'Humpday' director Lynn Shelton

There's a new film sweeping the festivals. It's called Humpday, and it's about two straight guys who have sex. On tape. In order to make a film. According to them, it's not porn; it's art. Andrew (Joshua Leonard) is this bohemian vagabond-type drifter who one day shows up on the doorstep of his old friend Ben (Mark Duplass), who now has a wife named Anna (Alycia Delmore) and has left his wild college days behind him. Before long, Andrew and Ben are spending time together again and Andrew has convinced Ben to... well, I already told you. I had the opportunity to speak with the director, Lynn Shelton; enjoy the conversation.

Do you live in New York?
No, I live in Seattle.

Oh! I know that Alycia Delmore is a Seattle actress.
Yes, exactly.

And that you’ve worked with her before. And you also wanted to work with Mark because you’d worked on the same movie before.
Right. Well, I was really an observer. Mark was the star of it and I was a still-set photographer, so I got to watch him firsthand. But, yeah, we knew we wanted to collaborate—maybe in a way other than me directing him, but we wanted to work together and we had really hit it off. The difference between him and Alycia is that Alycia was brought in later, because it originated with “I’m going to build this movie for and around Mark.”

Since he’s a writer-director also, when you were discussing collaborating did you ever discuss working together as writers?
Well, the first thing—I was quite flattered, because he called me and asked me if I would direct a script he had written that was to star his wife. And that ended up falling through, just for other reasons, but… no, for this particular project, it was always going to be me directing him. And I knew that because of my involvement with the actors—my first film was done in a very traditional way; I had the actors and the script and a picture of the character in my head that I then tried to film, and I found that it was just very difficult on the actors, and I wanted to try something different. So for my second film I started by finding the people I wanted to work with, and it’s a very collaborative thing, in order to get to that naturalism. It was interesting comparing the process of My Effortless Brilliance, my second feature, and this my third feature. In Brilliance I would talk to the actors about their characters, but then I would really go off by myself and write exactly what was going to happen, whereas it all sort of melded together a little more in Humpday. Josh and Mark would chat about their characters, and as we got to know the characters they had some ideas about how they might interact in each scene. And ultimately I had final say and I was the one who was the scribe and figuring it all out, but there were a lot of wonderful times with the three of us when the ideas were just coming fast and furious in this very egoless environment, where the best idea would emerge and we couldn’t even remember whose it was. So it was interesting, and I’m imagining that every project I do will sort of take on a different quality in that way. However the collaboration best works, you know?

It seems like the screenwriting process for you is becoming more collaborative with each film.
Yeah! Yeah, which is great. It feels—I mean, I’m a real control freak.

[laughs]
So it has not come easily or naturally. But I am rewarded every time I open the process up more; I am rewarded with a higher level of naturalism in the acting and writing, and also as the sense of ownership increases with the people I collaborate, as I invite them to be involved more, the quality just goes up. They’re so engaged, and they bring their game in such a way that, I don’t know, it has a different sort of quality from someone who’s just like being a little more dictatorial. I can exert my control in two very important arenas: the first is to make sure that I’m choosing exactly the right people to collaborate with, really. I’m giving so much trust that if I give trust to the wrong person I’m really dead. [laughs] So I really have to be really careful about who I invite, both about crew and cast. But the other place is the edit room, and I can’t tell you how many times I’m on-set… we talk before we shoot, and then we let the cameras go and they’re talking-talking-talking for twenty to thirty minutes, and there’s stuff in there that’s brilliant and there’s stuff in there that’s awful. Or just mediocre. And I won’t stop them. I just let them go, because generally there’s still going to be stuff in there that’s usable. And then maybe I’ll make an adjustment and we’ll do it again. But rarely will I stop them midway or tell them to do something different. I’ll let them give over, so that they feel really emotionally safe and protected and so that they can just fully risk. And they trust, as a director and specifically as an editor, I’m going to carve out all the shit that doesn’t work. It’s nice, because I can be fully collaborative on set and then later I can just go chop-chop-chop-chop! [laughs] And get exactly what I want.

It’s kind of like you’re treating the editing process as your biggest stage of revision.
Absolutely! Well, it’s the writing stage, it really is. It’s the final draft of the script—

You do it backwards!
I do it backwards. I really do. I call it the upside-down model of filmmaking, because I really write it in the editor’s room. It’s really much more akin to editing a documentary than editing a traditional narrative film, and if you have a fly-on-the-wall documentary then there’s some event or something and you’re capturing lots and lots of footage and then you really have to find the story and make it tight in the edit room, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. As much as I have to credit the actors for giving us gold, for giving us all this wonderful material, I have to give just as much credit to Nat Sanders, my editor. That part of the process is just absolutely essential to this particular… and my eyes of an editor—because, again, on set I become more of an editor than anything else, making sure I get all the ingredients I’ll need later.

You’ve said that you originally envisioned Mark as playing Andrew, the more freewheeling character.
Yeah! It’s true. And I also had a different vision as to how the thing would unfold. I thought that maybe this adventurous, bohemian, charismatic roamer would have this MO that he has to try everything once. And he would go to Hump, and he would see the gay porn, and he would be like, “Oh my god! I haven’t ever been with a guy! This is terrible!”

[laughs]
And so for his checklist of things that he—“I have to try every drug once” or whatever—he would be like, “We have to do this!”

Kind of like one of those novelty books about things to do before you get old!
Like the bucket list? His own little weird list, yeah! That was my original idea, and I could see it, and his friend was going to be this conservative… kind of a subordinate. The bohemian would have a svengali-like hold over his little buddy, who would be more scared and more domesticated, maybe, and who would live vicariously through his adventuring buddy. You know, like, “Oh, yeah, oh, sure! I’ll be like you! I’ll…” You know. And then there would be a shift at this point, and—I had this whole idea. But the minute Mark said “I have to play the domesticated guy,” I just knew they would have to be even, because Mark is just so dominant, you know? He’s a very type-A dominating sort of guy. So I immediately also said to him, “If you’re not going to play Andrew, I need help casting who should be your match.” And I love that he suggested Josh, because Joshua and he really match each other well, and as soon as one gets a little ahead of the other guy then the other one parries.

And this was a while ago but Josh did something similar when he did The Blair Witch Project, so there’s that.
Right. Right, exactly, and Mark has worked that way both as a filmmaker and as an actor. He and his brother Jay, whom he works with, start with a screenplay, but they can choose to throw it out—and they tend to throw it out. So it’s slightly different, and Blair Witch was different still: they kept a lot of things hidden from the actors, and I tend to like things to be a little more transparent.

Well, that was also a suspense film. It seems like with your model, if you were doing a more horror-type film, you’d probably do a similar type of thing to get honest reactions.
True enough. True enough, yeah.

Humpday hits select theatres July 10th.
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'In Plain Sight' actor Christian de la Fuente

Maybe it's because it's fun to entertain the idea of getting a fresh start, but In Plain Sight makes the Witness Protection Program seem really exciting. The show follows U.S. Marshal Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack) as she grapples with her witnesses—as well as her personal life: she has an alcoholic mother (Lesley Ann Warren), a little sister (Nicole Hiltz) struggling to set right a somewhat-derailed life, and a boyfriend (Christian de la Fuente) who is far more serious about their relationship than she appears to be. The show is in the middle of its second season, and I got to talk with Christian de la Fuente about what the remaining episodes hold in store and about how the cast gets along. Enjoy!

Hey! It was great to finally see you on the most recent episode for what feels like the first time all season.
Oh—no, no, no, I’ve been in other episodes this season.

Yeah, but you’ve mostly hung out in the background. I’d love to know if you’re going to be coming in again in more of a big way.
Well, the show is about Mary, not about Raph, and the show is always about protecting a witness, so the most important story is going to be about protecting a witness and then how she deals with her personal life. And we are part of her personal life—I say “we” because it’s her mother, her sister, and me. So, always, the main story is gonna be the witness and how she protects the witness, and then we’re gonna be the other part of her life. So in that sense, sometimes her sister’s going to be more important because she’s going to court and going to trial for what happened last season with the drugs. Or her mom, because she’s getting rehab as an alcoholic. Or there’s the show where I decide to propose again and see if we finally are going to get married or not. But it’s always a show about Mary. If and when we have bigger episodes, the show’s still about her.

Right. Speaking of the future episode where Raph proposes again—is that something you’re keeping under wraps?
Y’know, we can’t talk too much about that or else there’s no surprise, but the only thing I can say is that, yes, Raph is going to try again and, you know, things are going to change a bit and then we’re going to have to see whether they’re really going to change or whether it was momentary.

Does Raph have any more screen time with Brandi this season?
No—no, it’s going to be more time with Mary.

