HANGMEN Cast Celebrates Opening Night on Broadway

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Martin McDonough's critically acclaimed Olivier Award-winning best play, Hang Men, has just opened on Broadway at the Golden Theater

Under the direction of Matthew Dunster, it features a stellar cast, and I caught up with two of them, Gabby French and Andy Neiman

right before their opening night. Well, first of all, you were about to make your Broadway debut

How excited are you, Gabby? I'm very excited, but she is. It's a dream come true, really

those things where you can only imagine it when you were younger. And I came on holiday year when I was about 19

And I remember walking around Broadway and thinking, and I was in drama school at the time, just thinking

imagine being an actor in one of these, one of these such

you know, a theatre with such history and a community with such history

I just walk around thinking, God, imagine that. And then a few years later, I'm here

And it feels like a dreamer. it really does. I feel very lucky

How magical is today, and like how excited are you to finally be here on Broadway

opening night with Hang Men? Oh, I mean, it's an absolute dream come true, Rich

I've been an actor 36 years. I've been on the West End many times

I've done many things, but being on Broadway has always been a dream

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

that is this extraordinary. I mean, I feel so, so blessed. It's really very special

Okay. What is it like living in the world of Martin McDonough

Oh, living in the world of that play, of a McDonough play, is just extraordinary. His writing

goes from being hysterically funny, I mean, hysterically funny, to knife-edge terrifying in a split second

The twists and turns in the play hearing an audience genuinely gasp gasp and then roar with laughter and then go pin drop silent

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

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

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

So he writes so perfectly, and he's written this play so brilliantly that it's all there

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

or what you feel. Just say the words that, and it's kind of taking care of because he's obviously so brilliant

And to be in one of his plays is magic, really, for an actor

Okay, the role of Sid. You are hilarious in this. How much fun are you having playing Sid

Well, it's just a delight. It's a delight. I did it in the West End six years ago

now extraordinarily. And so when the opportunity is kept coming and then COVID and then not being

available and now here we are eventually doing it, playing Cid is just a joy. Because again

you get to go from some absolutely out there comedy to, you know, I don't want to say too much

because I want people to experience the unfolding of the players they see it

but some truly wonderful, dramatic stuff. So it's a real A to Z of a role playing Sid

And opposite, amazing people as well. David Threlful, who's, you know, a legend at home

And, of course, from playing Smike here 25 years ago, Nicholas Nickleby, Alfie Allen, who's also making his Broadway debut

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

For me, it's been a whole brand new experience, as well as re-investigating it

to play opposite them and have them learn it anew. It's just made it so fresh, so exciting

Now, let's talk about the role of Shirley. She's so beautifully written

You play her so beautiful. beautifully. Like, what do you love the most about her? And you've grown with her over the years

too. Absolutely. Yeah. And I've grown as a person since then as well, you know, in four years

But I think that's just given me more, hopefully more experience that I've had in life since then to kind

of add to that character. And I know she's only 15, but it's a totally different world that we're in now

to the 1960s. So, I mean, I love her innocence. I think, I think, you know

She's grown up in this pub where there's all commotion, there's constant noise

It's so busy constantly. And actually her personality doesn't really match with that

So, yeah, I love playing and just exploring that side to it

And also the hormones that are flying around and you're 15 years old, you know, you have one

characteristic where you go, oh, yes, she's shy, but also she's 15. So sometimes she will butt head with her parents

and she will have different opinions. And yeah, it's been brilliant exploring that again

and it's my third time doing it now. And I've just adored every single time doing it

I really, really love doing this play and every minute in the rehearsal room

and being able to share Shirley with a New York audience. What was that first performance

that first preview performance here in New York with a live audience at the Golden Theatre

Like, what do you remember about that night? I remember enormous cheers when the lights went down at the beginning

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

very much, you're a little bit behind us in England in terms of where we are. The West End has

been open a little bit longer. And it suddenly feels like in this three week, four week period we're in

now, Broadway is literally like daffodils just sprouting up. You know, it's like it's all suddenly coming back to life

And you feel that in the audience, you know. And so it just felt absolutely amazing and amazing

As an actor, you know, you truly, you sacrifice a lot in your life

a lot of sort of being able to do family events, being, you know, living away from your friend

all of this stuff. So the rewards that you get is really important to kind of make the most of them

And honestly, walking out on a Broadway stage to a packed Broadway house

listening to American reactions, which are very, very different from British reactions

is very special. So I will just cherish the memory of that opening night

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

walk by your theatre, the Golden, you see the marquee, you walk through that walkway, you go to your stage door

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

That feeling never goes, I don't think, just walking in, like you say, walking through stage door

and just seeing the sign and it's like, it's a real pinch-to-moment when you walk into work

kind of keep looking at it thinking, is this my job? Am I after the year doing this

And I think it's important to keep that because I never want to get complacent where you're going

oh, you know, I'm doing a play on Broadway. I'm going in every day, I'm going to play on Broadway

I'm so lucky. And it's just amazing, the feeling, like you say, every day

I do get goosebumps. It's just such a joy. Yeah