Hangmen delayed two years by the pandemic did finally open on Broadway to rave reviews just over a week ago. But the virus still lurks and the knock-on effect is that at this writing two of our actors are off.
Me as Harry Wade in Hangmen, photo by Anna Fleischle
Also meaning that two of our actors are on.
I am one of them.
Virus allowing I will be playing all next week Monday May 2nd thru Saturday May 7th 2022. Details and tickets here.
The image above says it all.
Or does it…?
This represents the third attempt to open this spectacular play on Broadway. I am not on a percentage, let me make that clear, but I urge you to snap up tickets at covid-induced discounts asap. After all, capital punishment – what could be funnier?
Following a hugely successful run at The Atlantic Theatre in 2018 a transfer to Broadway was mooted. Some of the cast had availability issues and the transfer never happened.
Then in 2020 the transfer was finally placed and with some new cast members the project got as far as a week and a half of previews (but no opening) and then … well we all know what happened on March 13th of that year.
So now in 2022 – wish us luck.
I am engaged to cover several roles including ‘Harry’ one of the hangmen of the title, Hangmen. I was in the company when the shutdown hit, and at that time my wife (the amazing Patricia Conolly) was appearing as Mrs Dubose in To Kill A Mockingbird in a theatre around the corner. So it seemed not only obviously sensible for me to take the gig but also practical as Patricia had Manhattan housing supplied.
So I was delighted when this came around again, not least because it was a 5 block walk to work.
But then …
Mockingbird closed at two days notice and the Manhattan apartment evaporated.
Mockingbird is slated to return in June of this year. (We all hope).
Talking of Mockingbird and the cover gig (see here for my previous take). In the weeks after Christmas last year the virus went through the company meaning that covering actors were deployed, not only those current, but those from previous casts.
Such is the challenge of keeping a show open in the present situation that public praise has been lavished on the many several covers and swings that have kept Broadway and West End shows going – this was unthinkable back in the day when Noel Langley wrote the backstage novel “There’s a Porpoise Close Behind Us.” In that novel he details in one sentence the disdain verging on contempt in which understudies were held in 1936.
So in 2022 it is heartening to note that on so mighty an organ as NPR I heard a conversation explaining that while the job is more artisanal than directly artistic, it requires skill, courage, more than a little nerve, and the firm management of one’s ego.
I understand that given the virus and what it’s doing to the world at large and actors in particular, my own and my colleagues’ odds of ‘going on’ have risen and bookies in New York midtown are laying bets at better than even chances: who knows? But if you live in NYC don’t be surprised if I ask you for a sofa for the night!
In other McPhillamy news allow me to direct your attention to a charming little radio series by Collin Johnson under the umbrella title, Capital Gains. The BBC plans to re-broadcast this amusing piece beginning February 10th of this year. You can access it at BBC Radio 4 Extra.
Oddly enough, the chap who wrote this, one Collin Johnson was also an actor (like me). He is on record as repeating a phrase first uttered by William Makepeace Thackeray who, when asked why he wrote Vanity Fair, (the 19th century novel, not the hi-glamour magazine), answered, “Bread and cheese.”
Apparently Johnson, soon after he became a young father, motivated by this very same imperative, took on a succession of cover jobs in the West End. I understand that he used to regard the income from these engagements as a writing bursary. This may be apocryphal but I have heard that Capital Gains was written in a broom cupboard adjacent to a dressing room at the Duchess Theatre in London using a large upturned photographic placard of a certain television star balanced on two trestles as a desk.
Are these men related? I think we should be told.
Full disclosure, Collin Johnson is known to me personally.
Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol is a theatrical riff on the seasonal favorite Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.
Our production at The Arsht Center in Miami has garnered some very generous reviews. Tickets here.
I use the plural “our” because even though I am the lone actor in the show, there is no way I could have done this by myself – the creative team of designers, stage managers, the director, producer, and a special shout out to Alex Alvarez who has played a coach/personal trainer type role – to say nothing of the resident staff at The Arsht – yes, it takes a village to put on a play.
A while ago I posted a cautionary tale about reading reviews of shows one is appearing in while the show is still playing – if you missed it you can see it here
Maybe this is a policy I can now revise, after all it’s been nearly 40 years since the challenging event outlined in the previous post.
But on the other hand the great danger when reading praise is that you start to believe it – I refer myself to the opening lines of Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “If” and I recommend that I learn it by heart.
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
You see, this is what happens when you do a solo with a lot of dialogue. You start talking to yourself even when offstage:
Colin: How about a cup of coffee, Colin?
Colin: Yes. What a good idea, Colin!
One is reminded of another piece of dialogue. This is taken from the late Anthony Sher’s book Year of the King in which Sher documents his preparation and performance of Richard III. Michael Caine saw a performance and went backstage to congratulate Sher afterwards.
Caine: And what about those reviews!?
Sher: Oh, I never read reviews.
Caine: Read ’em! You fuckin’ wrote ’em, didn’t you?
Full disclosure: each of the reviewers linked above is known to me personally, and I thank them here for their continued dedication to the cause of live theatre in an increasingly challenging environment.
Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol by Tom Mula opens at The Arsht Center on December 2nd 2021 and plays until the 19th.
Who can forget Scrooge & Marley and Bob Cratchit and Mr Fezziwig and the trio of ghosts.
Come and see them all and few others, in this Christmas story inspired by Dickens’s much loved tale. (There’s only one actor in this show) tickets here!
After more than a year of this sort of activity …
… it has to be said that New York City is a bit of an assault on the senses. The decibels are way up. Take a taxi, a Lyft or and Uber and the state of the roads combined with the combat-driving technique that obtains in NYC and you get a thrill-ride, that shakes your corpuscles.
The late great Spike Milligan, the man who gave us The Goons, once wrote a satirical piece about traveling on the London Underground in the days when you could smoke cigarettes on busses, in cinemas, on planes and of course on tube trains “… and then to add to the commuters’ relief great clouds of stale cigarette smoke are pumped into the carriages…”
You know you’re in midtown Manhattan because of the distinctive sickly-sweet aroma of strong cannabis. Perhaps we’re all mildly stoned these days because of second hand smoke, and given the news maybe that’s a good thing. Aside from that, the improvised lean-to outdoor dining venues add exotic lights and have put 9th Avenue (where we are staying) into party mode.
Mainly though, it is excellent to be able to report that …
Among other shows To Kill A Mockingbird re-opened a couple of weeks ago at the Shubert Theatre on West 44th Street in New York City. And among other actors, that amazing Broadway veteran Patricia Conolly (full disclosure, she is known to me personally), seen here at the stage door about to go to work, resumes her role as Mrs Dubose.
I was at the dress rehearsal. It was a poignant occasion, 1700 people all in face masks, applauding nearly every entrance and giving the show an enthusiastic standing ovation.
And the show itself? One of the great classics of American literature seems more relevant now than ever.