What are some other things coming up that you’d like to share?
Well, Mary’s going to still be involved with trying to help her sister about what happened in the past, and then in the last three episodes there’s something big that happens that’ll make all the characters get together, and it’s something that’s going to affect them all in a big way. The season finale is really well-written and well-developed, and all the other episodes are building up to that finale.

I know that throughout the series it’s been interesting to see what’s been going on between Marshall and Mary—at least on his end.
Well, yeah, that happens. Chemistry is always in different places; like, last season there was chemistry between Raph and Brandi, but nothing happened. If you play a song in one note it becomes boring. A TV show can’t be all the same thing, you know, you can’t have a relationship always be the same way. So of course there’s something between her and Marshall, and then she goes back to Raph—nothing has ever happened between [Mary and Marshall]. But maybe it will happen, maybe not, and those are all the maybes that keep people watching shows.

At the end of last season it was shown that Raph took the drugs with him…
Oh, the drugs are gone. The trial against Brandi is still happening, they still have to charge her for what she did and see if she was really guilty or not, and that is going to still be part of the storyline of the season, but the drugs are gone. There are no more drugs. Nobody can find them, and they’re gone.

Do you and the other actors have a lot of input in terms of what the dialogue sounds like?
No. No, there’s no… you can have ideas of storylines; you can propose “Why don’t we do this?” for more big-picture stuff, but the dialogue is written by the writers the way it’s done, and then you just learn your lines and do them.

What sorts of things do you guys do together as a cast when you’re not filming?
Well, when we’re shooting and we’re on location, the only thing we do when we’re not working is try to sleep.

[laughs]
When you have fourteen-hour shoots and fifteen or sixteen days of shooting nonstop, you just want to go back to your hotel and rest. Then when we have days off we like to go out and have dinner all together and kind of spend the day together. And now—we just came back to LA a couple weeks ago, and now we’re probably going to get together next week or in a couple weeks.

What’s it like shooting in Albuquerque? How’s the atmosphere there?
It’s great. Albuquerque is a great place, and people are very friendly and very nice with everybody, and they’re treating us very, very well.

Do you—for example, I know after the first season wrapped Mary McCormack came here to NYC and did the play Boeing-Boeing. Do you guys come and see—?
Yeah, I did come to watch Mary. I was there for other reasons, and while I was there, of course, I hadn’t seen Mary in a while so I got tickets for the show and I went to see her. And it was great to see her again, especially to see her in a different way, because what she did in Boeing-Boeing was great and it was completely different from the character she plays in In Plain Sight.

In Plain Sight airs Sundays at 10pm Eastern Time.
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Tony Awards post-coverage: the Lipton gift lounge

Last week I hit you with a slew of short conversations with various nominees and attendees-to-be of the Tony Awards; that was my pre-show coverage. Well, on the day of the Tonys, I spent some time backstage at the official Lipton gift lounge, which featured sponsors like Vera Bradley, Anoname Jeans, and Altoids; while there, I got to speak with such luminaries as icon Liza Minelli, who played the Palace earlier this season; 33 Variations actresses Jane Fonda and Samantha Mathis; presenter Edie Falco, star of the show Nurse Jackie on Showtime; 9 to 5 actress Allison Janney; showbiz royalty Carrie Fisher, whose show Wishful Drinking transfers to Broadway this fall; and Broadway queen Bebe Neuwirth, who is currently involved with the development of an Addams Family musical. Enjoy the conversations!

Liza Minelli
You’ve done so much in your career. What’s one thing you’d still like to do? Just everything better. Do it again and do it better. That’s my motto!

Do you ever give yourself a break? And say “I was awesome!”? No. [laughter] I really don’t! That’s for other people to do! If I say “That was awesome” I’m resting on my laurels, and the laurels don’t last. And you don’t keep working. [laughs]

Do you feel any guilt over taking all this free swag? NO! [laughter] Are you kidding?

You were here last year as a presenter. Now you’re here as a nominee; how does it feel? It feels great! But I’m nervous. I’m not feeling shaky, I’m just… what it takes, you know? To be on point.

What are some highlights about doing your show? Well, just being on the center of the Palace stage and knowing that Sophie Tucker did that—everybody who you ever wanted to be like and who influenced you. Fanny Brice, my mother, everybody. And you can pull it right out of the ground. You can pull it; it goes right up your body.

Are you looking forward to relaxing tonight? Any afterparty plans? Well, no. Actually, I’m looking forward to having a hamburger.

