NEW YORK — In his native England, Henry Goodman is known for the sheer breadth of his theatrical roles: everything from Billy Flynn in "Chicago" to Shylock in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice."
To American audiences, though, he's more famous for the role he didn't play — at least not for very long.
In April, Goodman was suddenly dismissed from "The Producers" — only four weeks after taking over for Nathan Lane in the lead role of Max Bialystock. The part eventually went to Lane's former understudy, Brad Oscar.
Gossip columns were immediately alight with musings about the highest-profile Broadway firing in recent memory. Why had Goodman been let go? Not funny enough, some whispered. Too sinister to fit the show's zany ethos.
Some even foresaw the end of Goodman's budding Broadway career.
But eight months later, he's back — bruised by his experience but with a renewed sense of artistic purpose — heading the cast of the Roundabout Theatre Company's "Tartuffe."
These days, he says, he's seeking out roles that bring great personal satisfaction, even if they don't hold the same promise of celebrity that "The Producers" did.
"I'm not here to prove something by doing 'Tartuffe,' " Goodman says, seated cross-armed on a couch at the Roundabout's 42nd Street theater where the play will open Jan. 9. "It's quite understandable for people to think that I am, but I'm not.
"If I'm here to prove anything at all, it's to myself. Since I left New York in April I've had huge debate and depression and question marks and self-doubt about what happened. But I wanted to come back here to have a wholesome experience."
" 'The Producers' never came up, to be honest, in terms of our rehearsals," says "Tartuffe" director Joe Dowling. "It certainly was very much in Henry's mind, but in terms of how the work was done, it wasn't an issue."
Goodman, 52, hasn't been in the position of having to demonstrate his worth as an actor for some time. He's already won two Laurence Olivier Awards (the British equivalent of the Tony) for lead actor — one for a musical (Sondheim's "Assassins") and one for "The Merchant of Venice." He's been acting steadily in London for more than 20 years, both as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and in numerous productions on the West End and at the prestigious National Theater.
In New York, though, the dark-haired, mustachioed actor is still fighting to forge a name for himself. Before "The Producers," he had appeared on Broadway only once, as a replacement in Yasmina Reza's "Art."
Watching him on stage as the treacherous title character in "Tartuffe," it's easy to see why Goodman would have been tapped to play Bialystock. His face twists athletically from one expression to another — a wide sneer one moment, a grossly insincere grin the next. It's exactly the kind of two-sided nature that Bialystock displays in "The Producers."
So what happened in April?
Goodman says the show's producers began to panic when ticket sales cooled after Lane and co-star Matthew Broderick left the show in March. Goodman says he was made the scapegoat.
In addition, Goodman says, there was constant tension between old and new during his tenure in the show. He wanted to make the role of Bialystock his own, but felt the show's producers wanted to him to imitate Lane.
Their mantra, he says, boiled down to: " 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' But as a creative actor, you naturally want to try things."
Looking back, Goodman says, his own overconfidence was also a problem. Thinking he could blast into the biggest hit on Broadway and put a new spin on it was unrealistic, he now realizes.
"The arrogance or self-delusion that I am guilty of is thinking I could work organically within the tension" of recasting the show without Lane. "That came from a confidence built on 30 years of work."
And will he return to Broadway? Only if, as in "Tartuffe," he can develop his performance on his own terms.
"He's not an actor who comes in and says, 'This is the only way I'm going to work and that's the way I am,' " says Dowling. "He's used to working with ensembles and companies, where you have the opportunity to watch how things are developing."
That was precisely the approach he wasn't able to use on "The Producers."
"Being part of 'Tartuffe,' where I had to be in a creative environment — rather than say 'Look at me, I'm here in a great big exciting musical,' trying to display my wares — that's my strength," Goodman says.
"As soon as you start with the vanity of, 'I'm ideal for this role, just put my name on the posters,' you're finished," he says. "There has to be confidence, but you've also got to discover."
On the Net: Roundabout Theatre Company: www.roundabouttheatre.org