Meet the Company of AMERICAN SON

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

One of the season's most eagerly awaited events is Christopher Demos Brown's New Play American Son

Directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon. It welcomes back to Broadway, Kerry Washington, Stephen Pascual, Jeremy Jordan, and Eugene Lee

And I caught up with all of them during a break in rehearsal. You're about to return to Broadway in this stunning new play

How excited are you? I am thrilled. I am like, I feel like I need to pinch myself every morning

I'm doing a play that I love with a director I'm obsessed with and a cast that inspires me daily

It doesn't get better than this. So without giving too much away, what can you tell us about the play

So, oh, God, this play is so special. It's so special because I feel like you have these four people on stage telling their truth to each other in a way that we don't normally see

It's very, the play is about a newly estranged couple who find themselves in the lobby of a police priest

Saint searching for their 18-year-old son who has just had an incident with the police

And I'm the mom and Stevens the dad. And it goes from there

And it is 90 minutes, real time, very exciting, very intense, really special

When you first read the play, what went through your mind and what made you say, yes, I have

to do this play? Yeah, it was like one of those things. I was going to bed

It was like after midnight. And I'm like, I was like, oh, I set my agent

had sent it to me and I was like I just look at the character synopsis And then two hours later I like ah what And I like rolled over I woke my wife up I was like I going to do this play She like great okay good night And it was just it was that impactful on me Like I had I guess I hadn realized that I was looking for something this sort of important

And as soon as it sort of fell into my lap, I realized that I had been sort of needing to be a part of something that was going to at least try to help push, you know

the envelope, push humanity forward and really be an impactful big moment for the theater and

you know, for America. Working with Kenny Leon, I know it's your first week, but you're already up on your feet

What's it like working with him in the rehearsal? He's great. He runs a really great, soulful, heart-filled room

And, you know, with a play like this, you know, the subject is delicate

And so for it to be approached with an open heart and with love and an open mind

mind is really the way inside of it. And Kenny's doing such a great job so far with this

with this group in this room. I think Christopher in the room, it must be really exciting when you're

working on a new play, when you have the playwright there with you. Yeah, I mean, this is Broadway

debut. Christopher's a relatively new playwright. And so to see the level of excitement happening

inside of him is really, really fun. He's, um, he's a very bright writer. And I think he's got an

incredibly great future. You know, he wrote this play in his downtime when he wasn't practicing law

time. So I want this play to do so well that he can retire his law practice and write plays from now on

This play is the truth and there's no other way to say it. There's a lot of myth and there's a lot of

lies floating around in the world today And it important I think today that we get some truth And that what Christopher has done with this play I believe what we do can heal if you know what I mean

And I think that's what's important about doing this play. I mean, these are some seasoned veterans. They've been doing this stuff as long as I have, almost

and it's just great to be with them. And they're so giving. That's what's also wonderful. You know, real artists, they share

And the give and take has been wonderful around the table. Let's talk about the importance of this play and what it means for the time

right now. It's an American play about an American issue. And I think that's what's important

about it. And I'll say it again, I think what's most important about it is that it looks at it

honestly from, it walks 360 degrees around it and says, look at this. Because people don't change

until they get new information. And that's what this brings. What's the first week been like

here in the rehearsal room? What was that first table read like? Well, the first table read

it was like, you know, sort of tentative. But because everybody was like, okay, where are we going? What is

this mean, and then you have a live writer sitting at the table with you. And so we had like

about two and a half, three days of that. I don't like, you know, that's my max, um, because, uh

anyone can talk a good game. So I've been with actors who can talk, but I'm interested in

actors who can do. And, uh, this play provides an opportunity for actors to explore humor, to

explore drama, to, to, to look at passion, uh, the deepness of love. Um, um, and, um

And then, you know, a couple days ago we got on our feet. And so I blocked probably the first quarter of the play

And I told them as soon as we get on our feet the deeper we can go and the more of a gift that we can give to this audience And I looking really forward to October 6th because I think when the audience meets us halfway with this

it's going to be a perfect night of 90 minutes in the theater. I think audiences will enjoy the simple dramatic through line of the play

but I'm looking forward to hearing how people react to it as the play sinks in

And I'm really looking forward to the process of the actor kind of starting to make the play their own because I think once they do they're really

they're really going to deliver a punch. This is a play about humanity which we really need in our country nowadays don't you think

Well I agree that we we need that and I hope the play does something to kind of

you know put some balm on that wound but I we live in tough times and I hope people

understand that the play is meant to be a play a cautionary

but at the same time play about hope. You know, many people will be coming to the theater

for the very first time because they know you from film and television, and it's going to change their life

I remember the first time I came to see a star on stage, and I was like, this is how theater is done

What does that mean to you? It's so special to me because I think theater

I mean, theater is where I fell in love with acting. It is my first love when it comes to the arts

And I think there's something so sacred about theater because you're in the room with other human beings

You're not isolated at home watching your screens. You're really sharing a communal experience

with a bunch of strangers in the dark going on a journey together

And there's something so exciting and important about that