How has the joy of performing changed for you over the years? It’s gotten better. Because it gets more natural. And you become more of yourself.

Jane Fonda
What’s something you’d like to do, considering you’ve already accomplished so much? Oh, I’d like to do another play on Broadway.

Which one would you pick? New plays. One that doesn’t exist yet.

How does it feel to come back to Broadway after— Forty-six years? I haven’t been here for forty-six years! It feels fantastic. It feels like coming home.

What’s the greatest thing about stage performing? Live audience feedback.

What was it like working with Colin [Hanks]? He’s fabulous. He’s his own person and very, very talented.

Do you have any pre-show jitters right now? No, I’m just excited!

Comes with the age of having done it a lot…? Yeah.

Who do you look up to? My father, Henry Fonda. [I miss] that he’s not here right now to see my return to Broadway after forty-six years, because he loved the last one.

What do you enjoy in your free time? I read. I’m writing a book, so I’m mostly doing research.

What’s your book about? Aging.

Samantha Mathis
Hi, it’s nice to meet you! You’re all such beautiful ladies! Look at you, it’s amazing.

You’re a Broadway veteran. What movie do you think should be made into a show? Well, I know that there’s going to be a workshop of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown starting next week, and I think that’s fantastic. To turn it into a musical… yeah, that would be pretty extraordinary, so I’m gonna say that.

If you could pick anything to make into a musical, what would it be? [long pause] I don’t know. I’m not saturated enough to come up with an answer! [laughs]
What about Neil Patrick Harris being the host? He doesn’t have to do anything except be himself. I’m so excited to see what he does with it. And I do have to say—I have to mention that I was his first onscreen kiss back on Doogie Howser when he was fourteen and I was eighteen. He was adorable! He was little Doogie Howser, and now he’s all grown up into this handsome triple-threat actor!

How do you feel about being here, you know, at the Tonys? Well, it’s just a wonderful end to what has been an incredible experience for me, being on Broadway in a play with Jane Fonda… you know, it’s a dream. And this is my second time in New York, being on Broadway, and for me it just doesn’t get any better than this, so to be a part of the tradition and the history and to see this community of actors that I’ve been a part of for the last six months… it’s just been a wonderful way to end the experience, because we just closed two weeks ago.

How do you like being in New York? Loving every second of it. I’m loving every second of it.

Edie Falco
You have a lot of talent— Well, thank you!

What showtune do you sing when you’re in the shower? Oh, gosh. Um… West Side Story and Hair are both among these season’s shows, and they’re shows I grew up with, so I’ve seen the many movies and plays and they’re way up there in the shower showtune category.

We’re thrilled about Nurse Jackie. What will people like and dislike about the character? You know, I’m always the last person to know about these things, and that’s the way it should be. I’m do my job, and it’s great if people like it, but if they don’t like it that’s cool too. That’s what makes the horse race, as they say.

How do you feel about being in New York at this time of year? Well, New York at this time of year is very exciting. The winter’s finally over; you can take your coats of; people are walking around outside, and then in about a month and a half it becomes unbearably hot and I’m gone. I’m off to the beach! So this is the perfect time.

Give a recommendation of a show or two from this season. Exit the King was spectacular… reasons to be pretty was spectacular; Hair I saw and cried myself silly. There’s so much this season.

Have you seen James Gandolfini in Gods of Carnage? Of course I have. He’s fantastic! I’m his biggest fan.

What do you think is a scarier character: his character in the play or in The Sopranos? There’s nothing scary about James Gandolfini—his character or his person!

You think The Sopranos could be made into a musical? [laughs raucously] I’m so, so staying out of that.

Allison Janney
Could you tell why 9 to 5 was the best movie-to-musical remake this season? Well, it wasn’t nominated for Best Musical. [laughs]

Right, but in your opinion! Well, in my opinion, because Dolly Parton wrote the music and it’s spectacular music and the choreography is stunning; Joe Mantello has put together a spectacular production, and Stephanie Block and Megan Hilty and I are fabulous together, and I think it’s one of the best shows on Broadway.

How are you enjoying being in the incredibly tight-knit Broadway community at this moment? I love it, because I haven’t been here in a long time. I’d been doing West Wing out on the other coast, and so I’m so happy to be back on the boards, as they say.

And New York in general? I love New York. I lived here for a long time before moving out to LA, so I’m happy to be back and am happy to be coming to the Tony Awards. And I hope we win something, because we deserve it!

