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THE LEADING MEN: Gaines and Gunn
By Tom Nondorf
01 May 2008
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Boyd Gaines
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben | Chats with Gypsy's Herbie, Boyd Gaines; and Camelot's Lancelot, Nathan Gunn.
Mad About the Boyd
Boyd Gaines is currently offering a masterful Herbie opposite Patti LuPone's Mama Rose in Gypsy, and he just received a Drama Desk Award nomination for his portrayal of Herbie, which builds from a quiet frustration to an emotional explosion toward the middle of the musical's second act. Gaines and awards are no strangers. He won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play last year for Journey's End, and collected Tonys in 2000, 1994 and 1989 for his work in Contact, She Loves Me and The Heidi Chronicles, respectively. Gaines, who grew up northeast of Atlanta, got his start onstage singing with his white-soul garage band, Soul Service (sorry, no recorded evidence). He attended Juilliard and later gained fame as Valerie Bertinelli's dentist-husband on "One Day at a Time" before becoming a fixture of the stage (and award ceremonies).
Question: Congratulations on your Drama Desk nomination. How is Gypsy going?
Boyd Gaines: It's going well. Everybody was sick, and we're finally getting over that. Laura [Benanti] actually had pneumonia.
Q: Oh no! That makes me curious: Gypsy follows the story of a familial showbiz troupe. Does that sort of togetherness rub off on the cast?
Gaines: Absolutely. It's true of most shows. Some casts, there is more of a feeling of family. We haven't been running that long, but the fact that we did it before [at City Center last year] gives us a feeling of closeness. It tends to happen more often in a show that is doing well and is good, quite frankly.
Q: I guess it's a romantic notion that stage families become like second families offstage.
Gaines: The intimacy of the relationships in the show does add to a sense of intimacy between people. If the characters are close, it lends a feeling of being close as well. Although I did Twelve Angry Men, and we yelled and screamed at each other, that group of guys couldn't have been any closer [offstage]. There seems to be a very close bond between Patti and Laura. I feel like the three of us are very close, although it's not like we socialize. Everybody's too tired! The feeling at work though is one of being very close. Sometimes the relationships are carried on. There is a paternal or avuncular feeling about all these kids in the cast. You wonder how they're doing, make sure that they're happy and well.
Q: If you're a decent person, you'd likely feel the same way if you were playing an abusive, terrible guy as well.
Gaines: That's absolutely true. I have a cross moment with Jimmy Bracchitta who plays Pastey, but I have known him for years, and I adore him.
Q: When you did the marvelous Encores! run last year, was it always in the air that the show would come to Broadway?
Gaines: There certainly was talk by the end, just because there was so much heat about Patti in the show. Everyone was hopeful. I personally don't like to count chickens, so really, when I went into it, I wasn't looking ahead in any way, but by the end of it, there was talk. Then everyone hoped it would happen.
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Boyd Gaines in Gypsy.
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| photo by Joan Marcus |
Q: What was the sequence of events?
Gaines: There was all kinds of talk. There was talk about London first. There was talk about it going quickly to Broadway. Laura wasn't available. She was on a TV show, and I had committed to Pygmalion long before. I secretly hoped they'd wait, which ended up happening.
Q: How did you first approach the character of Herbie?
Gaines: They first approached me about the possibility, I read it, and of course I greatly admired the piece, and I had done a one-night gala performance with Patti and Howard McGillin reprising their roles in Anything Goes at Lincoln Center. Anthony Heald wasn't available at the time. I think he was shooting "Boston Public," so they asked me to do Lord Evelyn, and I had such a hilarious time with Patti that I was immediately interested in working with her again, but I wasn't sure about Herbie. Frankly, I didn't think I'd be any good. So a meeting was arranged with me and Arthur Laurents, and he explained what he thought Herbie's journey was, and I felt like, "Okay, that's something I could do." The evening is so much about him falling in love with this woman and wanting to have a family and sticking with her, and the great fun is getting to play with Patti and Laura. They are both so playful and so good, it's really enjoyable.
Q: Herbie is such a patient, enduring character, very put-upon at times.
Gaines: Herbie's a character who doesn't get what he wants. But the final scene provides a kind of catharsis, and yes it's genuinely painful to go through. But still there is great pleasure to be had because it is very nicely written. Rose and he have a great relationship. I would love to be a fly on the wall for the offstage things. I think they have great sexual chemistry.
Q: Is working with Patti LuPone all one might imagine? Are there times you just stand offstage and marvel?
Gaines: That's true of every single one of us in the cast. We often gather in the wings just to watch "Rose's Turn" at the end. You should see those little kids with their jaws wide open. Hardly a show goes by where we don't marvel. She's a force of nature. She's so fearless [laughs], she's capable of taking your breath away.
Q: And bringing it at that same level every night—
Gaines: I mean, she was really sick a few weeks ago, and I had friends come to the show, and I said, "Patti's actually not feeling very well." And they go, "You're kidding! [laughs] How could anyone possibly do what she just did and be sick?" She doesn't leave anything in the dressing room.
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Laura Benanti, Patti LuPone and Boyd Gaines
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| photo by Joan Marcus |
Q: What gave you your start in acting?
Gaines: Well, I'm so old now, I can hardly remember. I played in rock bands in high school. I don't know anyone my age who didn't. The summer before my senior year in high school we moved from Atlanta to California. We moved all the time, so the peripatetic life of an actor I was prepared for. I hadn't had any drama classes when I lived in the South, so I took one and was cast in a couple plays and I thought, "I kind of like this." I didn't get into any drama schools, but I did get into a little rep company in Santa Maria, California, which is the town known recently because that's where the Michael Jackson trial was. But this was called the PCPA, the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, a bloated title for a small place, but it had two theatres, and I did more than 30 productions while I was there. I worked with Robin Williams there, Harry Groener, Daniel Davis, a lot of great people. They had a big rep in the summer.
Question: And then you were an overnight success!
Gaines: [Laughs.] Then it took me eight years of training to get out of Juilliard. My great luck was that I worked. I was able to start working immediately, then a steady slog after that.
Q: Including your stint on "One Day at a Time"?
Gaines: Yes, I did that really early. That was two- and-a-half seasons, and that was great. It was a very popular show. If you've been doing theatre, you quickly discover the difference between the amount of people who see theatre and the enormous amount who see television shows.
Q: NBC was having different sitcom cast reunions a few weeks ago, but no Mark the Dentist at the "One Day at a Time" gathering. Do you ever get invited to those?
Gaines: There was one where they were doing interviews in L.A., but I was in a show here, so I couldn't get out, and that's happened a couple of times, but I think I came onto the show so late that I don't think they cared [laughs].
Q: As a veteran winner of some prestigious awards, give us your awards philosophy.
Gaines: It all falls into the category of things beyond your control. You don't nominate yourself, and you certainly don't cause yourself to win. The only thing you can do is nod your head, say "thank you" and do your work. Other than that, they are a wonderful honor, and you much appreciate them. If you ask anyone, you'd rather be nominated, and you'd rather win, but most of the time, neither of those things is going to happen. If you live by them, you'll die by them, and I think the best thing to do is do your work as well as you are able to, and the rest takes care of itself.
[Gypsy is playing the St. James Theatre at 246 West 44th Street. Tickets, priced $42-$117, are available by calling (212) 239-6200 or by visiting www.telecharge.com.] Continued...
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