Matthew Broderick - Articles: 2005

Matthew Broderick: From Here To Infinity

November 11, 2005

Lane, Broderick, and Mantello Talk About Everything

By Simi Horwitz, Back Stage

During a freewheeling (and most entertaining) conversation at the 92nd Street Y last Sunday, Oct. 30, actors Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, along with director Joe Mantello, talked about, well, virtually everything.

The occasion was the season's hit revival of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, starring the two actors under Mantello's direction. The run was sold out before opening night, taking in roughly $7 million the day the box office opened and ultimately racking up $21 million in advance sales. Moderator Patrick Pacheco began by asking the trio why they felt the play was a classic: "When you think of classics, you usually think of musicals."

"You do," Lane quipped, generating the first of many laughs. "It's the longevity: It was a hit play, a movie, a TV show, with Oscar and Felix becoming part of the lexicon." He added that he first encountered The Odd Couple as a youngster subscribing to the Fireside Theatre Book Club and was immediately enchanted.

"It not only introduced me to Neil Simon, but also to Broadway comedy," Lane said. "It was what New York theatre was all about. The The Odd Couple is also a very touching play. It's about friendship and the pain of divorce."

Pacheco asked how the current production came into being and Lane admitted that it was almost serendipitous. He recalled running into Simon's longtime producer Emanuel Azenberg, who asked him what he'd be doing next, and "I said, half kiddingly, The Odd Couple. It stuck in his mind."

Pacheco asked Broderick if co-starring in this show was "a risky choice." The actor responded, "Only if people think I'm cashing in and that it's too similar to The Producers. But it's a wonderful play and I don't worry about how it will make me look."

The conversation turned to the artistic challenges of mounting a Neil Simon play. Pacheco asked Mantello if he approached the play with a "visual hook."

"No, it's always the writing, the poetry," the director said. "The Odd Couple has real poetry and rhythm. There's a musicality in the writing."

Lane agreed that the "musicality is undeniable," but that an actor has to approach a Neil Simon character in the same way he'd tackle any other: "It has to be natural. The musicality comes from two guys talking."

"No room for improvisation?" Pacheco asked.

Lane said there wasn't: "You change one word, you feel it."

The two actors, who have each appeared in other Simon plays, talked about their experiences with the playwright's works. Broderick remarked that while later Simon plays like Biloxi Blues and Brighton Beach Memoirs are more complex, all their themes are evident in The Odd Couple.

Mantello noted that Simon has "the skill of a true craftsman, but has kept his sense of a beginner's awe. He takes nothing for granted. He's delighted when things go well. He is a professional novice."

Lane admitted not knowing Simon very well, though he has enjoyed their collaboration: "And I love watching him rewrite. When I was in Laughter on the 23rd Floor, I ran into him in the theatre and he was busy writing on a legal pad-he always writes on a legal pad-and I asked him what he was writing. He said, 'I'm writing a new speech for you and we'll try it tonight.'"

Mantello said, "Neil is not precious about what he's written. If we had asked him to rewrite The Odd Couple, he would have done it." He added that a few small revisions had been made.

Mel vs. Neil

Pacheco asked Lane and Broderick to compare Simon and Mel Brooks. For both actors, Simon is the more reserved and taciturn of the two.

Lane said there is no human being more entertaining and smarter than Mel Brooks: "There's an intelligence and insanity." He pointed to the literary allusions in The Producers, including references to Kafka. "But Mel also likes borscht belt and burlesque. He does it all."

Pacheco asked about the tradition of Jewish humor in Simon's comedy: "How Jewish are these characters?"

"The language and rhythms are Jewish," said Broderick, adding that the relationship between the two characters probably has deep, ancient Jewish roots.

"When The Sunshine Boys was being made into a movie, the producers talked about casting Bing Crosby and Bob Hope," said Pacheco, "and Neil said, 'No way!' " Turning to Lane, he asked, "Nathan, are you an honorary Jew?"

"Yes, the best people are."

"For an Irish Catholic, it's sweet," the actor continued. "I'm glad I can pass. It's brought me a lot of work. I have a great affinity for Jewish humor. Mel, Neil, Larry Gelbart--they are the foundation of my sense of humor."

Pacheco pointed out that when The Odd Couple debuted, there was concern that the title might suggest a gay couple.

Lane looked stunned: "They're so not gay. I should know. I'm gay."

Pacheco asked if that issue was ever discussed, especially in light of Felix's fussy manner.

According to Lane, the fussiness and perhaps effeminacy associated with Felix have more to do with Tony Randall's TV performance than the character as written.

"And as far as I know, Randall was straight," Lane said. "He was having children at 80. He loved the opera; he loved to cook. So there is that notion of Felix being gay. But before Randall played the part, it was Art Carney and Jack Lemmon."

Broderick added, "The play's joke is that I'm treating my buddy as my wife. If these guys were gay, it wouldn't be funny."

Pacheco commented on the much-noted onstage chemistry between Lane and Broderick.

"They make each other laugh," said Mantello.

"That's not what he wants to hear," Lane admonished, lowering his voice. "The sex, the sex... Oh God, chemistry is elusive. People enjoy seeing us together. We have mutual respect and admiration." Berating himself, he likened the topic of personal chemistry to "talking about taxes."

The actors mentioned some other humorists they admired--Lily Tomlin is Broderick's favorite--while all agreed that The Honeymooners was a seminal comic work. Lane suggested that nearly all major themes in dramatic literature could be found in The Honeymooners.

Nonetheless, Gleason was not an easy person to work with, said Lane, describing Simon's short-lived and unhappy professional relationship with the comedian: "He said you had to slip the script under the door of Gleason's dressing room--unlike Sid Caesar, who worked right along with the writers."

But Lane admitted loving Gleason as a performer: "He was very funny and he could break your heart. There was great sadness there. That combination influenced me."

Image Is All

Pacheco asked about the impact of fame and one's image, remarking that Lane had a "sad clown" reputation.

Lane balked, saying he'd had a rough childhood but others have had it worse. He blamed New York Times writer Alex Witchel for perpetrating that unfortunate picture in a piece she wrote about him: "I told her not to say that I was the sad clown, but the article was weighed down with it and I've had to bear that burden ever since."

"We all have insecurities and a dark side," Lane continued. "But life is great. I get to do what I love. I'm not depressed."

Broderick explained, "The problem with articles is that they try to sum you up into a simple version. I'm not sure what I'm perceived as. I'm not one thing. I'm four things: fire, metal, salt, and air," he joked. "And if need be, I can make myself completely invisible."

Lane agreed that all too often, actors have to suffer incompetent reporters, noting a recent encounter with a writer from Time Magazine: "This man comes in. Talk about depressed. He looks halfhearted and says, 'I'm really the book guy. I did Joan Didion. I don't do show business. What has Joe Mantello done before? What are previews like?'" Lane shook his head. "I knew this would be big trouble. When the article came out, Matthew and I emerged as two B performers who've done nothing except The Producers. I came off as Zelda Fitzgerald. In the middle of the interview, the reporter says, 'The Odd Couple is about divorce? I just got divorced.'" Lane added in an aside, "His wife made a good choice."

Pacheco asked whether the large advance ticket sale interfered with the creative process.

"You're aware that some people are sharpening their knives," said Mantello. "But you do your work."

"The notion of selling all these tickets is a blessing and a curse," added Lane. "The pressure is on. What I don't like is the idea that we're bimbos saying, 'Let's get on the gravy train,' that it's a get-rich-quick scheme. I love the show. I thought people would want to see it. But this is held over my head like a cudgel."

"Do you read reviews?" Pacheco asked.

"Yes, of course," said Lane. "Look, reviewers are human. Some are good, others bad, others are mediocre. One day you're the cat's pajamas. The next you're not. It's cyclical."

"Ever read a helpful review?" Pacheco asked.

"No," answered Lane.

Broderick agreed, although "if you're on the road and every critic talks about one particular thing being wrong, we should think about it."

Mantello explained, "There are critics with whom you share a sensibility and those you take seriously. Others are jackasses."

Broderick said he'd like to see the relationship between critic and actor change: "Let's have the reviewers come backstage before opening and tell us what they want and we'll do it."

"What are you--the Stepford actor?" Lane quipped. "To me critics always seem like they've failed at something else. They think they're part of the process, but they're observers. They will never know what it's like to do what we do."

Death Is Easy...

The audience had a chance to jot down some questions, which were collected and read aloud by Pacheco. Among them: Would you perform your favorite scene from The Odd Couple? (The answer was no.) What is your dream gig? (Mantello said he'd love to direct Nathan Lane in Death of a Salesman.) How was the experience of shooting the new movie version of The Producers (which is slated for a December release) different from performing the show before a live audience?

"It's a faithful adaptation and it hasn't been changed that much," said Lane. "Still, it's an audience-driven show, and without the audience we had to go back to basics. The piece has the same demands whether you're doing it in front of a camera or an audience. The demand is that you suddenly can't do introspection. For me, it's an operatic piece. Zero [Mostel] didn't shy away from that. Matthew used to say that shooting the movie was like doing the play 25 times a day on a quiet Wednesday matinee."

The evening ended with Pacheco reeling off in rapid-fire succession a round of free-associative questions covering a range of topics, including what you most value in a friendship (loyalty and humor were admired assets) and how you would like to die.

Mantello said he'd like to die on a beach. Broderick said he wanted to "experience spontaneous combustion and afterwards notice that my shoes were not scorched."

Lane said he'd like to die like David Burns did in a pre-Broadway tryout performance of the Kander and Ebb musical 70 Girls 70: "I want to finish my big number, walk into the wings, and die."