Interview: Brian d'Arcy James
Brian d'Arcy James is working double-time. Not only is he in one of Broadway's biggest musicals-the stage adaptation of Sweet Smell of Success, in which he stars as press flack Sidney Falco-he's also playing proud father to 4-month-old daughter Gracie when he settles in at home at night. No wonder the charismatic actor sounds a bit tired when he calls the Broadway.com office early one morning just days before opening night. James' schedule will ease up post-opening, after the critics leave and rehearsals cease, allowing Sweet Smell to settle into an eight-show-a-week run at the Martin Beck. But his career is doing anything but slowing down. As Falco, James is giving a standout performance in Sweet Smell, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who saw the musicals The Wild Party Manhattan Theater Club and Titanic, both of which were greatly buoyed by his considerable talents. He's also appeared on Broadway in Carousel, Blood Brothers and Les Miserables and off-Broadway in Ancestral Voices, Floyd Collins and Conor McPherson's The Good Thief, which earned him a 2001 Obie Award.
You've been attached to Sweet Smell for quite some time. How does it feel to finally be gearing up for opening?
It feels great. It has been a while, I guess, but it's very exciting.
The show has undergone changes since Chicago.
The main things are the beginning and the ending. We worked on those to give a bit more clarification to the characters. The ending is completely different now-it feels great. The biggest difference between Chicago and New York is the theater we're in. The Martin Beck seems like a living room compared to the barn that they call the Shubert in Chicago. Don't get me wrong-it was a great theater, but it really makes a difference. There's more intimacy at the Beck-it gives us an immediate sense of the audience's participation, which is such a crucial element.
What was it like to go back into rehearsals after Chicago?
It was a thrill-those 10 days between the end of Chicago performances and the start of previews here were some of the most exciting rehearsals I've ever been in. It's rare that you get a chance to really experiment and explore something after you've already put it on its feet. We really dissected the characters; it was a revelation. By changing the tone of the characters, you find different ways of doing things. It was exciting to have a whole new look at it.
The journey of your character, Sidney Falco, is definitely what sort of carries audiences along the story.
Well, you definitely do want to see how this guy can operate in a world that is foreign to him. And you see how much he needs and wants to be a part of it. Not only as a dreamer, but also just in a practical sense of wanting to have a job. You want to see what happens to him as he jumps into the shark pool.
Obviously you're no stranger to musicals undergoing change, considering the preview period of Titanic: The Musical.
I've never been out of town with a musical. There's something to be said about the opportunity to put something up outside of the critical eye of New York audiences. Titanic was different because we didn't have the luxury of time-every day was packed with tons of changes. Going out of town gives you a healthy way to see what kind of show is being created and to strengthen things.
Had you seen the film of Sweet Smell before landing the role?
I didn't know it before I auditioned, but since then I've definitely seen it a number of times. It's definitely a wonderful blueprint for not only the character but also the style of the time period and the pitch of the story. Sidney is definitely a complex musical character. It's a real challenge to ride the line between the innocence of wanting to succeed and now really knowing where your aspirations will lead you and being corrupted by those aspirations. That to me is a really interesting combination.
Do you think of Sidney as an innocent?
Well, in the stage version you get a better sense of him before he becomes J.J.'s protégé, which is great. He's not completely innocent. He's unaware of what it's like to have the power that he ultimately wields. That's what gets him into trouble.
Being an actor in New York, you probably know people that share Sidney's hunger.
Sure, it's safe to say that. An actor needs to have that kind of stick-to-itness. Obviously, in the story, the ambition burns much more brightly and kind of out of control. But it's something that we can all relate to-the desire to get to the next step and to keep things moving along, especially in one's career.
How about the speech patterns of the characters? It seems like it might be hard to shake off. Do you find that seeping into your offstage life?
He laughs. Not necessarily, but it is a beautiful aspect of the show. It's so unique and such a foreign language-and these characters speak like that without hesitation. That obviously has a lot to do with the work of John Guare, and Ernest Lehman, who wrote the original screenplay. There's a whole world of language that has been really delicious to explore. It's yet another element to the story that makes it fascinating and otherworldly.
Did you do much research on the time period in New York?
Yes. The Café Society is a world unto itself. I did some research on that, mostly just by reading biographies of Walter Winchell or reading books like The Stork Club. I really got a clear idea of what life was like in the circuit and how business intersected with that world. By business, I mean the business of a press agent and the movers and shakers that formed the culture of celebrity. That was all happening in those places. