Even when Bebe Neuwirth isn’t dancing, she’s dancing.

“I am a dancer first,” she said in a phone interview from her apartment in Greenwich Village. “I’m a physical performer, and that impulse, that expression doesn’t go away even if I’m standing still and listening to someone.”

Neuwirth, 65, is a Tony Award nominee for her performance as Fräulein Schneider in “Cabaret” and is already a two-time winner for her roles in “Sweet Charity” in 1986 and “Chicago” in 1997. She has also gained fans for her television work on the Julia Child dramedy “Julia” and the long-running sitcom “Cheers.” But it’s theater that keeps calling her back.

“I’ve been onstage since I was 7,” she said. “It’s my home.”

On a rainy afternoon, Neuwirth discussed her love for the city’s Art Deco buildings, why the Jersey Shore is magical in winter and where to find the best softball in Manhattan. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

1

Flea Markets

Some of my first flea markets were at the Rose Bowl, and now I seek them out wherever I am. I go down to the one under the Brooklyn Bridge sometimes. Most of my house is filled with things I’ve collected from flea markets, but I’m always looking.

2

Ceramics Studios

For the last four years, off and on, I’ve been going to ceramics studios and throwing clay, hand building clay. I love spending time there. Friendships get made just like they do in ballet class.

3

Dog Parks

I don’t have one — though I do have three cats — so I love walking through a dog park and watching them play and interact. I love big dogs — German shepherds, Doberman pinschers, huskies, Weimaraners. And I like small dogs who are really big dogs at heart. I love Pomeranians because those tiny little fluff balls are actually huge dogs on the inside — they crack me up!

4

Softball With the Broadway Show League

The Broadway theaters and their unions play in this very well-organized league, with playoffs and champions, and it’s a wonderful day in the park with friends and family. I played on a team many years ago, but now I just like to watch.

5

New York City’s Art Deco Buildings

Some just look like period buildings from the outside, but then you go into the lobbies, and they have this magnificent stonework and metalwork and gratings and railings. And the aesthetic continues into the elevator. I visited a friend who works on the edge of the diamond district on Fifth Avenue, and I was like “Holy Toledo, this building is amazing.”

6

The Jersey Shore

When I turned 50, my husband and I went to a beach on the Jersey Shore on my birthday, which is New Year’s Eve. To be on the beach in a blizzard, with the raging seas and the beach covered in sand and the whipping snowflakes in my face, was paradise.

7

Japan Society

Years ago, I went to see a performance by a Butoh company with a good friend of mine, Mimi Quillin, who is also a Fosse dancer — we danced in “Sweet Charity” together. Then we took a Butoh workshop there, which was delightful. They do beautiful things there and bring in fascinating artists.

8

Art Supply Stores

I love the feel and the potential of the really old-school ones, which are kind of gone now. There used to be one on the Lower East Side where I could just feel how many artists had walked through there, whether they were struggling with their work on a roll.

9

Washington Square Park

I live close enough that I can sometimes hear the music, cheering and chanting coming over. I like to watch the people and the dogs — there are so many characters, so many neighborhoods within the park. It’s also a creative place. People haul out a piano and play it underneath the arch for those great acoustics, people tap dance, people will busk. There’s nowhere else like it.

10

The Wings of a Theater

Standing in a wing feels like my home, physical and spiritual. I love older theaters in particular — the new ones don’t have as many ghosts.