By Tom Nondorf
Q: When we spoke a couple years back about your famous turn with "The Viper's Drag" in Ain't Misbehavin', you said breaking the fourth wall is your favorite thing in theatre. Still true?
Q: Does some of your love for audience interplay come from being in Hair early on in your career, or that era of theatre?
Q: Have you seen the current Hair?
Q: Have you worked in Central Park before?
Q: Did you ever meet Michael Jackson?
Q: What is it like working in Tartuffe with Ted Lange, so well-known to most folks from "The Love Boat"?
Q: Now, I know you live very close to the Clurman. Do you have the best commute in NYC?
[Archbishop Supreme Tartuffe is playing the Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, until July 19. Call (212) 279-4200 for tickets.]
HITHER AND YON
Skip Kennon (Herringbone, Time and Again, The Last Starfighter) is among artists announced with new work in the 3rd Annual Festival of New American Short Plays at 59E59 Theaters. Kennon wrote the music and lyrics for The Eternal Anniversary, with a book by Bill Connington. Neil LaBute also has a new play, A Second of Pleasure, directed by Andrew McCarthy. The festival runs July 24-Aug. 27. Call (212) 279-4200 for ticket info or visit www.59e59.org. . . . Animal lovers and music fans unite! Broadway Meows, featuring the music of Seth Bisen-Hersh, is a benefit for the Humane Society of New York at Don't Tell Mama's on July 20. Brian Childers, Brandon Ruckdashel and Darryl Winslow are among the performers. Who will sing the "Meow Mix" jingle? Go to donttellmamanyc.com for the rest of the cast, and ticket info. . . . On July 6, Dominick Farinacci is at Birdland, debuting his new CD. Show time is 7 PM. . . .Vinyl thrift find of the month: Still shrink-wrapped "Introducing Ann Jillian the Singer." Ann sings 12 Steve Allen compositions, and they are quite lovely, especially "I Love You Says It Very Well," which should be a standard. . . . Interesting Jacksonian note: "Never Can Say Goodbye," the Jackson 5 hit De Shields mentioned above was written by Clifton Davis, who starred in the ABC sitcom "That's My Mama," with Ted Lange…Okay, until the heat of August kicks in, keep it Broadway Real!
Tom Nondorf can be reached at tnondorf@playbill.com.
02 Jul 2009
DE DAY
André De Shields photo by Lia Chang
Saturn has returned in a big way for theatre legend, André De Shields, if his astrological self-assessment is to be believed. As a "textbook Capricorn ruled by Saturn," he says the planet returns every 28 years into his orbit, and it has brought a veritable "This is Your Life, Andre" in its wake. His first professional show, Hair, is back on Broadway; The Wiz, for which he created the title role, is at City Center; Full Monty, for which he created the role of Horse, is at Paper Mill; Ain't Misbehavin', which helped make him a star, is touring. And, De Shields' own career has him currently crashing through the fourth wall at the Clurman in The Classical Theatre of Harlem's Molière musical Archbishop Supreme Tartuffe. He will soon move onto Euripides' The Bacchae in Central Park, with David Mamet's A Life in the Theatre at the Alliance to follow. The latter is a piece with personal resonance for De Shields, he says, "because I have chosen a life in the theatre and it has chosen me."
André De Shields: I feel it is my mission as an actor to challenge expectations, to detonate stereotypes. I believe that people come to the theatre for the same reason they go to a church or a temple. It's the only place where people come together and sit in a dark cathedral for purposes of community, communion and worship. It is my responsibility to solve whatever problems patrons bring to the temple… If their quest is for simple entertainment and distraction, I should provide that also. In this particular piece, this very loose adaptation of Molière's Tartuffe, I get to do that and have a great time. Several people have said to me, "My cheeks ache from laughing so much, from grinning so much." If you come to the show and have a good time, then my work is done.
De Shields: Yes, that was my first professional gig, Hair, in 1969 in Chicago, under the direction of the late, great Tom O'Horgan. I sharpened my teeth, if you will (because I now have a reputation for chewing scenery) — those teeth were sharpened in experimental theatre, where the need to eliminate the fourth wall is first and foremost. I've learned that breaking the fourth wall affords not only the actors but the audience that rare occasion to just let their hair down, to hang loose, to have a good time.
De Shields: Five times. I dig it a lot [laughs]. I'm glad that I, as an unreconstructed hippy, have lived long enough to see the mantle passed to a generation who may not understand all of the provocative and evocative reasons for Hair's having existed 40 years ago, but our grandchildren who are now doing the show have the power and the insight to change the world…And I want to say that Will Swenson and I connected on a very personal and heart-to-heart level when I went to see Hair. During the concert version in 2007, Oskar Eustis invited ten alumni from Hair to sing "Let the Sunshine In," and when it was my turn to be part of the ten, the company embraced me as a parent, a figure who had prepared the way for them, and Will gave me one of the strongest embraces. We connected immediately. At that time, Jonathan Groff was playing Claude, and Jonathan will be Dionysus in The Bacchae.
De Shields: [Laughs.] Yes. What a leap of faith! It's about re-inventing yourself, shedding that skin, approaching this craft and this life fearlessly. Before I did Supreme Tartuffe, I was on Broadway with the Michael Jacobs play Impressionism, which I think was underappreciated, but one of the lines I remember that Joan Allen's character said was, "Life rewards discipline." I'm the kind of guy who for 40 years has been a nose-to-the-grindstone actor. Work constantly, hone your craft, and the discipline will be rewarded. I think this opportunity to move from Jacobs to Molière to Euripides to Mamet is reward for my having my nose to the grindstone.
De Shields: I only worked in the Park once before, and that was in 1973 with Peter Link when he was the darling composer at the Public Theatre. It was a project called Please Don't Let It Rain. I had been auditioning for the bus-and-truck tour of Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Peter was walking by the audition room and heard someone singing the Jackson 5's "Never Can Say Goodbye." He waited outside the room until the person who was singing came out, and it happened to be yours truly, and he explained to me he was putting together a concert of his music. Long story short, I did the concert in the Park, which is where I met Irene Cara, and we went on to do the Off-Broadway production of Ain't Misbehavin' back when the Manhattan Theatre Club was on East 73rd Street.
De Shields: I met him once during the family's Encino days, when I was on the West Coast doing The Wiz. The Jackson family came to see the show and invited the cast to their estate, and we were privileged to briefly meet the angel, Michael Jackson, and I don't say that facetiously.
De Shields: Ted is my personal Love Boat. He is a great human being. He is so open. He's like me: The director says jump, we both say, "How high?" He comes in with his head open, his heart open, his eyes open…and he doesn't back off. This is our second collaboration. In 2006 we did King Lear, also with the Classical Theatre of Harlem.
De Shields: When I did Impressionism, I had to walk three blocks. Now I'm across the street. I tell my colleagues my next show is going to be in my kitchen because I'm also a good cook!
THE LEADING MEN: Swenson and De Shields
Q: So you'll be going from Molière to Euripides…
