Playwright Douglas Carter Beane is Back On Broadway With ‘The Nance:’ INTERVIEW

BY NAVEEN KUMAR

It’s been a busy season on Broadway for playwright Douglas Carter Beane. In addition to penning the new adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella that opened last month, his new play The Nance, starring Nathan Lane in the title role, opened on Monday in a Lincoln Center Theatre production directed by Jack O'Brien at the Lyceum Theatre.

Also the writer behind cult movie classic To Wong Foo Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar, as well as Broadway cult hit Xanadu, Beane has a distinct way of crafting campy humor with a wry and clever hand. The Nance marks his first non-musical outing on Broadway since his much-acclaimed play The Little Dog Laughed in 2007.

Set in 1930’s New York, the play stars Nathan Lane as Chauncey, a burlesque performer whose stage specialty is the ‘nance’ routine. One of about a dozen different standard sketches common to burlesque, the nance is a caricature of an effeminate man, who is goofy, endearing, and speaks in rapid-fire double entendres.   

Lane’s character Chauncey also happens to be gay himself, which not many nance performers would’ve been necessarily—certainly not openly. In the play’s first scene, Chauncey meets a young man named Ned (Jonny Orsini) with whom he develops a tenuous, restless bond. The play follows their relationship through the tumultuous politics of the time, and the pressures put on the burlesque scene during mayor LaGuardia’s tenure.

I talked to Doug about his process writing the play, how politics can affect one’s sex life, and what’s next on the writer’s plate.

NAVEEN KUMAR: What inspired you to write this play? Did you know much about 1930’s burlesque before you started?

DOUG CARTER BEANE: I didn’t. I knew a little bit, because when I was a kid this was a big part of variety shows, like The Carol Burnett Show and Jackie Gleason and all those guys. That was my first encounter with it, and then it was back in vogue about ten years ago. There was a club in Los Angeles called Forty Deuce, and there were places in New York doing nights of burlesque.

We were doing a benefit [at my theatre company called Drama Department] and somebody suggested that we do an evening of burlesque. There are ten basic forms of each sketch; there’s a vague outline of a plot and then they would just insert jokes in. So [when] I would meet men over the age of seventy, I would ask, ‘Did you ever go to see burlesque when you were a kid, and do you remember any of the routines?’ They would remember these lines verbatim.

There’s one joke that Robert Altman remembered, there’s a joke that Herb Ross remembered—everyone’s dead now who gave me these jokes! So I put them in my versions of these sketches, and the benefit was very successful.

Then I went to a writers’ retreat, and I brought along the George Chauncey book [Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940]. I also had a Berenice Abbott photograph of the Irving Place Theatre, which is around the corner from my house, and I thought that was really beautiful (though it was torn down in the 80s). So it was the photograph, a book I was reading, and I had these sketches in my computer. It all pulled together into one story.

I wrote the first scene and I thought, who is ever going to be able to play this? The first person I thought of was Nathan Lane, and I thought, well, that’s never going to happen so come up with another list and keep writing. When I finally finished it years later, the first thing I did was to send it to Nathan Lane and he said, ‘I love this, when can we do it?’ We did a reading the next week and here we are now.

Read more, AFTER THE JUMP...

Michael Urie Takes On Barbra Streisand in 'Buyer & Cellar': INTERVIEW

BY NAVEEN KUMAR

Michael Urie is playing Barbra Streisand Off Broadway, and every other character in Buyer & Cellar, playwright Jonathan Tolins new one-man play which opened on Wednesday at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. An exceptionally gifted comedian and stage performer, Urie does the diva justice—and she’s just one piece of the story.

You may or may not be surprised to know that Barbra has her many earthly possessions organized into something that resembles a posh strip-mall in her basement. That is the factual part of the story. Buyer & Cellar imagines if she hired some poor (lucky?) soul to work down there, manning the shops for just one special customer.

Urie plays just the man for the job—an out of work L.A. actor named Alex, who’s just been fired from playing the Mayor of Toon Town at Disneyland. Alex is the play’s narrator and protagonist, and while he tells us about his experience with one of the world’s most bizarre retail jobs, he also plays himself and every other character involved.

Tolins’ play is well crafted, hilarious, and completely accessible to folks who know nothing about Barbra Streisand. Of course, the show’s success is thanks in no small part to Urie’s charming, whirlwind performance. I spoke to Michael about his work on the play, his choice of gay roles, and his personal feelings on the lady of the house.

Naveen Kumar: How did you approach playing different characters with only yourself to play off of? You recently directed a film about high school forensics (Thank You For Judging), and I know from my own experience, that forensics (or speech and debate) requires some similar skills, like using yourself as a scene partner.

Michael Urie: I’m so glad you mentioned forensics, because it was so helpful to have that vocabulary of popping from character to character. I had experience with forensics in high school, and [have been] reliving it all these years with Thank You For Judging. So, when I read the script I was like, ‘I get it! I get how I could do this.’

I didn’t know how hard it was going to be to actually figure out. Because comedy is all about timing, and usually you time yourself off of others. Whether it’s an audience if you’re doing stand up or if you’re doing a scene, it’s about how you play off of [that other person]. So, I was like, how am I going to play off of myself? Not only that, but continue narrating the story. That was the greatest challenge.