What’s the best thing Lily Tomlin’s said about your performance? Uh… I don’t know what she’s said! She loves the show. She saw the opening in LA and in New York, and she loves me and I love her, and just that she enjoyed it so much and came to see it again was praise enough.

What are you into right now—favorite book, favorite TV show…? I have no time to do anything right now. I walk my dog in Central Park. That’s all I can do! I love it. I love my dog, and I love New York.

Carrie Fisher
Do you think Star Wars could be made into a musical? Star Wars the musical? I think nothing could be more vomitous! I just can’t… isn’t it enough? Don’t we have enough Star W—I liked Star Wars the porno film in Zack and Miri. [laughter] That seems great to me. But a musical!?

Would you do a cameo in a porno? In a porno? Absolutely. I’m getting back to my metal bikini weight and I’m going to do a porno then. Which will take a while, but…

You’re such a great writer. What are you working on lately? I have a new book I’m working on. I’m in my anecdotage so I’m going with more memoir stuff. And I’m doing this show [Wishful Drinking] that I’m coming in with that’s transferring in the fall.

Oh, so it’s coming to Broadway? It is. It’s coming in late September, previewing earlier, at Studio 54.

Could you tell me what Broadway showtunes you sing when you’re alone in the shower? I’m never alone in the shower.

[laughter] What showtunes do you sing when you’re in the shower with company? Ah, let’s see. I like to sing "Hello Young Lovers"; that’s a really good—and "Somewhere Good". “Somewhere in my youth or childhood I must have done something goooo…” I never close the word.

Why do you like The Sound of Music? It’s… uplifting and inane. I don’t know. I love tons of musicals. I was brought up in a showbiz singing family; one of the rules was never sing at the table.

How do you feel about being in New York at this time with the Broadway community all around you? It’s great! I worked in my mother’s show when I was fifteen years old, so that’s quite a few years ago, as a chorus girl. And my mom’s playing here right now at the Carlisle, so there you have it!

What movie do you think should be made into a musical? Wild Strawberries.
Why? Because it would just be freaky. Wages of Fear. You know, I think doing the Lion King and the Shrek and the Star Wars is like… so obvious. I think we have to go dark and very serious. Battle of Algiers!

Bebe Neuwirth
I know you were recently planning a wedding. How does that stand? We’ve been married five weeks, and we are a very happily married couple. [laughs]

That’s wonderful! How was the ceremony? A good friend of mine is a Zen Buddhist priest, and he handled part of the ceremony and the other part was handled by a New York judge. So it was a Buddhist-civil ceremony.

What’s the best part of marriage five weeks in? Um, jus—[a man slinks over and leans in]

[laughter] That’s your honeydew, right? That’s my husband! It’s hysterical. Um, the best part is just waking up every day and continuing to be grateful for finding each other. It’s just very happy and wonderful. We cherish each other.

How did you find each other? [laughs] “Take notes, now!” I see all these pretty women going: [thrusts out imaginary recorder] “How did you find him?!?” Um, we met through very odd circumstances. His stepmother was my acting teacher twenty-five years ago, and we’re still friends, and she introduced us to each other even though he lived in Northern California and just happened to be on the East Coast. So she introduced us!

Who are you most excited to see tonight? Well, I’ve been to the Tony Awards a lot, and I love them. I think it’s a great celebration of theatre all over the country, even though specifically it’s about Broadway. I really think it’s a great thing about American theatre. So, for me, tonight it’s really about bringing my husband into this.

This is his first time? This is his first time at the Tonys, and it’ll be fun to bring him into this beautiful party for the theatre.

So you and Broadway right now… I’m not on Broadway right now, but… [grins] something’s in the works.

The Addams Family musical! We’re going to do another workshop, in two weeks we’re going to do a workshop, and then we play in Chicago for the fall and winter, and we hope to come to Broadway next year.

Are the characters going to adhere more closely to the TV show or the movies? To the cartoons. The television show and both the movies were based on the cartoons; they were in the New Yorker, and they were by a wonderful cartoonist named—

[in unison with her] Charles Addams. Right. And our show is based on those cartoons.

How did you get involved? They asked me. And I said, “Yeah!” [laughter]

You know, I’m surprised you haven’t been on 30 Rock yet. Oh, that’s a great show, isn’t it? I would love to be on that show. You put in a good word for me for that! [laughs]

Is there a movie that you would like to see made into a Broadway show? I can’t think of one. I did an off-Broadway piece a few years ago called Here Lies Jenny using all Kurt Weill music, and I would love to make it into a film, but that’s not what you asked. [laughter] But I said it anyway, just to put it out there!

