Excellent theatrical dish from director Nicholas Martin

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/21/04 at 12:23am

A friend gave me a head's up about a dishy interview with director Nicholas Martin of Boston's Huntington Theater Company. Martin has directed everything from Fully Committed Off Broadway to Hedda Gabler on Broadway and Nathan Lane in Butley this season. He is currently directing the play Match on Broadway with Frank Langella and Ray Liotta. The interview's in a free Boston weekly called The Improper Bostonian that's available all over that city but not available online.

I got a copy and just HAD to share some of the tastier bits. The writer, Jonathan Soroff, isn't afraid to get dishy with his subjects, but this time it's realllllllllly good.

:::

JS: Is it my imagination, or is everything on Broadway a bloated, overblown, lowest-common-denomenator spectacle?

NM: Exactly. The play I'm doing on Broadway next week is a rarity, because it's a new play and not a musical. Makes it worth leaving Boston for seven weeks.

JS: If Shakespeare were alive today, would he be doing Broadway, regional theater, or what?

NM: Shakespeare was Broadway in the Elizabethan world. I think "The Taming of the Shrew" was "Hairspray," and "King Lear" was "Miss Saigon," or "Les Mis." Know what I mean?

JS: Sure -- popular entertainment. So what's the state of American theater?

NM: Well, I don't want to denigrate Broadway, because I've had a wonderful time there. But it's perilous for serious plays and even good solid comedies without music. Elsewhere in the country, like here, the theater is really quite healthy.

...

JS: How do you deal with TV and film actors whose egos have run amok?

NM: Funny you should ask. Only today I was fighting with my New York producers. We're doing a three-character play, and they want a big female star to play opposite Frank Langella and Ray Liotta, who aren't exactly chopped liver. They're pushing big names on me -- television and movie stars -- all of whom are psychotic and would destroy not only me but the street the theater's on. So you fight to avoid that.

JS: Biggest diva you ever worked with?

NM: I'll have to say Estelle Parsons. Don't get me wrong, she was wonderful with me, but she just splintered the cast.

JS: Isn't being a diva sometimes the only way to get things done?

NM: I'm not interested in that. I've had a lot of it, and I won't have it here in Boston. I want to have fun. I want to work with people I love. You know, people say someone like Nathan Lane is a prima donna, and he's a dream to work with. So the answer is no.

...

JS: Does Andrew Lloyd Webber deserve the death penalty?

NM: Yeah, as far as I am concerned, especially since when you hear a song of his, it's stuck in your head for the rest of the day, and you hate yourself for it. I mean, he did what he had to do, but he certainly ruined the musical there for 10 years or so.

...

JS: Is applause a narcotic?

NM: Oh, yeah. Even for a director. That's the only time I'm jealous of actors. I feel like it's mine. The standing ovation has gotten a little tired, though.

JS: I know! It used to be you couldn't get a standing ovation in Boston. Now there are standing ovations for things ...

NM: ... like "The Graduate!" I know. I was there. [laughs] I think people spend so much money on tickets, they want to feel they got their money's worth. [But] you wish they would be a little more selective, although you always want it for your own show.

improper

Updated On: 1/21/04 at 12:23 AM

[MusicalComedyMan]

Posted: 1/21/04 at 12:31am

AWESOME!!! Thanks!!!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/21/04 at 12:43am

Not amazing? And all that typing I did, too.

[bestofbroadway]

Posted: 1/21/04 at 1:28am

Thank you for that Namo...excellent interview with excellent responses by a great director.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 1/21/04 at 4:51am

Than You, Namo! That is very tasty indeed. LOVE the ALW comment. And bravo to Soroff for ASKING that question to begin with!

[Karma76]

Posted: 1/21/04 at 1:38pm

Yes I read this article yesterday and it was very interesting. If anyone is near Boston pick it up!

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/21/04 at 1:55pm

Interesting. He makes it sound like the lack of longevity in plays on Broadway is something new. Long-running plays have been a rarity for several decades now. New plays haven't been that rare this season, but good new plays are definitely rare. Hopefully, his will do well. Not sure what he meant about Lloyd Webber. Tunes getting stuck in your head are usually what musical composers are trying to accomplish. Not sure how ALW "ruined" musicals for 10 years other than just being popular. Some of his shows were popular and others weren't. Is the fact that they were successful somehow "ruin" Broadway?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/21/04 at 2:11pm

No, I don't think that's what he meant. Given that he drew the comparisons between Shrew and Hairspray and all. I think it was a comment on quality.

I also don't think he was lamenting the lack of long runs for plays, just that it's so hard to get anybody interested in them. You see it on these boards all the time. When people around here talk about "Broadway," 90% of the time they mean "musicals."

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 1/21/04 at 2:57pm

Thanks Namo, one of my 2004 wishes is that more plays come to Philly, actually premiere, well...since it's my wish...and open successfully on Broadway.

Unfortunetly we are and will be caught up in a "Musical World" for a long, long time.

Heading out to cover Biloxi Blues tonight...well, it'a play anyway.