I’ve learned more [performing in front of an audience] than I did through all of rehearsal, because audiences tell you what’s funny.

There was no one way to create the characters, I had to attack them all in very different ways. There’s a lot of trust, obviously, in the playwright. What’s great about [John’s writing] is you could figure out how to play the character of Barbra even if you didn’t know who she was. He’s written that character so beautifully and so three-dimensionally, that I think you could probably interpret that character without any knowledge of Barbra Streisand and get really close.

NK: That was actually my next question. As the story’s narrator, Alex tells the audience from the beginning that he’s not going to “do” Barbra. Was it challenging to steer away from impersonation? How much did you know about her going in?

MU: That [line about not ‘doing’ Barbra] is such a brilliant precursor, and it takes so much of the onus off of me. Because everybody has an idea of what Barbra sounds like, she’s iconic. Even if it’s just 'Like buttah.' People have done impersonations, real impersonations, brilliantly. We didn’t want to try to do that, because it’s also not about her it’s about Alex, she’s just a character in [the play].

I think that’s part of John’s genius, that he has created something that’s meant to be an emulation—accurate storytelling rather than a series of impressions. Thank God! I don’t think I could do a real impression, certainly not without his words, I wouldn’t know what to say.

Read more, AFTER THE JUMP...

Ben Rimalower Is Working Through His 'Patti Issues' At The Duplex: INTERVIEW

BY NAVEEN KUMAR

Though Broadway diva Patti LuPone plays no small part in this critically embraced solo show that bears her name, Patti Issues, written and performed by Ben Rimalower, has broader-than-show-queen appeal.

Delivered as a single monologue by Rimalower in the intimate cabaret theatre upstairs at the Duplex, Patti Issues is more than a fanatic’s ode to his legendary idol. At its core this coming-of-age story is about Rimalower’s troubled relationship with his gay father, who abandoned his family for a series of flames that burned up quickly, consuming his dad in the process.

Like so many, Rimalower turned to the arts—and musical theatre in particular—as a source of solace from the emotional growing pains of an unconventional adolescence. His kinship with LuPone began as a teenage obsession over her performance as Eva Perón in the original Broadway cast recording of Evita. A boy and his headphones.

Unlike many, Rimalower met his idol. Not only that, but his gig as an assistant director to Lonny Price on the 2000 NY Philharmonic concert performance Sweeney Todd entailed a private line-running session with Ms. LuPone—during which she sang the entire vocal part of Mrs. Lovett into his euphoric, beaming face.

He thereafter developed a personal and professional relationship with the leading lady that hasn’t always been wine and roses. As Rimalower recounts in his sixty minute show, it’s through a unique connection to his idol that he learns a thing or two about life, family, and coming out on top. Like a diva, of course.

I spoke to Ben about his experience performing the show, his plans for the future, and of course Patti LuPone.

Naveen Kumar: You’re very emotionally honest in Patti Issues about your experiences growing up. Is there anything that you hope people might take away from seeing the show—I hate to say a "lesson"—but any sort of insight you hope people might gain from hearing about your own experience?

Ben Rimalower: I hope that they connect to it personally in a way that they feel that they've shared my journey, and it transported them emotionally. As far as a message, I know what the show is about for me, in terms of what I’m trying to learn from it myself.

Patti was for me, and still is in a lot of ways, this sort of superhero [in whom] I found inspiration and empowerment. I vicariously triumphed through her and vicariously shared her rivalries—even the rivalries I imagined she would have, those were mine too. Then I got to know her, and had to interact with her on this different level—as an actual human being.

I think maybe the universal aspect [of the show] is something we have to experience growing up — to see our parents as real people, and not as these gods who are infallible that are always going to take care of us. My father certainly let me down at that. In a very different way, I could see this from my relationship with Patti, because after all she was not my fairy godmother, she was a person.

Read more, AFTER THE JUMP...

Director/Choreographer Rob Ashford Takes on 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof' on Broadway: INTERVIEW

BY NAVEEN KUMAR

Since beginning his career as an acclaimed choreographer, a path which led to his Tony Award for Best Choreography for Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2002, Tony Award winner and eight-time nominee Rob Ashford has more often taken on the dual role of director/choreographer. His recent musical outings on Broadway include revivals of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (starring Daniel Radcliff) and Promises, Promises (starring Kristen Chenoweth and Sean Hayes). Ashford's choreography is currently on display in Evita, starring Ricky Martin.

Scarlett Johansson returns to Broadway as Maggie the Cat in Ashford's
production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, following her 2010 Tony Award
winning debut in Arthur Miller's A View From The Bridge. The
production, which opens on Thursday, also stars Ciarán Hinds, Benjamin Walker and Debra Monk.

This starry revival of Cat marks Ashford's first Broadway production of a non-musical. I talked to Rob about his approach as a director, and his experience working on both New York and London stages.

Naveen Kumar: In recent years you've directed a number of acclaimed productions of American classics, including Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie (with Jude Law) and Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire (with Rachel Weisz), both at the Donmar Warehouse in London. How would you characterize your approach to this sort of canonical material, with which artists and audiences are likely to be so familiar?

