I only had to pretend I was in college, so it wasn't as awkward.
It was a theater criticism class, so he started by talking about his feelings about reviews. That's where I heard the Evita story, along with a few others. He said since he decided not to read them, he's read one, and that was Brantley's review of Sunday. Brantley said something like, "I wish he had done this here instead of this," and Raúl thought that was an interesting idea, tried it, and it worked better. He said it would be great if actors could have a kind of conversation like that with critics, but that's not their job.
Then he talked about Speed-the-Plow as compared to some of the other shows he's done (the manic energy is much more how he really is than Bobby or Lenny) and how the cast had to run lines practically every single day because it was so hard to memorize and how he prefers doing plays, partly because a lot of musical actors in New York don't enjoy coming to work. They feel like a cog in a machine and they don't ever change anything about their performance and Raúl doesn't like that because that's not how he acts.
He also shared a story about when he was in tick, tick, Boom when 9/11 happened. He was shaken and thinking that he shouldn't be an actor, there's no point, there are much more worthwhile things he could do, etc. He was on his way to the UN (I think it was the UN) to act as a translator. When he got there, the security guard outside was singing "Louder Than Wings" from ttB. When he saw Raúl, he said to his buddy, "Hey, man, look, it's Raúl Esparza! He's in a musical! Man, you're great. That's such an important show right now." It was a great story.
Then, because we were asking a lot about ttB, he asked if we had any connection to it and the professor said their college had just produced it as part of their season. He asked if they changed it at all and my boyfriend (who was the house manager) explained how they used 7 actors instead of the usual 3. Raúl was interested and said that could really work well, except for "Come to Your Senses," because Karessa has to be Susan in that moment or it doesn't have the same affect. (In the college production, they were different actresses.)
I can't really remember much else. It was really just a bunch of anecdotes and stories. Really cool and I'm glad I got to tag along.
Nothing matters but knowing nothing matters. ~ Wicked
Everything in life is only for now. ~ Avenue Q
There is no future, there is no past. I live this moment as my last. ~ Rent
"He's a tramp, but I love him."
