Favorite ThingsTHEIR FAVORITE THINGS: Tony Winner and Gentleman's Guide Star Jefferson Mays Shares His Theatregoing ExperiencesPlaybill.com's feature series Their Favorite Things asks members of the theatre community to share the Broadway performances that most affected them as part of the audience.
This week we spotlight the choices of Tony-winning actor Jefferson Mays, who plays eight roles in the new musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
By
Andrew Gans
November 06, 2013
(Clicking on a name bolded in blue will take readers to that actor or show's entry in the Playbill Vault.)
"After having listened obsessively to the cast recording (compulsively renewed from my hometown library), I finally saw her — a demented caricature from my 'Happy Families' deck brought to glorious life. So deranged, adorable and brilliant. I remember asking, 'Is she
really that nice lady from 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks'?"
"Saw this regrettably short-lived revival of Rod Serling's 1956 drama in previews. Lithgow's exquisitely limned 'Harlan 'Mountain' McClintock' remains one of the most intelligent and humane creations I've ever seen; heartbreaking and heroic."
"Grudgingly dragged to this by a college girlfriend. Sat sullenly in the mezzanine with arms crossed wishing I were at Barrymore's. As soon as the Bishop handed back the candlesticks, I was sobbing like a sooky schoolgirl. (
Mary Poppins had the same effect on me)."
"An uncanny channeling of the Beale girls in all their tragic and triumphant glory. This brilliant musical expanded on beloved source material and took it to realms unimagined."
"In a turn reminiscent of Buster Keaton, the always astonishing Rylance, in an elegant production, delivered a transcendent performance: seemingly effortless, hilarious and ultimately so very moving."
"A theatre actor's theatre actor. With grease paint surging through his every vein, Rush's King was a master class from one of our greatest living clowns."
"With his Marty Feldman eyes, hoar-frosted lips, suicidal pratfalls and palsied hands to make the spoons dance on their plates, he reached the zenith of meticulously-crafted comic abandon."
"What a thrill it was to feel this wondrous actor's basso profundo vibrations nightly shake the Schoenfeld to its foundations. A masterful performance that was constantly evolving. J. E. J. would return to his dressing room after each scene, open his script and discover new insights and nuances right up through our final performance."
The Broadway revival starring Steve Carell and William Jackson Harper opened April 24. Laurence Fishburne and Edie Falco were among those in attendance.
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