By Michael Buckley
30 Jul 2006
Gaines does not enjoy seeing himself in TV and films. “I’m not a particularly big fan of my own work,” he tells me. Theatre, he continues, “is easy, because you don’t have to see it — although when you know you’re not very good in something, theatre can be the most painful. You have to do it eight times a week. There are certain parts where you’re just poorly cast. With the best intentions on everyone’s part, you can just be bad in something.
“When I open a show, for self-protection, I put a message on my answering machine: ‘If you’re calling about the reviews, I don’t read them, and I’d appreciate it if you don’t mention them.’ So many times people used to call and say, ‘Are you okay?,’ or, ‘I disagree. I think you’re wonderful.’ And it was with a certain amount of glee in their voices. There are people out there who want to put the digs in. Sometimes, they’re other actors, which is most shocking.
“‘Theatre Ethics’ was the name of a class that a producer taught when I was in school [Juilliard]. He reminded us of things we already knew: the ethics of being on time and being prepared. He also told us, ‘If you’re in a rehearsal room [with other actors], either watch or leave. Don’t talk to a buddy. The actor who’s working is going to think: Boy, I really stink. Don’t read the newspaper. The actor thinks: This is so boring. I’d be reading a newspaper, too.’
“And he spoke about backstage ethics: ‘Don’t go backstage if you’re not going to say something positive. Don’t go backstage with a long face. Say thank you, and that you had a great time — and leave.’
“Someone else said, ‘An actor has to develop a certain ego-strength. The narcissistic side of your personality has to be strong enough to want to go out and do it in the first place, but if there’s too much development, you’re not sensitive anymore.’ No one ever said it would be easy. No one puts a gun to your head. Any artist — writer, painter, performing artist, whatever — has a topsy-turvy life.
“An actor faces constant rejection. For every working actor, there are 20 others who would like to have your job. To have any kind of career where you genuinely care about what you’re doing is difficult. If, at the end of the day, you’re able to not think about your work, that’s an easier life than being obsessed about it.”
Would he ever want to trade acting for a different career? “Oh, sometimes, I would. There are a lot of times that I wish I’d be happier doing something else.” Fortunately, he has a happy home life with his actress-wife Kathleen McNenny and their eight-year-old daughter Leslie, “a very dramatic young lady,” says her loving dad.
Genial, Georgia-born Gaines has two older sisters. He experienced “a gypsy childhood,” attending a dozen grammar schools, because his father was in sales and the family often moved due to his work. As a high-school senior in California, Gaines took drama as an elective. “I got some satisfaction from acting and decided to pursue it. In college it became sort of a whirlwind romance that has since turned into a long-term marriage.”
While in his junior year at Juilliard, he had one of the leads in a production of Spring Awakening. Recalls Gaines, “It received a rave from Mel Gussow in the Times, and Joe Papp asked us to do it at the Public,” thus marking his Off-Broadway debut while still a student.
His first job as an Equity member was in the Roundabout’s 1979 production of A Month in the Country, in a cast that included Philip Bosco, Tammy Grimes, Amanda Plummer, Farley Granger and Jerome Kilty. Following were three plays at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), one at the Manhattan Theatre Club and a season at the Guthrie. He received a 1980 Theatre World Award for Month and his BAM work. Then it was off to Los Angeles for movies and TV.
Over the years he’s appeared in several films, including “Fame” (his 1980 debut), “Porky’s,” “The Sure Thing,” “Heartbreak Ridge” and “I’m Not Rappaport,” but Gaines insists, “I think I’m a really lousy film actor.”
Written by his friend and Juilliard colleague Wendy Wasserstein, The Heidi Chronicles brought Gaines to Broadway and earned him his first Tony. Among those he thanked in his 1989 acceptance speech were Victor Garber (“for not taking this part”), the playwright, family, friends and Joan Allen (Heidi) who, he noted, “makes us all look wonderful.”
Aubrey Piper was the role he played in the Roundabout’s 1992 production of The Show Off. He has since appeared in four other Roundabout shows: She Loves Me, Company, Cabaret (with Gaines succeeding John Benjamin Hickey as Clifford Bradshaw, marking his first time as a replacement, “which is like catching a moving train”) and Twelve Angry Men. All but Cabaret were directed by Scott Ellis, who once told this writer, “I think Boyd can do anything.”
She Loves Me marked Gaines’ Broadway musical debut. As Georg Nowak, he received his second Tony Award. John Simon praised Gaines for his “genuine sparkle and judicious imitation of Jimmy Stewart” (who starred in the 1940 movie “The Shop Around the Corner,” upon which the musical is based). Observes Gaines, “The [show’s] book has several aspects, or traps, that are Jimmy Stewart-like, and I didn’t avoid them. I stammer a bit in real life, and people will say at times, ‘You remind me of Jimmy Stewart.’ I take it as a compliment.” (It would be wonderful if someone were to produce a revival of Harvey, starring Gaines as Elwood P. Dowd, the role that Stewart played twice on Broadway and in the 1950 movie version.)
In the Irish Rep’s 1997 production of Major Barbara, Gaines was cast as Adolphus, opposite Melissa Errico. His third Tony-winning role, Michael Wylie in Contact, required him to learn choreography. “The dancing frightened me; it was intimidating,” admits Gaines, who has high praise for Susan Stroman, and was pleased that the part did not require him to sing. “I’m not really a singer,” he notes.
Due to the illness of his father, Jim, Gaines left Contact early (in March 2002). “I wanted to spend as much time as I could with him.” His dad died in June 2002. Boyd’s mother, Ida, lives in California, “and is well.”
During the summer of 2004, at Williamstown, he starred as Lou Nuncle, opposite Marian Seldes, in Terrence McNally’s Dedication, or the Stuff of Dreams, directed by Scott Ellis. “I had a terrific time,” Gaines states.
“Scott withdrew, and they brought in a new director, who wanted to recast [some parts], and that was perfectly understandable.” (When the play opened Off-Broadway in August 2005, the lead was played by Nathan Lane.)
Only the happiest memories are connected to Twelve Angry Men, in which Gaines played Juror #8 (the Henry Fonda role in the 1957 film). The cast, including Philip Bosco, John Pankow, Peter Friedman and Tom Aldredge, got along really well. “We were an ensemble — onstage and off. It was a terrific experience, as good as it gets.”
Next came Off-Broadway’s Bach at Leipzig in which he played Johann Friedrich Fasch. “That was another wonderful group of actors. I loved the play; I think that the playwright [Itamar Moses] is incredibly talented.”
Which roles have given Gaines the most satisfaction?
“The Double Bass [a one-man Off-Broadway play] and Hamlet [which he performed at Baltimore’s Center Stage]. The Heidi Chronicles, She Loves Me, Contact and Twelve Angry Men also hold a certain satisfaction for me, although I was never [completely] satisfied with my work in them.”
For theatre, he has “a bunch of irons in the fire,” including “one that I’ve been asked to do at the end of this coming season. They’ve announced the show — but not me with it, so at the moment. . . [Laughs]”
Meanwhile, Gaines may be seen in “Angela’s Eyes,” and he may be heard on books on tape, which he calls “my day job.” His latest assignment is Ernest Hemingway. “Simon and Schuster are doing all the Hemingway works. I did ‘Across the River and into the Trees,’ and next I’m doing ‘Death in the Afternoon.’” Not only is Boyd Gaines one for the books, but also he’s among our finest actors.
***
Michael Buckley also writes for TheaterMania.
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