What are your afterparty plans for this year’s Tonys? I think we’re gonna go to the party, you know, the official party, and then I think my husband and I will go home, put our feet up, and if we are lucky… [laughter] we just might have some "ice cream" tonight. [more laughter]

What’s your favorite thing, theatrical or otherwise, about New York? Well, there are so many answers to that question, but I just happened to be having a conversation with somebody the other day about all the hidden little jewels of architecture and history that you don’t necessarily know or see. In this very building, in fact! There’s a room in Radio City Music Hall called the Roxy Room, which is a fantastic room that… I can’t remember what it was used for. A dining room? Someone’s residence or something? Something a lot of people don’t know about, but it’s an architectural gem. There are places all over the city… so there. The hidden architectural gems that I hope never see the wrecking ball.

This concludes our Tony Awards coverage!
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Tony Awards pre-coverage

The Tony Awards are in less than twenty-four hours, which means the various guests and honorees have spent the evening preparing for the big day in whichever ways they see fit. In some cases, this means attendance at the Tony Awards Cocktail Party held to celebrate the recipients of special awards, including among others the Isabelle Stevenson Award and the Tony Honor of Excellence in the Theatre. Among the guests I had the opportunity to speak with were Billy Elliot actor and Tony nominee David Bologna; Shrek actor and Tony nominee Christopher Sieber; Shrek actor John Tartaglia; Isabelle Stevenson Award recipient and Broadway luminary Phyllis Newman; American Theatre Wing member and Broadway verteran Lucie Arnaz; and [title of show] mastermind and Tony nominee Hunter Bell. Enjoy!

David Bologna
How do you feel about being here?
I’m pretty excited! I’m really, really psyched for this.

And the big day tomorrow…
It’s gonna be a crazy day. Lot of preparations—crazy time there. [laughs]

Well, you’re light years ahead of the game here [age-wise].
[laughs] Yeah.

How did you end up involved with Billy Elliott?
I was doing theatre back in Texas, which is where I’m from, and a friend told me about the auditions in Dallas, so I went up and did the audition and that was in February 2007. And then a year later, in April 2008, they called me back for an audition up here, so I did a couple callbacks here and then at the end of May they told me I got the part.

As you know, the show is a West End transfer. Did you have a lot of involvement with the original creative team?
The creative team, yeah, because all the people who did the production in London worked on the production here. Not really the cast from the original London show, but I know the three Billys [each of whom plays the title role at specified performances] caught a flight to London and studied the show there.

Could you tell me a little about your role as Michael?
Michael is an eccentric person. He’s Billy’s best friend, and he… likes to wear women’s dresses and clothing. [laughter] He’s a really wild individual, and I think he really gives the message to Billy and to the audience to express yourself and to forget what other people think about you and to follow your dreams.

Thanks for talking!
Yeah! It was great.

Christopher Sieber
Hi, it’s nice to meet you!
Nice to see you!

You excited for—?
Tomorrow? Tomorrow, I’m excited for, because it’s going to be over. It’s been the longest five weeks of my life, so that’s going to be great.

So—[a street performer dressed up in full costume and body paint as the Tin Man walks by on the sidewalk]
That was bizarre. [referring to the street performer] You’re a grown man! Hello!

It’s New York.
Well, yeah.

I mean, granted, it’s not Hollywood Boulevard.
No, not at all. But it’s starting to come like that over there, down on 42nd Street.

Well, that is Times Square. So: Shrek the Musical. How did you get involved?
My friend Jason Moore asked me to come and do a reading about three and a half years ago.

It’s been a long time coming!
Yes, it’s been a long time coming, so this show means a lot to me. And I helped create it, so it definitely means a lot to me. But [then] we only had half an act with about five songs and ended up with the big show we have now. And along the way a lot of scenes have been cut, hundreds of songs have been cut, but a lot of the stuff that I created is still there, so that’s good! Yeah.

Regarding the fact that younger people aren’t as involved in theatre—I don’t need convincing, myself, but give a compelling reason why people should come to the theatre.
To come to a Broadway show? You should come see a Broadway show because there’s nothing like it. It’s live performance right before your very eyes, and it’s dangerous because anything can happen with the performances—and it’s exciting, because it’s happening right before your very eyes! It’s unlike anything else. I would say to come see a Broadway show, definitely.

