Old Globe solo show ‘Small’ will tell a very big story

“Small” is a solo show, but jockey-turned-actor/dancer Robert Montano’s not really alone when performing it. You could say he’s got a mentor looking over each shoulder.

One would be the late Roberto Pineda, the Mexican jockey Montano met when he was a boy growing up in Hempstead, N.Y., not far from Belmont Park racetrack.

“He used to buy jewelry from my mother,” Montano recalled. “I was 13 years old when I started working at the track. He took me under his wing.”

The other major influence in Montano’s life would be the legendary dancer/actor Chita Rivera, who passed away last year. In 1990, years after he’d retired from riding horses and had become a dancer, Rivera hired Montano to perform in her show “Chita Plus 2.” He later appeared with her on Broadway in “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”

“I learned so much from Chita,” Montano said. “She wore her heart on her sleeve and taught me so much. I owe a lot to her.”

Montano also credits Rivera for bringing to fruition his one-person show “Small,” an autobiographical chronicle of his journey from bullied child to jockey to performer on Broadway, on television and in film. After reading his script, he recalled, “She said to me ‘Come hell or high water I’m going to help you get this produced. Everyone needs to see this.’”

First staged in 2022 by Penguin Rep Theatre on Montano’s native Long Island (Rivera was in the audience on its opening night), “Small” is making its West Coast premiere later this month in the Old Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre. Jessi D. Hill directs.

Montano likens his show to a “’Rocky’ at the racetrack,” an underdog story where “average people like myself struggle every day to make their dream come true. You give everything you’ve got until you can’t give anymore.”

Because he was short for his age and bullied as a result, Montano found a dream to pursue when he was introduced to Belmont Park by his mother and then befriended by Pineda. The career he would have as a jockey didn’t last long: He rode for only 2-1/2 years – just seven races, and he never sat atop a winner.

But in “Small,” Montano reflects on the challenge he and other jockeys faced to maintain a certain weight.

“Back in the ‘70s, apprentice jockeys really had to be as light as possible,” he said. “Riding at 103 pounds, like I did. We put ourselves through some things that most jockeys don’t want to talk about, but it’s a reality. I was praying to God to keep me small and to lose weight every single day.”

By the time Montano was 18, 5-foot-7 and heavier, he realized that his riding career was in jeopardy.  Dancing gave him a new direction in life.

“Somehow,” he said, “‘Saturday Night Fever’ and John Travolta really caught my eye. And watching Michael Jackson and ‘Soul Train’ on television.”

The transition from riding to dancing wasn’t as drastic as it might seem.

“When you get on a horse’s back,” Montano said, “there’s a rhythm to it. It’s like a dance rhythm to me. I always found that (riding) to be very analogous to dance.”

Montano’s writing about his thoroughbred racing experience for his theater-program biographies led to the beginnings of a play and then a version for the screen (titled “Under the Wire”) that was prompted by a suggestion from playwright Terrence McNally, who was directing “Kiss of the Spider Woman” on Broadway.

Montano’s eventual film script was optioned twice, though he held fast to a clause in his contract that if the planned movie veered too far from his vision, he could reclaim it. “And I did,” he said.

Eventually encouraged by theatrical director Jackson Gay, Montano turned his screenplay into “Small,” the solo show he’s performing today. He’s never lost his love for racing and for thoroughbreds, however. One shoulder bears an inked likeness of the late, great filly Ruffian and in Japanese script what translates to  “Running to My Own Rhythm.”

That’s Robert Montano.

‘Small’

When: Previews, Sept. 27 through Oct. 1. Opens Oct. 2 and runs through Oct. 19. 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays

Where: Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, The Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego

Tickets: $49 and up

Phone: 619-234-5623

Online: theoldglobe.org