Popular entertainment comes from ideas in all shapes and sizes, both large, and, in this case, small.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld made millions, and possibly billions, off a television series about nothing.
Former jockey and exercise rider Robert Montano has achieved rave reviews for something much different and quite personal.
This spring, the Queens native will return home to New York when his critically acclaimed, autobiographical one-man play "Small" will open for the first time as a commercial venture just a couple of furlongs from Times Square at the Signature Theatre at 480 West 42nd Street.
Decades in the making, "Small" tells the story of how the 65-year-old Montano grew up as a small child in Bayside, Queens, and not far from Belmont Park in Hempstead, Long Island, and faced constant bullying.
As a teen, his passion became horse racing and, in an utterly ironic twist, when he achieved what he so desperately wanted in life, he had a growth spurt and fought a grueling, draining, and ultimately futile battle to remain small. He rode in just seven races—winning none of them—in a career as a jockey that lasted just five months before he found a new and successful calling as a stage dancer.
In "Small," which is tentatively slated to be at the Alice Griffin Theatre, one of the theatres inside the Signature, from May 28 through July or August, Montano tells the story of the struggles he endured and the obstacles he overcame, such as the tragic death of his mentor, to make his dreams of becoming a jockey come true, but at a stiff price tag.
He plays about two dozen real-life persons in spellbinding fashion, showing the blemishes in life and how even after one dream dies, another can be born from its ashes through perseverance.
Beloved by racetrack people for the story it tells, since "Small" debuted on the stage four years ago, it has garnered mainstream acclaim.
The Wall Street Journal raved it was "a gripping and vividly acted one-man show."
The San Diego Union-Tribune wrote that it was "ripping, funny, sometimes shocking and very well-acted."
The play has been so well-received that talks are underway to turn it into a Hollywood movie with Montano, who will turn 66 in April, playing his father.
But for now, Montano is gearing up for a triumphant return to New York.
"The play is about hope and dreams and second chances. It's my homage to the racetrack. It's my way of giving back. I want to bring sexy back to the track," he said. "I want people to experience what I felt that first day as a kid. I have a chance to share my small victories and blemishes to get people interested in going to the racetrack."
While the idea behind "Small" dates back to 1994, Montano did not write it as a play until 2017 due to his fear of sharing his life story, with warts and all, on the stage.
"I finally realized this has to be greater than me. This story can resonate with the average person. People who have hopes and dreams and if they are shattered, where do they go from there? It was for the underdogs in the world. Rocky meets Drugstore Cowboy meets Billy Elliott," he said. "It showed people that you can reinvent yourself."
Montano's introduction to racing came as a teen in 1973 when, after church, his mother brought him with her to buy tiles for the kitchen floor.
She drove to Belmont Park.
As the story goes, his mother worked in the jewelry department at Fortunoff, where one of her customers was jockey Robert Pineda. Pineda had given her a tip and it turned into the kitchen tiles.
For Montano, it opened the teen's eyes to a world of wonder at the racetrack.
"I saw the people watching these little men and treating them with such respect and then they get on these 1,200-pound animals of sheer muscle. Nothing was more sexy and dangerous to me," he said.
His entrance to the game came when he learned he was the paperboy for Bob Duncan, the starter at New York Racing Association tracks, and his wife, Sue, a trainer.
With the support of his father, the Duncans, and guidance from Pineda, Montano started as a stable worker and became an exercise rider and finally a jockey.
Montano's career as a jockey began on March 2, 1977, with the first of two losing rides at Aqueduct Racetrack. But at the same time, a growth spurt kicked in as he grew from 5 feet 6 inches to his current 5 feet 10 inches and it became a constant battle to keep his weight between 103 and 108 pounds.
"That's the story of the play. Me wanting to stay small. I prayed to God to keep me small. While most guys wanted to be tall, dark, and handsome, I wanted to be small, skinny, and emaciated," Montano said.
Among the ways Montano tried to stay small was by cutting up the Lasix pills for horses into four pieces and taking the diuretic.
"I was struggling, but I wouldn't let anyone know because they wouldn't ride you," he said.
He rode at Atlantic City and Delaware Park, but after his seventh mount, the effects of the stress he placed on his body and dehydration came to the fore and he gave up what he loved most in life.
"After my last race, I was bleeding through the nose, mouth, and ears. I knew it was the end of the road," he said.
Montano then fell into a deep depression for about a year when his guiding light in the sport, Pineda, was killed in a 1978 spill at Pimlico Race Course.
"Pineda was my God. He taught me everything on the racetrack. He taught me how to ride and conduct myself. He's a big part of the play," Montano said.
Things finally changed one night at a Saratoga disco when Montano's skills as a dancer first surfaced. That led to a dance scholarship at Adelphi University and a new way of life, as midway through college, he had to choose between exercising horses or dance. He chose dance.
"That was the hardest decision I ever had to make," Montano said.
After college, he was a dancer in the company of "Cats" for 4 1/2 years. He has since appeared in about 20 plays.
His days at the racetrack became a thing of the past until 1994 when a director heard his story of life on the racetrack.
"He asked me how many races I rode. I told him seven. He asked how many races can a jockey ride in a day and I said some can ride nine. What were you doing between those races he said, and I said praying to God to keep me small and keep my weight down. I was running every day and hitting the steam box to keep my weight down. He said that's the story. That's what you need to write about. It's about perseverance, and he put a seed in my head," Montano said.
It was years later that prodding from director Jackson Gay set "Small" in motion.
"Jackson saw I wrote a screenplay named "Under the Wire" and asked if she could read it. She read it and proposed I write it as a solo play. She said she'll be the director and you star. I said no. It took 2 1/2 years for her to convince me to write it. I didn't understand my apprehension. Then I realized it was fear, because I would have to lay out all of blemishes as well as my small victories," he said.
Through the support of actress Chita Rivera, Montano has brought "Small" to the stage in New York, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and California.
He did a benefit presentation in Saratoga at Anthony Melfi's farm that captivated a racetrack audience.
Now he's heading back home to New York to tell his mesmerizing personal story of hopes, hardship, failure, and second chances in the shadows of Broadway's biggest stages.
"The racetrack is still very much a big part of my life. I never won a race in life and Del Mar wanted me to come to the racetrack. FanDuel TV talked to me about "Small," Montano said. "As a person who never won a race, thanks to this play, for the first time I felt like a winner."
