Video: Go Inside Opening Night of PATRIOTS on Broadway

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Direct from London's West End comes Peter Morgan's riveting play, Patriots, directed by Rupert Gould, and we're on the opening day carpet to celebrate with the company

When you first read this play, what made you say, yes, I have to do this? Peter Morgan. You don't say no to him

I think, you know, it was funny because a lot of my staff at the Amade Theater that I run

I thought, are they going to like this play? And we did a reading of it. And people just know nothing about this period of history

And I think everyone was like, people like going to plays where they learn about a world

they know nothing about. And the director's job often is to try and establish

a feel for that world, whatever the world of a play might be. And, you know, creating this mad 90s Russian

you know, hyper kind of kinetic world was exciting as a director

This is a brilliant piece of work you're all doing on stage here at the Barrymore

What's made this so special for you, Michael, with working on this play? Well, the collection of people involved with Peter Morgan's play and Rupert Gould guiding us

his assistant Sophie and Sonia Friedman, our producer extraordinaire, who brought this thing over

and has made it happen, found a theater and really championed the idea of creating this

with a core American company with four holdovers from the extraordinary production

that were done at the Almeida and on the West End. And the combination accentuates the international natures

of the play itself and hopefully people enjoy the roller coaster that it is of going on this journey with all these characters What are you enjoying the most about being back on stage again and being back on Broadway The immediate feeling of being in a room with other people

telling a story and having a common energy in the room, which is what I've missed, I think, the most

I mean, not only being surrounded by such wonderful artists, but to tell a story and to have to have to have to have a story

a story and to have the audience be as much a part of that story as it is for us that are up there telling it

There's nothing like live theater. There never has been. There never will be. And it's

something special to this art form. And for those people who've never seen a play before

please come check this out and feel the energy of what's going on here

What's made this so special for you with working on Patriots? Well, it's been a long, it's been a long journey. It's been sort of two years

now and it's wonderful to work on such a sort of sweeping and ambitious and exciting show and

it's been an incredibly sort of happy experience although it's dealing with a lot of serious stuff

but it's a very it's always been a happy company we're a very happy company here it's lovely

working with Rupert and Peter and they create a very happy rehearsal room for me it's a

an amazing journey as a character. It's a very exciting arc to play

and it's very exciting to be in such a vivid dialogue with people's imaginations

because he's so present in everyone's minds. Talk about who you play and..

I should say what you admire about him, but just talk about when you play a man like who you play

Talk about who you play. Okay, so I'm playing Vladimir Putin, and like I say part of the excitement of that is that you are are people in their imaginations with someone who already there So the conversation halfway through

But it's a great challenge. It's a wonderful challenge to try and make three dimensions out of someone who can become quite

two-dimensional in one's head. I mean, he's like an archetype. And yeah, it's just great to be able to plot his journey from small beginnings

Very exciting. The team from London is here. Half the team is London, have the director

producers. And it's exciting to be on Broadway. I'm a New Yorker. I've done a lot of

off-Broadway things, but to be here back after many, many years where I did the play

with Annette Benning at Coastal Disturbances, the Circle in the Square, it's great to be back

What's made this so special for you with working on this play

The subject matter, the theme of the play, the fact that it's very contemporary, the

Every day you wake up and you have another reason to do the play. It's about loyalty, democracy, friendship, power

It's about debate. It's about listening and hearing these amazing dialogue by Peter Morgan

which brings home a lot of issues that we are dealing with in this country now

It's not just a piece of history, but Russia at them. It's also very contemporary for an American audience

And I think we've had some great reaction from the people here going like, wow, I didn't know anything about this

They're learning about the evolution. of Putin? I think the thing that's been the most extraordinary personally is just to work with

fantastic artists who are also like really beautiful humans who have great values and principles

Like getting to watch Michael in a rehearsal room getting to hear a clear note that has such like wit and humor from Rupert or from Sophie the associate director getting to really play in the playground the design of the set and everything that gone

into it, you know, working with music that Adams written, like, just working with the other

artists on this, that's been what's the best. And then, and then, you know, coming into this space

I mean, I don't know, this is kind of a name drop, but like my dad did Hurley Burley in the Barrymore

So when I was a year old, I used to come here and hang out with him backstage

So it's kind of, yeah, it feels really homey to be here

and to get to be on a Broadway stage that's also intimate

And, you know, hear audience reactions and get a phone call from a friend a week later

and be like, I'm still thinking about these ideas. And I've just read this book and this article

And, yeah, it's been a real privilege and an honor. From a personal point of view, I was in the original production at the Almeida

and obviously coming on that journey, first of all, to get into the West End

and there'll be a West End transfer, and then to be invited out here

and I'm one of only four of the original cast that made it out here, which makes it even more special from a personal point of view

But to see the show grow each iteration, each time, and we went from a very small, the Almeida, it's a wonderful theatre

world-class theatre, but it's very small, to see that then transfer into the West End

and the show grow in scale and obviously alterations that Peter was able to make

having seen it done at the Almeida so it changed both in terms of script

and important performances but also in size it felt like it was a West End show

now this feels like a Broadway show which is even bigger you know so

yes and to witness that growth has been incredibly exciting for me as a

as an actor, so yeah