Well, it’s not me you need to convince.
Oh, good.

Thank you so much!
It was nice talking to you!

John Tartaglia
Hi, it’s nice to meet you!
Nice to meet you too!

All right, the Tonys: looking forward to them?
Very much so! This is my… fourth Tony Awards, and I’m still very excited. You never get used to it. [laughs]

The previous three times, what were—
Well, for a show I’ve only been nominated once before—for Avenue Q—but I got to go the next year as a guest and another year as a presenter and now this year for Shrek. So it’s kind of like a familiar place to be. [laughs]

So how did you get involved with Shrek?
Uh, Jason Moore, the director. He called me, and he knew [the role of] Pinocchio would be kind of close to my heart, partly because of the puppetry aspect but also because of the other puppetry parts of the show, so he asked me if I was interested in doing it and I was thrilled to be asked. It was a nice, lucky experience.

Thanks so much; it was great to meet you!
It was nice to meet you! Thank you very much.

Phyllis Newman
It’s lovely to meet you.
Thank you!

How do you feel about being here tonight and being honored?
I’m just miserable and so unhappy. [laughter] I hate being honored and I hate getting dressed up, but I’m doing it because I’m a humanitarian.

[laughter] Well, it’s the typical lead-in question.
No, the truth is I feel very honored. This has never before happened; I have never had an award for doing good work, so I’m thrilled. I’m thrilled also because this raises the issue of women’s health, and it’s been fifteen years [that I’ve been running the Women’s Health Initiative], so I’m very proud.

Well, it’s about time.
Yeah, I agree with you. I agree! [laughter] No, I don’t mean for me! It’s about time to recognize the whole issue.

Of course. How, fifteen years ago, did you decide to develop the Initiative?
Well, it’s a part of the Actors’ Fund. I knew that women’s health was badly in need of support—and the Actor’s Fund is really my partner and really responsible for it, and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS started funding us as well, right from the beginning and for fifteen years, so it’s like we’re all part of this community but there’s never been a women’s thing. And I am a feminist, and I’m proud to be one, so that was the area I wanted to explore.

And it’s great to see the Broadway community come to support this cause—
Oh, they’ve been great!

Ever since it was introduced.
And it’s still the only women’s thing connected with the entertainment industry.

Which is unfortunate, that it’s the only one.
But that’s all right! We got it; we got it!

It was great to meet you.
And you.

Martha Plimpton
It’s great to see you.
Hi, good to see you!

How are you preparing for the big day tomorrow?
Well, tonight I’m going to go out and have some drinks with friends and have dinner with my sweetheart and try and relax a little bit before the mayhem begins tomorrow. And clean the apartment. [laughs] So everyone who comes over doesn’t see my underwear all lying around.

With regards to Pal Joey, you’re not exactly known for being in musicals, so how did you decide to do this particular project?
Well, uh, Jack O’Brien thought he’d call Joe Mantello, our director, and he thought it might be a good idea if they gave me a shot at a musical, so here I am! Really, it was a conspiracy among my friends and colleagues. [laughs] And I was more than happy to try it, considering I hadn’t done a musical since I was a little child and certainly never on Broadway, so, you know, it was a happy event.

Well, look how that turned out, what with your nomination!
Yeah, exactly!

You think you’ll keep going or do you think you’ll hang up your, uh, dancing shoes?
Oh, you know what? I just go with whatever seems like it’s going to be fun, so if something comes up that looks like it’s gonna be fun I’ll do it. You know what I mean? I’ll try not to plan too much, because you know what they say about making plans.

Yeah. Did you collaborate a lot during the rewriting of the musical’s book?
No, I didn’t, because Richard Greenberg was working on the book as his adaptation of John O’Hara’s original book. They intended to combine two characters to make Gladys Bumps a little bit more full, to fill her out a little bit more, and I think they decided to do that fairly early on before I was a part of the production. You know what I mean? So there wasn’t that much to change by the time I was in it, because it had already been written in 1940.

Thanks so much. It was great to speak with you!
You’re very welcome. Nice to talk to you.

Lucie Arnaz
All right, the Tonys are tomorrow and—
Right. I’m excited about the Tonys because I’m presenting the Wing Minute this year. You know, there’s always that short little bit where they come out and talk about the American Theatre Wing—they along with the Broadway League give out the Tonys. And it tends to be a very stuffy… but it’s not gonna be this year, because we’re talking about some of the things that we love that the American Theatre Wing does other than the Tonys, and I’m all about that! I’m always like— [in a voice] “We’re more than the Tonys!” So I get to do that this year.

The Tonys are also working on becoming more accessible to a wider audience—which I think is great because a lot of people aren’t as interested now in Broadway as in the past.
Well, like see what you said? The Tonys are just the award—they’re just one of the many things the American Theatre Wing does. The American Theatre Wing is making the effort to produce Springboard for the young kids coming into New York. They do that wonderful theatre seminar. They do the Downstage Centre program on radio. They give grants to off-Broadway theatres. It’s terrific, what we do! And it’s really a privilege to serve on the board of the directors. But so yes, especially with the internet these days you can go online and go through all the years of interviews—about seventeen a year, that’s like six hundred, seven hundred interviews—and download them all and watch them. So if you’re in the business, you’re trying to learn about the business, you can go through this list of directors, choreographers, actors, stage designers and hear about how they do what they do. It’s better than going to college for theatre, I sweartagawd!

[laughs]
It is! And I have a daughter who’s a theatre major, and what she learned in school you could literally learn by doing the Springboard thing and coming to the intern—that’s another thing we do, our intern project, where you can just work with somebody. It’s pretty amazing, when you think about it.

Is there anything that you’ve sought to pass on to your daughter in terms of lessons in drama?
“Don’t do it!” [laughter] No, it’s never really a done deal. You never “make it” in this business; you’re always proving yourself. You’re always auditioning. You’re only as good as the last big hit you had. That’s true of every version of this business. So if you don’t love-love-love-love-LOVE getting up and doing it every day, get another job. And she understands, she does. And she has her yoga certification now, so she’s thinking it through! [laughter]

Thanks so much. It was nice to meet you!
Good to meet you too.

Hunter Bell
Hi!
[Hunter gives me a bear hug] Hi, sweetie! How are you?

I’m good! How are you?
Fantastic!

I am so happy for you for this nomination! I’m almost as excited as you guys.
Hey, I’ll take it! I’ll take it!

Are you going to start singing the Tony Awards Song when you get onstage?
Well, we did—I don’t know; that’s a good idea! We did an Actor’s Fund night at Feinstein’s and Jeff actually wrote the whole song, so we performed that. Maybe we’ll let it drop after the Tony Awards and see how it goes.

Oh my god, there’s a full version?
There’s a full version that we can rock out.

No!
I’m just sayin’, maybe if we’d gotten the Best Musical nomination we coulda rocked that out, but maybe we can put a leak on iTunes or something. [laughs]

Yeah, a stealth—
Stealth, that’s exactly it! A sneaky, kind of underground-y… you know. But I’m totally excited. I’m freaking out.

So what have you been working on lately?
Well, like I said, we did an Actor’s Fund benefit at Feinstein’s, and that had a lot of cut material from the show, and then my [title of show] peeps and I are doing R Family Cruise—Kelli and Rosie [O’Donnell] do that gay and lesbian cruise line, so we’re going to do that and do some pieces on that. And Jeff and I are working on a project that’s super-secret and super awesome—

Aw, it’s super-secret?
Well, maybe that’ll have us tour the West Coast a little bit, but we’ve just been trying to keep busy and create, create, create, yeah!

Speaking of that Shakespeare in the Park play [you and the other reporter were discussing], it’s got Audra MacDonald, Anne Hathaway, and Raul Esparza.
Oh my god, that’s hot!

I know, right?
That’s hot. Anne Hathaway’s the real deal! She can really sing!

She sang at Sondheim’s birthday celebration a few years ago, didn’t she?
I saw her in… was it Carnival? The Encores! show. I think that was her. She’s got cred; she’s got cred.

She’s got cred! I think she was a soprano before going into…
Being a movie star? [laughs] But, yeah, so we’re writing a bunch of stuff and doing the cruise and we’re going to enjoy the New York summer a little bit. Are you good?

I’m good!
It’s nice to see you.

It’s been too long. I wish I could’ve interviewed you guys again before the show slid off the radar.
We’ll set something up again. We will. We’ll come back soon and then we’ll have some stuff to talk about for reals. It’s nice to see you, sweetie!

Good to see you again!
It’s good to see you too.

The Tony Awards air on Sunday, June 7th at 8pm EST.
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