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PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: Hedda Gabler — Pistol-Packin' Parker
By Harry Haun
26 Jan 2009
The always reliable (and sometimes Tony-nominated) Roundabout returnee, Helen Carey, handily plays Cerveris' aunt who quickly and innocently runs afoul of Hedda.
"I think my character is probably the litmus test for the normalcy in town," offered the actress, "then you play off of that and out from that." Based in Washington, DC, where she acts for the Shakespeare Theatre and the Arena Stage, she is making her fifth Roundabout appearance since she started dabbling here in London Assurance.
"This summer I'm going to the Guthrie to do When We Are Married, a Priestley play. I've wanted to work at the new Guthrie since they built it, and this is my first chance."
She also has a film coming out in the summer, "Julie & Julia," about Julia Child. "Half of the film takes place in 1948-53, and Meryl Streep is playing Julia, and I play one of the co-authors of 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking.' I'm French in that one."
Lois Markle is the maid who tidies up the stage (but doesn't touch the emotional mess on it), and she fussily assists Parker in an on-stage dress-change. "That's terrifying — I'm not a dresser," she shuddered. Otherwise, she said she enjoyed the experience: "It was wonderful. I really loved the director [camera-shy Ian Rickson, M.I.A. the whole night as he was at the opening of his recent revival of The Seagull]. The company is fantastic — intelligent, warm and friendly — what could be better?"
The only authentic Scandinavian on stage was Peter Stormare, who played the lecherous and hypocritical judge who's on to Hedda's skullduggery and, like Addison DeWitt, can bottom it. The real accent gives him a very unique oddness.
Liza Minnelli, thoroughly rested from her Palace laurels and looking regal in a feathery designer coat, led the big parade of celebs who turned out to watch Parker go to the dark side. In this case, it was tit for tat: Parker had attended Minnelli's opening. "Oh, she was one of my best friends," said Minnelli, who, with her musical director Billy Stritch, braved the bitter cold to have their intermission cigarettes.
Most of Cynthia Nixon's co-stars in Roundabout's upcoming Distracted made the scene: Peter Benson, Mimi Lieber, Aleta Mitchell and Shana Dowdeswell.
Celebrating Sparks' success at his table was the Becky Shaw contingent (including his girlfriend, title-player Annie Parisse, playwright Gina Gionfriddo and Emily Bergl.)
Also in his corner: playwright-pal Rapp and his girlfriend Katharine Waterston. Rapp said, "I'm finishing the second play of a trilogy called The Hallway Trilogy. It's going to be done next spring. They are three plays set in the same hallway, separated by 50 years. The first one is 1953. The second one is the night of the New York City blackout in 2003. And the third one is 2053. It's the same tenement hallway on the Lower East Side of New York City. It's a pretty large cast, and it's going to be done in rep, with the actors doing three different roles."
Michael Shannon, who co-starred with Sparks and David Wilson Barnes in Wright's recently acclaimed Lady at the Rattlestick, was there too, still grinning over the Oscar nomination he just got for "Revolutionary Road": "It was a dream part for me. I'm a huge fan of the book. When I got this part, I was just like a little kid in a petting zoo. I wasn't expecting [the Oscar nom] at all. I stayed out till three in the morning the night before because I thought I'd be able to sleep in, and then they ambushed me."
He doesn't have any theatre lined up at the moment, but he feels sure that will change soon: "I can't go more than a year without doing a play."
In Cerveris' camp was John Doyle, who directed him in a couple of Sondheims (Sweeney Todd and, most recently, Road Show). His irons in the fire are all in England. "I'm working on several things, but not in New York."
Tiny but mighty Tovah Feldshuh was talking up her Broadway return like nobody's business: "Irena's Vow starts rehearsal Feb. 17 and opens March 10 at the beautiful Walter Kerr Theatre. We have gone there. I have chosen my paint-chip for my walls, my new carpet — they're giving me a fridge, a microwave, a new couch and window treatment. And please, Heaven, that we will be there for a long run!"
Terrence McNally said he'll be doing double duty on the West Coast this year. In the spring, his Unusual Acts of Devotion with Faith Prince and Richard Thomas, which premiered last fall at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, will be staged and worked on at La Jolla Playhouse before heading to New York next season. In August, his musical with Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Catch Me If You Can, will officially lift off at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre.
Also attending: Blythe Danner (London-bound to see the grandkids), Jim Dale, Amy Irving and hubby, plus Lily Rabe and Kieran Campion (arriving after their American Plan performance ran its course), Penny Fuller, Jessica Hecht and Becky Ann Baker (plotting a fourth stage teaming), Dana Ivey, Pal Joey himself Matthew Risch, Joan Rivers, Speech and Debate author Stephen Karam, Speech and Debate actor Gideon Glick, director Mark Brokaw and Kathleen Marshall, Tony Roberts, Scott Ellis, Ben Walker, Byron Jennings and Equus' Carolyn McCormick, playwrights J. T. Rogers and John Weidman, set designer Scott Pask, James Ludwig, Darren Goldstein and Katie Finneran, Mamie Gummer and director Michael Greif.
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The cast of Hedda Gabler at the opening night curtain call.
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben |
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