Video: Steve Carell & Company Celebrate Opening Night of UNCLE VANYA

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Steve Carell is making his Broadway debut opposite a stellar cast in Heidi Shrek's new version

of the Chekhov classic Uncle Vanya. And we're here on opening night at Lincoln Center

to celebrate with the company. What's made this so special for you, Steve

with working on this? There are so many aspects of it that were special

Working with Heidi and Lila, working with this cast, which was an incredible, not just a talented group

of people, but one of the nicest groups of people I've ever worked with a true ensemble

And Lincoln Center has been so kind, and I love this theater. It's beautiful, and it's very

interesting to perform in a theater like this, which is almost in the round. It's a three-side

and I'd never performed on a stage like that, so that was extremely exciting. All of it, you know

all of it from beginning to end. It's very modern, it's very current. It's very current. but it pays tribute to the actual text

It's not, it doesn't run away from it. It doesn't make it colloquial. It feels current, but it also feels evergreen to me

It feels like something that's, that is relevant now 10, 20, 30 years ago, 30 years hence

So I think she did an excellent job. Finally, when you took your bow tonight on Broadway for your debut, what were you thinking

I was thinking about my kids because unbeknownst to me, they, my daughter

took a red eye to get here today My son flew out I didn know they were going to be here So I kind of been crying all afternoon because I was so happy that my whole family was here So that meant an awful lot to me

I feel very excited that we're open and also sad because it means Heidi and Lila are

wonderful writer and director will be not there every day to give us thoughts and whatever kind of

brilliant ideas they have. But I feel very grateful for this wonderful cast

of just a group of such astoundingly nice and talented humans. So I'm looking forward

to the rest of the run. And sharing the stage nightly telling this incredible story, what that means

to you here at the Beaumont. It's a challenge every time. It's a

mountain that we're climbing every night. But the work is so interesting and there's

so much to discover we're never going to be done working on the play and I

that's great I'm looking forward to how this thing develops over the course of the next

couple of months as we do it. Playing with this incredible cast what has meant to you? Oh it's just

been fun I mean it's a lot of fun you're working with people who are really know what they're doing

you know so you feel safe you feel you can play and you know just you can have fun with it

you know there's not there isn't this sense of being nervous about oh can I try this can I try

that, you know, you're working with the consumer professionals, wonderful actors, and also very inventive actors

So what it been like being back in the room again working back in the theater again what that meant to and what it been like I love it because it always feels like coming home You know this is where I started These are my roots and this is the thing that I know inside and out

So it's really, really wonderful to come back and know that it is always here

and that it's always going to be new each time as well, you know. So I always feel like it's the thing that makes growth

It is the fertilizer that makes growth. So the next thing that I do will be better from me

because of what I've been able to do here. It's magical. It's hard to describe, really

I mean, I haven't done anything around Uncle Vanya since I was a student in acting school

and playing Sonia in class. And I was a very sad sonia

I felt very sorry for myself. So it doesn't have anything to do with that

Everything about this production is, I think the audience has the experience

of always being aware of how funny and sad at the same time, how seriously we take ourselves

And that's the essence of Chekhov that we want to do is both laugh and cry at how ridiculous we are

What's made this so special for you with working on this new Vanya? Aside from the fact that it's my Broadway debut, it's pretty special

And the whole creative team, I mean, everyone from Heidi's, translation interpretation of it, the contemporization of it, the

contemporization of it the everyone on stage each time on stage whoever I on stage with they just kind of electrically talented and the nicest people Everybody so nice

It's this theater. It's Chekhov. It's this glorious play in a new take, new translation that Heidi did

And as it happens, it's a part I played when I was this young man's age in college

And I haven't played it since then. And it's very interesting to return because I knew nothing then

He knows a lot. And for you, what's made this so special for you

Well, not only is this cast insane, this show is insane, but I've never done Chekhov

and I've also never played an instrument on stage. And so this has been really interesting

and I'm improvving some things on the violin too. So, yeah, it keeps it fresh every night

I've never done it before. What's made this so special for you with working on this

First of all, Lila, who's my dear friend. I've known her since she was like a little 21-year-old Sprite

little sprite of a genius. I met her at Actors Theatre of Louisville. She's been one of my

dearest friends all this time, and it's just been miraculous to see her grow into such a brilliant

artist. And so when she asked me to do this translation, there was no way in hell I was going to say no

Your first production at the beautiful Beaumont, what does it mean to you? I feel like I'm a poster child for like the Lincoln Center pipeline. I first directed up in

the Black Box at LT3. I directed a couple of shows there, and then I directed in the Mitzie, and here I

in the Beaumont and I it's just um it's a it's a totally unique New York space and a magical one

and I'm just really delighted to be here with such a special play