Rob Ashford: It's interesting trying to do a revival of a classic play. What I tried to do was go back to the original source material as much as I could, and also go back to the time when the play was written and try to get to what the writer was truly after. There's a lot of inspiration to be found by going back, and trying to figure out the original intention.

For example, with Streetcar there were five published scripts, and they changed so much over the years. Then the film happened, and the scripts adjusted to the film. So the main goal for these plays was to go back to the original source material and the original productions. Not being slavish to them, like 'Oh no, these are the first words he wrote, and these are the ones we're doing,' but just trying in a way to make it full circle, instead of stacking on other productions.

I didn't concentrate for any of these three shows—Streetcar or Cat or Anna Christie—on previous productions, I tried to ignore that. [On] the first day of rehearsal [for Cat], I said to the cast, 'I would love for us to take these characters off the pedestals where they've been placed and put them back into the play.' So, I didn't want to see anybody giving their 'Big Daddy' or giving their 'Maggie' or giving their 'Brick.' I just wanted to see these characters in the play, as if for the first time.

Read more, AFTER THE JUMP...

Stephanie J. Block Is Broadway's Latest Leading Man: INTERVIEW

BY NAVEEN KUMAR

Broadway leading lady Stephanie J. Block currently stars as the title character in Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of Rupert Holmes’ acclaimed 1985 musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, directed by Scott Ellis. The company, which includes Broadway veterans Chita Rivera, Jim Norton and Will Chase, plays a troupe of actors in a Victorian music hall performing Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel of the same name. As Dickens died before he finished writing the mystery, Holmes’ engaging musical asks the audience each night to decide who-done-it.

I talked to Ms. Block about her debut as a leading man.

Naveen Kumar: You wear a lot of different hats in this production, playing a male impersonator (Alice Nutting) taking on the title role of Edwin Drood and later on yet another man, himself in disguise.  What’s it like for you as a performer switching between so many different layers of character and disguise?

Stephanie J. Block: You know when I first took the part I was actually a little worried, I thought that perhaps the audience wasn’t going to be able to connect with any of these characters because I was constantly shape shifting. Especially in a play where the actors are able to break the fourth wall, interaction with the audience is so important. I thought, I’m never really going to get my footing and therefore the audience is never going to get their footing as to who these characters are. But I was very wrong.

Somehow, the way Rupert Holmes has constructed this play, the audience engages really quickly with these music hall performers, and I think it’s very much because at the top of the show when we’re mingling around the audience, we’re literally sitting in the seat next to them and chatting them up. Some of it’s fictitious, but sometimes we’re talking about the outfit they’re wearing or the day they had. So they feel like they’re watching friends up there on the stage, people that they actually know.

So it’s switched from me feeling like ‘Uh oh, how’s this going to work?’ to this really great fun because I don’t have to stay in one character the entire play. I get to flop around, play around, and try new things and somehow it’s completely welcomed and the audience greatly loves it. So, I feel great about it now, but I’d be lying to you if in the beginning I didn’t admit that I was like ‘Uh oh, this could be a big problem for me as an actor as well as a character.’

Read more, AFTER THE JUMP...

Interview: Alan Cumming on love at first sight and "Any Day Now"

Alan Cumming & Garrett Dillahunt celebrating ANY DAY NOW last spring. Now it's in theaters!

BY NATHANIEL ROGERS

SPECIAL "ANY DAY NOW" EDITION OF THE MOVIE COLUMN

Any Day Now, a new 70s based gay drama from director Travis Fine, has just dropped into the super-crowded holiday movie marketplace. Consider it counter-programming to the wealth of glitzy Oscar contenders and big budget blockbusters. Alan Cumming plays Rudy Donatello, an outspoken performer who impulsively takes in a neglected teenager with Down Syndrome (played by Isaac Levya) when the boy's mother abandons him. Rudy attempts to keep the child, fighting the discriminatory legal system with the help of his lawyer boyfriend (Garret Dillahunt). This sad and moving story (inspired by true events) is at once enraging and comforting since these same issues are still very much with us but we've made numerous legal and societal strides since then.

Any Day Now has already won several audience awards on the festival circuit but it's just now hitting movie theaters. I sat down with Alan Cumming last week to discuss the film and his eclectic career. 

TOWLEROAD: How did Any Day Now come to you. Did they seek you out?

ALAN CUMMING: Yes, they asked me. One of my agents and one of my managers said "You should read this right now." I did so it happened very quickly. It was lovely. There were several versions of the script before it was finished, before the one we shot. It was great to be part of that process and talk to Travis about each version. It changed really radically, actually. The ending was very different.

I'm guessing happier. 

Yeah, I remember saying to him 'this is a little upbeat, isn't it?' The next one... [edited for spoilers] Whoops.

I wasn't expecting it to go there!

But it had to end that way! It couldn't have ended another way and been honest. It could easily have been cloying and manipulative but it's genuine. 

Did they specifically want a gay actor for the role?

[Cumming on love at first sight, looking terrible in drag, and The Good Wife ...AFTER THE JUMP]