Kristine Nielsen on Getting Bloody on Broadway and Touching Ben Walker’s Butt
About the author:
Kristine Nielsen always gets her laugh. As an actress, she has a unparalleled comedy pedigree, having originated many roles for playwright Christopher Durang, played the original Crazy Mary in A.R. Gurney’s play of the same name, and the original Bootsy in Charles Busch’s Die Mommie Die. And with credits like The Iceman Cometh and A Streetcar Named Desire, Nielsen has proven she's just as comfortable with high drama. Now she is lending her impressive chops to a Broadway musical as the wheelchair-bound Storyteller (and number one Andrew Jackson fan!) in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Nielsen, who joined the show after its successful off-Broadway run at the Public Theater, took a moment to let Broadway.com inside the mind of this obsessive, Jackson-groping narrator, and tell us why this rockin' musical is so important for America.
I first came across Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson during its workshop at the Public Theater. I was there doing Christopher Durang’s play Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them, and we were all sharing a dressing room. They were this sweet bunch of young actors, saying, “Oh, you don’t have to come, it’s just a workshop.” But of course I went, and of course it was wonderful. The energy and the explosion of it, even just as a workshop, made me think, “Wow. This is going to be something special.”
I wasn't approached about being in the show until right before the Broadway run. [Writer/director] Alex Timbers wanted to put an older person in as the Storyteller to help separate her from the rest of the people stage. That way the youthful exuberance would be there in the story of this rock star Andrew Jackson, and then there would be this manic, crazy woman on the other side who was jealous and wanted so badly to be a part of it. I was happy to be included, knowing I was the "alter kocker."
I like to think that casting me as the Storyteller helps bridge a bit of a generational span in the audience. There are people who will like to see the old librarian on stage so they know it’s not just going to be loud rock music. They see me, a woman with earplugs in a wheelchair who is trying so hard to be cool, and they feel a little safer.
Alex has been really generous about letting me add my own little bits to the show. He let me have my own nutball contribution, with the wheelchair that moves all around during the fight scene. Also, I had to touch [title star] Ben Walker’s butt. Number one, it’s on the poster; number two, it looks so great all the time. It needs those crazy little touches. Everybody wants to smack that butt, but the Storyteller is Jackson’s uberfan, and somebody has to do it!
The creative team was still tinkering with the writing even when we started rehearsals for Broadway. They cut so much about the Trail of Tears, things like that, looking for the best way to express Jackson. They were very conscious of trying not to offend, and yet also offend. Bloody Bloody is a hard kind of theater, because you don’t want to trap yourself in a politically correct world where you can’t say or do anything without repercussions. At the same time, you want to recognize that everyone was pretty culpable in Jackson’s time. It was an awful world they faced to survive. Through exploring Jackson’s life, this show is an interesting way of saying we were selfish and we’re American and look how we got here.
That kind of exploration can be unsettling for an audience. I hope it’s kind of shocking in the sense that I hope it's making people go research Jackson, and making them curious about the American past. Bloody Bloody is not a history lesson, really, it’s an identity lesson. You see why we’re in this mess we’re in, in our country. We’re crazy people. We’re selfish and egocentric. The American character is very complex and at times very greedy. We want everything, and we move on so quickly to the next thing.
I grew up in Washington; my mom worked for President Carter. When I saw Bloody Bloody I thought, “I’ve seen all this before.” I love being in something political and relevant. I have a great passion for theater, and in the last few years I’ve felt a sinking feeling, wondering what is relevant about my job. How can I change the world? What can I do that is exciting? It’s hard right now because producers can be commercially fearful, so they want material that has already been a success. It’s a world that makes you wonder why would people go to the theater? It’s not a mirror to our lives right now, and something like Bloody Bloody is. Its not going to be everybody’s cup of tea because it's such a reflection of what’s going on out there in the political world!
The greatest thrill of all is seeing so many young people at the theater. I have worked in theaters where the average age in the audience is 90. And I understand that—it’s the people who can commit and afford it—but it’s really great that young people are coming. They just have to be seduced into seeing something that makes them say, "Yeah, that’s how I feel."
