact" (original cast, Tony Award Best Musical), "Cats" (Macavity) and "Miss Saigon." In 2000, he performed on the Tony Awards show as part of the cast of "Contact."

Although Geary grew up in a "normal" family, he can relate to a certain extent about being an oddball, a word often used to describe the members of the Addams family.

"I was this little artistic kid going to ballroom events in a little tuxedo with girls in petticoats," he said. "That's the world I felt really at home with. But to someone from the outside seeing this little kid going to ballroom socials at Pigeon Cove Circle in Rockport, it might seem like the strangest thing in the world. I just ate it all up."

In the Boston show, Geary explains that the ancestors are brought out of the crypt once a year, but this time Uncle Fester holds them back.

"Uncle Fester says there's a problem," Geary recounted. "Wednesday is in love and she is interested in Lucas, who is like the boy next door, which is a horror to us.

"They're in love and we have to make it work," he added. "We are a bit of a Greek chorus to the action as well."

Geary began dancing at the age of 8 at Miss Tina's and has been dancing ever since. In addition to acrobatics, he took jazz, tap, and even ballet, the one style that he most resisted.

His cousin, Kim Patience, remembers his natural talent even as a 5-year-old.

"He was always stretching and going to dance class. We knew that was his passion, and it was noticeable even then," said Patience, the athletic director at Gloucester High School. "He was the dancer and I was into sports — I have two left feet. As we got older, he was in New York and on Broadway.

"I flew to California to see him in 'Miss Saigon' and he was doing a lot of the acrobatics," she said. "The back handsprings and a lot of the flips."

She knows that Geary works hard to keep his body fine-tuned for all the physical requirements of the job, and sometimes they work out together.

"He is still ripped. He keeps training and he's in top-notch shape," she added.

It was Geary's drive that kept him dancing as a young boy when most others were playing sports, and it is that same drive and ambition that has fueled his success.

LaFlam, who has been teaching dance for 47 years here, entered him in competitions, and he won numerous titles including Junior Mr. Dance of New England and later Mr. Dance of New England.

She even took him to Nashville for a competition. At one point, she took him to a friend's dance school in Brockton because she believed she could take him no further. The other studio worked with a talent agent and could get Geary into larger competitions.

"I said, 'Steven you are ready to go on to bigger and better stuff,' and he did really well and got into all these shows," said LaFlam. "What really makes me happy is when my students go on but they remember where they came from."

She echoed what so many who know Geary say about him, in that he is such a warm and affable character.

LaFlam traveled to New York City to see him in "Contact," the year it won a Tony for best musical. She also saw him in "Cats" and she will be among a group of 14 locals who will see him perform on the final night.

"It's a blessing to be able to do this," said Geary, who still fondly remembers growing up in Gloucester where he lived downtown near the railroad track until he left home at 18.

"I love climbing and scrambling on rocks. I credit this to climbing down at Stage Fort and a childhood spent near Gloucester's rocky granite coast," he said.

He will also be coming to Gloucester. On Monday, Feb. 13, at 5:30 p.m., he will teach a master class at Miss Tina's.

When he's not flipping around or dancing, Geary said he loves movies, reading and the outdoors. Among his favorite theater works are Ibsen's "Enemy of the People" and "King Lear." As for reading, he's a self-professed fantasy novel geek, a fan of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" and a new series called "Game of Thrones."

Geary noted that the cast of "The Addams Family" is putting on a concert benefitting ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty) at Oberon Theatre at 2 Arrow St. in Cambridge next Thursday, Feb. 16. He will be singing two songs and backing up another as part of a choir.

Gail McCarthy can be reached at 978-283-7000 x3445, or gmccarthy@gloucestertimes.com.

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