HANGMEN Cast Celebrates Opening Night on Broadway
May 17, 2024
Martin McDonagh's Olivier Award-winning and New York Drama Critics' Circle Award-winning comedy Hangmen opened just last night at Broadway's Golden Theatre (252 West 45th Street).
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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Martin McDonough's critically acclaimed Olivier Award-winning best play, Hang Men, has just opened on Broadway at the Golden Theater
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Under the direction of Matthew Dunster, it features a stellar cast, and I caught up with two of them, Gabby French and Andy Neiman
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right before their opening night. Well, first of all, you were about to make your Broadway debut
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How excited are you, Gabby? I'm very excited, but she is. It's a dream come true, really
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those things where you can only imagine it when you were younger. And I came on holiday year when I was about 19
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And I remember walking around Broadway and thinking, and I was in drama school at the time, just thinking
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imagine being an actor in one of these, one of these such
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you know, a theatre with such history and a community with such history
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I just walk around thinking, God, imagine that. And then a few years later, I'm here
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And it feels like a dreamer. it really does. I feel very lucky
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How magical is today, and like how excited are you to finally be here on Broadway
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opening night with Hang Men? Oh, I mean, it's an absolute dream come true, Rich
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I've been an actor 36 years. I've been on the West End many times
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I've done many things, but being on Broadway has always been a dream
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Not only is it incredible to be, to actually be, here making my Broadway debut as an actor, but also to be doing it in a Martin McDonough play
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that is this extraordinary. I mean, I feel so, so blessed. It's really very special
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Okay. What is it like living in the world of Martin McDonough
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Oh, living in the world of that play, of a McDonough play, is just extraordinary. His writing
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goes from being hysterically funny, I mean, hysterically funny, to knife-edge terrifying in a split second
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The twists and turns in the play hearing an audience genuinely gasp gasp and then roar with laughter and then go pin drop silent
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I mean, it's a really, his writing is absolutely remarkable. So it's just, it's thrilling is honestly the word, to be doing it and to just know
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you're giving that to an audience every night is very special. Well, Martin's such a brilliant writer, Whitney, and he gives you that gift of just the turns, the darkness, the comedy
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It's all within the writing. So for us as actors, I feel like I don't really need to do much because it's all there, because he's just written
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So he writes so perfectly, and he's written this play so brilliantly that it's all there
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You know, I think a very important thing for us is that we don't play the comedy. that you don't play what you think you want the audience to feel
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or what you feel. Just say the words that, and it's kind of taking care of because he's obviously so brilliant
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And to be in one of his plays is magic, really, for an actor
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Okay, the role of Sid. You are hilarious in this. How much fun are you having playing Sid
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Well, it's just a delight. It's a delight. I did it in the West End six years ago
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now extraordinarily. And so when the opportunity is kept coming and then COVID and then not being
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available and now here we are eventually doing it, playing Cid is just a joy. Because again
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you get to go from some absolutely out there comedy to, you know, I don't want to say too much
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because I want people to experience the unfolding of the players they see it
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but some truly wonderful, dramatic stuff. So it's a real A to Z of a role playing Sid
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And opposite, amazing people as well. David Threlful, who's, you know, a legend at home
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And, of course, from playing Smike here 25 years ago, Nicholas Nickleby, Alfie Allen, who's also making his Broadway debut
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the two of us really the three of us are the sort of the triangle of what the play is about really And it just wonderful because they both new to the play
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For me, it's been a whole brand new experience, as well as re-investigating it
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to play opposite them and have them learn it anew. It's just made it so fresh, so exciting
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Now, let's talk about the role of Shirley. She's so beautifully written
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You play her so beautiful. beautifully. Like, what do you love the most about her? And you've grown with her over the years
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too. Absolutely. Yeah. And I've grown as a person since then as well, you know, in four years
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But I think that's just given me more, hopefully more experience that I've had in life since then to kind
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of add to that character. And I know she's only 15, but it's a totally different world that we're in now
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to the 1960s. So, I mean, I love her innocence. I think, I think, you know
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She's grown up in this pub where there's all commotion, there's constant noise
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It's so busy constantly. And actually her personality doesn't really match with that
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So, yeah, I love playing and just exploring that side to it
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And also the hormones that are flying around and you're 15 years old, you know, you have one
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characteristic where you go, oh, yes, she's shy, but also she's 15. So sometimes she will butt head with her parents
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and she will have different opinions. And yeah, it's been brilliant exploring that again
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and it's my third time doing it now. And I've just adored every single time doing it
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I really, really love doing this play and every minute in the rehearsal room
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and being able to share Shirley with a New York audience. What was that first performance
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that first preview performance here in New York with a live audience at the Golden Theatre
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Like, what do you remember about that night? I remember enormous cheers when the lights went down at the beginning
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And then I remember a lot of gasps quite quickly, followed by an enormous round of applause for something that happens within the first three or four minutes of the play that you can quite believe you seeing And then just the euphoria of playing that to an audience because we still
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very much, you're a little bit behind us in England in terms of where we are. The West End has
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been open a little bit longer. And it suddenly feels like in this three week, four week period we're in
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now, Broadway is literally like daffodils just sprouting up. You know, it's like it's all suddenly coming back to life
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And you feel that in the audience, you know. And so it just felt absolutely amazing and amazing
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As an actor, you know, you truly, you sacrifice a lot in your life
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a lot of sort of being able to do family events, being, you know, living away from your friend
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all of this stuff. So the rewards that you get is really important to kind of make the most of them
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And honestly, walking out on a Broadway stage to a packed Broadway house
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listening to American reactions, which are very, very different from British reactions
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is very special. So I will just cherish the memory of that opening night
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But as I will do every single performance, it just feels like such a blessing. It must be so great, like to walk through the theatre district
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walk by your theatre, the Golden, you see the marquee, you walk through that walkway, you go to your stage door
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you sign in, I mean, I have goosebumps just saying it to you now. Yeah, and honestly, that is exactly how I feel, Richie, every single day
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That feeling never goes, I don't think, just walking in, like you say, walking through stage door
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and just seeing the sign and it's like, it's a real pinch-to-moment when you walk into work
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kind of keep looking at it thinking, is this my job? Am I after the year doing this
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And I think it's important to keep that because I never want to get complacent where you're going
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oh, you know, I'm doing a play on Broadway. I'm going in every day, I'm going to play on Broadway
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I'm so lucky. And it's just amazing, the feeling, like you say, every day
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I do get goosebumps. It's just such a joy. Yeah
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