Video: Andrew Scott Is Bringing His Kind of Chekhov to New York

I think when people think of Chekhov, they think, oh, it's sad and it's people in period costume

And this is nothing like that. It's incredibly sexy. And he's such a funny satirist

And, you know, it's short. It starts at 7 o'clock. It's over at 8.50. It's just me. There's no one else to look at

So I have to apologize for that. Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Direct from a sold-out run in London, Andrew Scott, who is known from his breakout role in Fleabag, brings his one man's stunning Vanya to New York City

and I caught up with him here at the Lucille Ortel Theatre during a break in rehearsal

Welcome to New York. Welcome back to a theater. How do you feel? I feel fantastic

I'm so thrilled to be here. Really, I'm. It's been a long time. It's been a long time since I did a play here

So it's my first time down to West Village. So this is really, really, really exciting

I had friends, Steve is in London. They had the best time. Tell me how it all came about for you to do your Vanya

Well, we were sort of working out, we read a sort of more like straight version of the play

And just by a sort of happy accident, I ended up, the director and the writer and I sort of were playing all the parts

And it ended up that I had to play opposite myself because we misallocated the parts And we were like oh these characters are much more similar to each other than it seems And so it about the fact that we are all sort of a little bit more similar to each other than we may think So it a bit of a mad experiment but yeah it a really

rewarding one. It's so funny and so beautiful and I think it's still incredibly prescient, you know

And bringing a young audience to the theatre, I know you did that over there and you're going

to do it here to what that means to introducing a whole new audience and a young audience to the

theatre. Yeah, well, we're trying our best, you know, to try and get young people in as much as we can because I think when people think of Chekhov they think oh it's sad and

it's people in period costume and this is nothing like that it's incredibly sexy and he's such a funny

satirist and you know it's short it starts at seven o'clock it's over at 850 it's just me there's no one

else to look at um so I have to apologize for that but uh I think he's really beautiful and such a

humanist and um and I think we really need you know a voice like his and in these current days you know

He's got such incredible compassion. You realize he wrote this so long ago, but he could have written this yesterday

Absolutely, absolutely. It's just he just understands human fallibility and vulnerability and strength

And I adore him. I think he's one of the best ever

And that's why I think he can reinterpret his work in so many different ways