Post by lemur on Apr 29, 2009 16:01:57 GMT -5
David Hyde Pierce of Accent On Youth: a modern man for a 1930s comedy
29 April 2009
By Erik Piepenburg - New York Times[/b]
LINK
Psychiatrist. Sleuth. Sir Robin. David Hyde Pierce has played them all. (In Frasier, Curtains and Monty Python’s Spamalot, of course.)
Now the 50-year-old actor is portraying a playwright in the Manhattan Theater Club’s Broadway revival of Samson Raphaelson’s comedy Accent on Youth.
Mr Pierce plays Steven Gaye, a suave, successful writer whose career is thrown into chaos when his mousy secretary unexpectedly declares her love for him. (Yes, it was written in 1934.) The show opens Wednesday night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater.
Before a recent performance, Mr Pierce sat down to discuss the production and narrate an audio slide show.
What was it about the character of Steven Gaye that attracted you to this project?
Dan Sullivan, the director, brought the play to me. I had worked with Dan years ago on The Heidi Chronicles. I loved working with him then. I had seen some of his work over the years and had always been so impressed with his productions. He brought me Accent on Youth, and said it was something that meant a lot to him. I read it and thought it was really interesting. It surprised me. I thought, okay, 1930s comedy, I think I know what that is. It’s sort of wacky and people talk very fast and run in and out of doors and it will probably be in black and white. It’s none of those things. It is a comedy, it has some very funny things in it, but it’s a comedy with a lot of heart and sadness in it.
The playwright’s son, Joel Raphaelson, sent us some of the reviews that came out in 1934 and they all commented about this, how it was a play that was very rich and had a lot to say and that it was funny but wistful. We thought that’s a wonderful challenge for us as a company to approach. It’s not slick. It’s not smooth. It may not be what people expect from a comedy of the period.
Why revive this play now? Were there concerns that people wouldn’t know it was a play from the 30s?
There’s nothing in the program that lets anyone know this is a play written in 1934. We found that a lot of people coming to the show and even watching the show don’t realize that. It’s kind of amazing for a play from 1934. Or maybe it’s just that we condescend a little and patronize plays of that generation and don’t realize there was a lot going on. The morals were very interesting then. It explores a lot of things that are completely relevant now.
Your last Broadway show was Curtains. What was it like to go from a big Broadway musical to a straight play, and a revival at that?
After leaving Frasier, first I did Spamalot, then I did Curtains. It was two musicals in a row, which was physically exhausting. I was in them each about a year and a half almost. I thought I should step away from that form. If another great musical had come along I might have done it. But when Dan presented this play – before we closed Curtains is when I saw it, so I kind of knew I was going into this before Curtains closed – it seemed like a good change of pace. It was also about doing a revival as opposed to creating something new. … We did a reading of the play to see how we felt about it. Mary Catherine Garrison, who plays my secretary in the play, played the part in the reading. It’s a very tricky part. She got it so immediately. That was the other thing that made me do the play.
Did you ever have a lightbulb moment, when you looked at someone on stage and thought to yourself, “That’s what I want to do”?
I had no lightbulb moments. My career path was all dim.
29 April 2009
By Erik Piepenburg - New York Times[/b]
LINK
Psychiatrist. Sleuth. Sir Robin. David Hyde Pierce has played them all. (In Frasier, Curtains and Monty Python’s Spamalot, of course.)
Now the 50-year-old actor is portraying a playwright in the Manhattan Theater Club’s Broadway revival of Samson Raphaelson’s comedy Accent on Youth.
Mr Pierce plays Steven Gaye, a suave, successful writer whose career is thrown into chaos when his mousy secretary unexpectedly declares her love for him. (Yes, it was written in 1934.) The show opens Wednesday night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater.
Before a recent performance, Mr Pierce sat down to discuss the production and narrate an audio slide show.
What was it about the character of Steven Gaye that attracted you to this project?
Dan Sullivan, the director, brought the play to me. I had worked with Dan years ago on The Heidi Chronicles. I loved working with him then. I had seen some of his work over the years and had always been so impressed with his productions. He brought me Accent on Youth, and said it was something that meant a lot to him. I read it and thought it was really interesting. It surprised me. I thought, okay, 1930s comedy, I think I know what that is. It’s sort of wacky and people talk very fast and run in and out of doors and it will probably be in black and white. It’s none of those things. It is a comedy, it has some very funny things in it, but it’s a comedy with a lot of heart and sadness in it.
The playwright’s son, Joel Raphaelson, sent us some of the reviews that came out in 1934 and they all commented about this, how it was a play that was very rich and had a lot to say and that it was funny but wistful. We thought that’s a wonderful challenge for us as a company to approach. It’s not slick. It’s not smooth. It may not be what people expect from a comedy of the period.
Why revive this play now? Were there concerns that people wouldn’t know it was a play from the 30s?
There’s nothing in the program that lets anyone know this is a play written in 1934. We found that a lot of people coming to the show and even watching the show don’t realize that. It’s kind of amazing for a play from 1934. Or maybe it’s just that we condescend a little and patronize plays of that generation and don’t realize there was a lot going on. The morals were very interesting then. It explores a lot of things that are completely relevant now.
Your last Broadway show was Curtains. What was it like to go from a big Broadway musical to a straight play, and a revival at that?
After leaving Frasier, first I did Spamalot, then I did Curtains. It was two musicals in a row, which was physically exhausting. I was in them each about a year and a half almost. I thought I should step away from that form. If another great musical had come along I might have done it. But when Dan presented this play – before we closed Curtains is when I saw it, so I kind of knew I was going into this before Curtains closed – it seemed like a good change of pace. It was also about doing a revival as opposed to creating something new. … We did a reading of the play to see how we felt about it. Mary Catherine Garrison, who plays my secretary in the play, played the part in the reading. It’s a very tricky part. She got it so immediately. That was the other thing that made me do the play.
Did you ever have a lightbulb moment, when you looked at someone on stage and thought to yourself, “That’s what I want to do”?
I had no lightbulb moments. My career path was all dim.