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Video: Jessica Chastain & Company Celebrate Opening Night of A DOLL'S HOUSE
May 17, 2024
The best of Broadway gathered at the Hudson Theatre last night to celebrate the first opening of Spring- A Doll's House, starring Academy Award winner Jessica Chastain. BroadwayWorld was there for the big night and we are taking you behind the scenes in this video.
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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Academy Award winner Jessica Chastain has returned to Broadway in director Jamie Lloyd's
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new production of the classic A Doll's House with a new version by Amy Herzog
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And we caught up with a company on opening night. Welcome home to the theater. How does it feel
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Well, I'm so excited to be back. I'm a little nervous, but, you know, I've been mourning at the theater
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It's my first love. I could get emotional talking about it. I'm going to get emotional
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Okay. It's opening night, I mean... No, I know. I think, you know what
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Jamie Lloyd is a very special person, and he's the one who brought me back
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And we met six years ago. He asked me why I stopped doing theater because it really was my first love
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It's what I wanted to do. And I've been pulled in another direction
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and he's the one who brought me back. So I feel like this whole incredible experience
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is because of Jamie Lloyd. It is opening night. First of all, welcome home to Broadway. How does it feel
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It does feel like home. It does feel like I absolutely love it here. You know what? I'd love to live in New York
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I'd love to work on Broadway and in New York all the time. I just love it. I love the community
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I love the people. It's the most amazing community backstage, on stage, in the office
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You know, marketing press, everybody involved. You know, like it's this amazing kind of interconnected community
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with such kind of passion and joy that it is so infectious
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You know, like I'm really obsessed with this place. I'd love to come back and do more for sure. It's so exciting
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You know, we've had the luxury of a long preview. And so we are ready and excited and are very proud of this production I think it an amazing spectacle on stage And because the story remains so relevant in the world
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and to have Amy's beautiful adaptation and Jamie's incredible direction, it's a good one to be in and I'm thrilled to be here
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This is such a beautiful production. It's a gorgeous version that you have written of a doll's house
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What's made this so special for you? I mean, everything's starting with being asked to do it
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for Jamie and Jessica, both of whom I admire and love. I love this play
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I loved going deep in there with Ibsen, and the collaboration has been just joyful and warm and positive
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and I couldn't have asked for a better experience for my first time on Broadway. What's made this so special for you
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The company, it's six prodigiously talented artists. The director, Jamie Lloyd, and designers are just top-notch
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I've worked with brilliant people before. Very rarely do you get people
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whose level of brilliance matches their level of kindness and emotional availability
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and that's everyone in this production to a tee. It is opening night, my friend
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How do you feel? I feel good. I know it's opening night because when I'm in the line with you
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I feel like I'm on an opening night, so it makes it official. You were so terrific in this production of a doll's house
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What's made this so special for you? I think the reason I'm even in this place is because there's a revolution happening in Iran right now
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where women are leading that revolution led by the death of Mechahmini and to be able to do a play like a Dolls House that actually pinpoints what happening over there is just magical So I feel really honored to be able to tell a story like that right now
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Sharing the stage with this remarkable group of actors, what that means to me
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Well, I mean, again, that's Jamie Lloyd, because he has this way of creating an amazing ensemble in a company
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And that includes, that's beyond even just. the cast. It goes into the crew as well
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Everyone, and everyone's in the room from day one together. And I think you feel it
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When we're on stage, we all feel connected, even though, I mean, we don't necessarily have to be
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looking or speaking to someone, but we can feel their energy because he's connected us
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And that's been a very emotional and very moving thing to be a part of
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Sharing the stage with Jessica Chastain, what is that like for an actor
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An absolute honor. I have looked up to Jessica Chastay in my entire acting career
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I think she's one of the most prolific and astounding actresses of our time and will be in history
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So sometimes there aren't even enough words to share what it means like to share the stage with her
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It's an absolute gift and honor that I do not take for granted. She truly is an ensemble member and she really came in with that yes and attitude
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and really brought the energy of this is a group effort. And in her position, she did not have to do that
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And I'm really grateful that that was the case, you know, that we really are like a family truly
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And we really are in this together. And every idea I think every person that came up with thought about whoever on their left whoever on their right Every choice we all made we had the whole piece in mind As you know that doesn happen often
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So, no, but she's been a marvel, truly. She is such a pro. She's the
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hardest working person in the room, always. Like, she came in knowing every one of
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her lines. She would catch me in little errors about the script. Like, you know
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it says this here, is that a mistake? It says this here. She's just, um, she may be
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an incredibly glamorous movie star, but she's also kind of like a theater nerd who just is there
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to do the work. And it's, it's fun. It's fun to be with her. This is so special because you're
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bringing a whole new audience to the theater and introducing them to this art form what that means
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to you. Oh, it means so much to me to have a new, I mean, I meet people at the stage door every day
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who said, this is my first Broadway play. I'm like, what? And that's so exciting. And I also meet a lot
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of people who say, I've seen musicals, but I've never really actually seen a drama on Broadway
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And that's exciting, too, because I remember I was the kid. It was like recording the Tonys on my
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VHS. And like, I remember, you know, like, Ray Fine when he did Hamlet. And like, the fact that, like
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yes, we could look at these classic pieces and bring them back to Broadway is really exciting
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You're all introducing a whole new audience to the theater, what that means to you. By bringing in a whole new set of people to see a doll's house right now
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in a time and place where women are seeing their rights kind of get decimated everywhere it goes is unbelievable
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So I hope more and more people can see it. And I hope one day a doll's house isn't relevant
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That's what I really hope
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