By Sue Finley
Officially, SMALL is a one-man show, written and performed by Robert (Bobby) Montano, the story of his years-long attempt to maintain riding weight and the lengths he went to in order to do so. But it would be more appropriately described as a show with over a dozen roles, all played by Montano.
Over 85 minutes, Montano slides in and out of different characters that all of us in racing will recognize, from Bob and Sue Duncan to Robert Pineda to Mickey Preger to stereotypical assistant trainers and fellow exercise riders, jockeys, racetrack characters-even his own mother and father. He does so with ease.
For those of us who spent time around Belmont Park in the late 70s and early 80s, it's like a walk down memory lane, as he chats with Frank Pagano Jr., brushes past Angel Cordero, and dances at the Rafters, the popular Saratoga disco of the era.
On a Sunday afternoon at the 59E59 theater in midtown Manhattan, in the middle of the Saratoga meeting, I believe I am the only racetracker in the audience experiencing this, but the rest of the crowd found the performance as mesmerizing as I did, bursting into laughter or spontaneous applause at several points during the performance, and doing the only possible thing at the end of the show: giving Montano a standing ovation.
Montano, the guest on last week's TDN Writers' Room, grew up near Belmont Park, and found his `in' to the racing world when he was delivering newspapers as a 12-year-old in Elmont, Long Island. Bob Duncan, the longtime NYRA starter, was one of his customers, and his wife, Sue, who would go on to be a trainer, was galloping horses. She began taking Montano to work with her at 4:30 in the morning, and he soon found a job with Preger.
Like any 12-year-old boy well under five feet tall, Montano starts out wishing he would grow, but as soon as he sets his sights on being a jockey, he starts praying to God for the opposite. And as he continues to grow, he takes his quest to extreme measures-amphetamines, purging, and 17-mile runs with his body wrapped in Saran Wrap. For people in the industry, it's a sad tale we've heard all too often. For the rest of the audience, it must have seemed shocking as he descends into stints in the hotbox in between popping Lasix pills. One time, he attempts to lose 10 pounds in a single day in order to accept a mount. Finally, his body wears out during the preparations for his last-ever race, which Montano recreates in stunning detail.
We root for Montano all along, through his riding days and onto college and a successful career as a t.v. and film actor, and Broadway dancer and actor.
His love of racing is palpable, and you're not sure at the end if he wouldn't do it all over again, even knowing how hard it will be.
Someone in the row behind me said he was exhausted when the show was over; that's how much energy you expend pulling for Montano while you're watching.
It's not a stretch to see SMALL expanding to a production with a full cast, songs, and an orchestra.
In other words, like Montano, SMALL deserves to be something much, much bigger.
Small runs from August 12 to Sept. 2, 2023. For schedule and tickets, visit https://www.59e59.org/shows/show-detail/small/.
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