‘Rhoda’ Co-Star Feels Blessed

David Groh admits he’s a sucker for a play.

“I will go anywhere for a play,” says Groh, best known as Rhoda’s husband, Joe, on the popular ‘70s sitcom, “Rhoda.”

“I just came back from Luddington, Mich.,” Groh says. “(It’s) this tiny little town and community college. I wanted to do ‘Chapter Two’ again. It has been 14 years since I did it on Broadway. I wanted to get it right this time.”

The Los Angeles-based actor is now working closer to home, appearing in the Pasadena Playhouse production of Jonathan Tolins’ “Twilight of the Golds.” The world premiere is in previews and opens next Sunday.

Groh is pretty mum on the plot. “I would have to say it’s about a family facing a very big moral dilemma that relates to all of us which we have to face today. It’s about unconditional love.”

The actor says he’s been twice blessed this past year. “Last Jan. 2, my wife gave me a son. That’s my first child. Now I have been blessed with being in this new play which is like a child trying to be born.”

Groh began his acting career in the ‘60s theater “so far off Broadway my parents would take subways and buses and taxis to try to find me.”

He had been an actor 12 years when he got “Rhoda,” currently seen in repeats on cable’s Comedy Central. Groh says making the adjustment from being just a stage actor to an overnight TV star was difficult. “On one hand you can’t believe it. I went to an antique show with some friends after ‘Rhoda’ hit and all of these people started coming over to me. It was such a strange thing.”

Groh has consciously tried to get away from his Joe image. Gone is his curly hair. “I purposely slick back my hair now because I was getting refused for too many things. They wouldn’t cast me for serious things. People don’t come up to me on the street anymore, but that’s OK. You want to get on with your life.”