Tony Nominee Stephen Kunken: “Your career is a marathon”

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If you got a chance to see the Broadway show, Enron you’ll know that Stephen Kunken was well deserved in getting a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role as Andy Fastow.

I say “got a chance” because the day Stephen found out he was nominated he was also told that the show would be closing later that week.

If that were me, I’d want to jump out a window but Stephen is taking it all in stride.

And why shouldn’t he?  The critics universally praised his work, he and his wife just adopted a baby and he’s such a fantastic actor, the phone is probably already ringing in his agents office.

I got a chance to talk to him while he was sitting in his car about to take a well deserved break.

Congratulations on your nomination.

Thank you so much.

How did you find out about it?

I was watching, because I knew it was important to find out about the longevity of our show – Enron. With how expensive the show was, if it didn’t get nominated, I knew it would probably be a rough road for us. I was curious and watching for a couple of minutes. Then, they let it go and I watched it online. I sort of saw it all happening in rapid succession. They did the 5 big categories first on TV and then they ended it. So I thought that I had missed my category. I was like, “Damn, I can’t believe it!” But then they actually went back to it.

What’s that feeling like, to be one of the top five actors nominated?

It’s crazy. I don’t know that it’s sunk in yet. I was just talking to my wife about it. It’s such an incredible honor and its a thing that you always dream about as an actor, I think. Especially as a New York theatre actor who grew up on the Tony’s and grew up coming to see Broadway shows. I went to Julliard in the city, which is an institution for theatre.

I remember my first Broadway show, right before I went on, saying “Wow, as soon as the first word comes out of my mouth, I’m going to have done a Broadway show.” It was an incredible, huge threshold to walk across. It hasn’t even really sunk in yet to be considered a part of the community in a performance that was noteworthy in this season of incredible actors and performances. It’s kind of mind-boggling. It’s thrilling. It’s such a huge honor. I know these are all the things that everyone always says, but it’s so true. You actually really do feel awed by the attention and awed by people actually caring. There’s nothing that I just said that’s new or exciting, but it’s totally true. It puts all of that work into perspective for a moment. It’s a milestone in your career that you can look back and you can say, ‘Oh, my God, I actually put together a little body of work.’ It’s quite cool.

Is it true that now you can get better seats in a restaurant?

I don’t know. If I won the award, I could walk in with the statue and I still think I would lose instantly to anyone who’s been on a TV show or in a film. Maybe at Angus McIndoe across the street they might say “Hey!” but I think other than that, that’s the beauty of the theatre that unless you saw it, you don’t really know it.

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2010 Tony Nominations

 

BEST PLAY:

In the Next Room by Sarah Ruhl

Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts

Red by John Logan

Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies

BEST MUSICAL:

American Idiot

Fela!

Memphis

Million Dollar Quartet

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Broadway star Montego Glover on ‘Memphis’, advice and her journey to success

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I think Montego Glover, the star of the hit Broadway show Memphis, can do anything.

Not only is she currently starring on Broadway, but she also displays her talent in video games, commercials, television and voice overs. Ok, a lot of people do that. But do they do it successfully?

Exactly! Seriously, she can do anything.

Currently, she is spending her evenings playing Felecia Farrell, a struggling singer in 1950’s Memphis. She sings, she dances and will break your heart by the end of the show.

I saw Montego when the show was at the La Jolla Playhouse and she was incredible. Once she’s on stage, you can’t take your eyes off of her. She absolutely takes over the stage.

If you get a chance, listen to the audio portion of the interview. You’ll get a chance to hear more questions and listen to her talk.  She has an absolute perfect voice. I could listen to her talk all day.  Listen for a minute, you’ll know what I’m talking about!

I love the actual back story of the show, you and Chad [Kimball] have been with the show for 6 years now I think?
That’s correct.

When you first read the story and heard the music, did you have a feeling about this show?  Obviously there’s no guarantee you’ll end up where you are now.  Did you just have some sort of gut feeling about it?
I did.  I will say my gut feeling however was that this piece was immediately identifiable to me and inclusive of me and that it was special.  I had never read a script like this for Broadway.  And because the concept was new for Broadway and had never been done before and the characters and the location and the ideas were new, it made it all the more interesting.  I responded to it as an artist right away because it was just new and really interesting.  What a great angle from which to tell a story.  And a new story at that.

You guys have such great chemistry, too, you and Chad.  Was that something that happened over time or was it pretty quick?
(She laughs)  I appreciate that, thank you.  It’s helpful every night.  That’s a good thing.

Funny story, actually, we were about to do the first production of Memphis.  First developmental production, and I had been called in to read with some of the guys who were coming in for the roll of Huey Calhoun.  And I remember sitting in the hallway and the casting director came out and said, “Montego this is Chad Kimball.  You guys are going to read together.  Here’s the scene.”  Now, I had not formally met Chad, but we had many, many friends in common and I had seen his work, and he introduced himself, I introduced myself.  We went down the hallway, we read the scene, and it happened to be a scene that involved kissing.  And we read, and we kissed, and it was pretty great.  And we pulled away, and I looked at him, and I said, “Hey.”  And he said, “Hey.”  And I thought, this is the guy.  This is the guy.  And it turns out he was the guy, so we went back into the room (laughs), it went beautifully.  He was charming and it was lovely.  And I just remember the both of us standing there at the end of the read, holding hands and just laughing.  Just laughing.  And we’ve been together ever since (laughing).

What was the opening night of the show like?
Literally a dream come true.  Literally.  How many times as an actor do you read something and go, wow, wouldn’t it be great, this is so special, I respond to this.  Wouldn’t it be great if it could be done well and right with the right amount of time to develop and we could really do it well and do it right, and then there we were, on October the 19^th doing it.  Opening.  It felt like flying.  It felt like – rapturous applause, it felt like chaos.  It felt like the right kind of chaos, you know, just magnetic, kinetic, combustible excitement.  It was just thrilling, absolutely thrilling.  A dream come true.

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Jeff Daniels on the Tonys and acting on stage vs. film

Jeff Daniels was nominated for Leading Acting in a Play (God of Carnage) in last nights Tony Awards.

Although he didn’t win (that went to Geoffrey Rush), I’m sure it was still an honor just to be nominated. Right? Hello?

From freep.com:
Q: Were you nervous last night?
A: The nervousness and stress was leading up to the nomination. The stress of opening night and the critics and when is the New York Times there. That was a lot more stressful than now. Now you just feel great because you’ve been invited to the big dance.

Q: “God of Carnage” is full of actors recognized most for their work in other mediums. As an ensemble, how do you approach the stage?

A: You’ve got four actors up there who are of film. We all know how to do it onstage, whether it’s projection, the vocal work and all that stuff. There is stagecraft in a Broadway house, but we’re film actors. That means we talk to each other and listen to each other.

There is very little presentational acting going on, and I think Broadway has a weakness for that, where during the big speech, the person turns and delivers it to the balcony, and everyone else listens to the back of their head. We’ve been directed away from that, so it drags the audience onstage.