Post by lemur on Apr 16, 2009 10:30:18 GMT -5
David Hyde Pierce Acts His Age (50) in Depression-Era Comedy
by Zinta Lundborg
16 April 2009
Bloomberg
LINK
David Hyde Pierce returns to Broadway in Accent on Youth, starring as an aging playwright who, after 19 hit comedies, has just written his first tragedy, Old Love.
“This is a new and terrible stage in my career,” deadpans the actor, who turned 50 on April 3. Pierce is best known for his role as the eternally boyish Dr. Niles Crane in Frasier, which brought him an Emmy Award nomination every year during its 11-year run, as well as four wins. He says he still gets residuals from that show, “Sometimes a dollar, two dollars a week.”
The prospect of aging is what made Accent on Youth an irresistible project for Pierce. Clad in a well-cut black suit and a dark knit shirt, he spoke at the Manhattan Theatre Club’s rehearsal studios on 43rd Street. “Some of the things it talks about, okay, I guess I’m going through. I may as well face it - in public.”
Written by Samson Raphaelson, the play is a Depression-era story about a 51-year-old hotshot who falls for his secretary, a woman half his age. After opening on Broadway in 1934, the play was much loved by Hollywood. It was filmed three times, with Herbert Marshall playing the lead in 1935, followed by Bing Crosby in the 1950 musical version and Clark Gable in 1959.
Blond and ebullient, Mary Catherine Garrison takes on the role of the country girl who, in two acts, morphs from mousy secretary to big Broadway star. “We’re two people in love and one is dealing with the prospect of growing older, while the other is growing up,” she says. “That’s an interesting arc to play.” Garrison’s previous Broadway appearances include Patient Griselda in Top Girls as well as Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme in Assassins.
Draw of Director
Another draw for Pierce was the chance to work with Tony Award-winning director Daniel Sullivan, who first cast him as a gay pediatrician in Wendy Wasserstein’s Heidi Chronicles nearly two decades ago. “David easily steps onto the stage as a character from the 1930s,” says Sullivan.
Pierce honed his comic timing in front of a Broadway audience as the not very brave Sir Robin in Monty Python’s Spamalot, a role he begged director Mike Nichols to let him play because he is such a devoted fan of the legendary troupe. His performance as the star-struck detective in the Kander and Ebb musical Curtains won a Tony Award in 2007.
Passionate about Accent on Youth, Sullivan places the play in the urbane tradition of Noel Coward. “It’s an extremely sophisticated piece of work. Raphaelson has surprising wit that’s also deeply serious.” Though largely unknown now, Raphaelson saw his play The Jazz Singer adapted into the first Hollywood talkie in 1927, worked on nine films with Ernst Lubitsch, including Trouble in Paradise and Heaven Can Wait, and collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on Suspicion.
May-December Love
Accent on Youth grapples with the unseemliness of a May-December romance. As the play opens, actors argue about the Old Love script. “An old man going off with a young girl - that’s comedy. If you treat that seriously, it’s dirty,” observes one experienced actress. The male lead retorts, “It’s not dirty if you marry her.”
The play is open about love and sex. “It’s quite risque, the morals were slightly looser then,” notes Pierce. “Some of what happens or is alluded to is startling even for people who come and see it now.”
The May-December romance has never gone out of style, in front of the curtain or behind it. For Sullivan, discomfiting the men in the audience with trophy wives is part of the fun. “Would that be so wrong?” he asks, in a burst of laughter.
In comedy, timing is everything and the Manhattan Theatre Club’s revival comes at an opportune moment. Accent on Youth was written during grim economic times, when audiences were looking for a few hours of easy diversion. As Pierce says, “Here we are, back again. I won’t use the D-word now but probably by the time you see this, we’ll be in a depression.”
by Zinta Lundborg
16 April 2009
Bloomberg
LINK
David Hyde Pierce returns to Broadway in Accent on Youth, starring as an aging playwright who, after 19 hit comedies, has just written his first tragedy, Old Love.
“This is a new and terrible stage in my career,” deadpans the actor, who turned 50 on April 3. Pierce is best known for his role as the eternally boyish Dr. Niles Crane in Frasier, which brought him an Emmy Award nomination every year during its 11-year run, as well as four wins. He says he still gets residuals from that show, “Sometimes a dollar, two dollars a week.”
The prospect of aging is what made Accent on Youth an irresistible project for Pierce. Clad in a well-cut black suit and a dark knit shirt, he spoke at the Manhattan Theatre Club’s rehearsal studios on 43rd Street. “Some of the things it talks about, okay, I guess I’m going through. I may as well face it - in public.”
Written by Samson Raphaelson, the play is a Depression-era story about a 51-year-old hotshot who falls for his secretary, a woman half his age. After opening on Broadway in 1934, the play was much loved by Hollywood. It was filmed three times, with Herbert Marshall playing the lead in 1935, followed by Bing Crosby in the 1950 musical version and Clark Gable in 1959.
Blond and ebullient, Mary Catherine Garrison takes on the role of the country girl who, in two acts, morphs from mousy secretary to big Broadway star. “We’re two people in love and one is dealing with the prospect of growing older, while the other is growing up,” she says. “That’s an interesting arc to play.” Garrison’s previous Broadway appearances include Patient Griselda in Top Girls as well as Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme in Assassins.
Draw of Director
Another draw for Pierce was the chance to work with Tony Award-winning director Daniel Sullivan, who first cast him as a gay pediatrician in Wendy Wasserstein’s Heidi Chronicles nearly two decades ago. “David easily steps onto the stage as a character from the 1930s,” says Sullivan.
Pierce honed his comic timing in front of a Broadway audience as the not very brave Sir Robin in Monty Python’s Spamalot, a role he begged director Mike Nichols to let him play because he is such a devoted fan of the legendary troupe. His performance as the star-struck detective in the Kander and Ebb musical Curtains won a Tony Award in 2007.
Passionate about Accent on Youth, Sullivan places the play in the urbane tradition of Noel Coward. “It’s an extremely sophisticated piece of work. Raphaelson has surprising wit that’s also deeply serious.” Though largely unknown now, Raphaelson saw his play The Jazz Singer adapted into the first Hollywood talkie in 1927, worked on nine films with Ernst Lubitsch, including Trouble in Paradise and Heaven Can Wait, and collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on Suspicion.
May-December Love
Accent on Youth grapples with the unseemliness of a May-December romance. As the play opens, actors argue about the Old Love script. “An old man going off with a young girl - that’s comedy. If you treat that seriously, it’s dirty,” observes one experienced actress. The male lead retorts, “It’s not dirty if you marry her.”
The play is open about love and sex. “It’s quite risque, the morals were slightly looser then,” notes Pierce. “Some of what happens or is alluded to is startling even for people who come and see it now.”
The May-December romance has never gone out of style, in front of the curtain or behind it. For Sullivan, discomfiting the men in the audience with trophy wives is part of the fun. “Would that be so wrong?” he asks, in a burst of laughter.
In comedy, timing is everything and the Manhattan Theatre Club’s revival comes at an opportune moment. Accent on Youth was written during grim economic times, when audiences were looking for a few hours of easy diversion. As Pierce says, “Here we are, back again. I won’t use the D-word now but probably by the time you see this, we’ll be in a depression.”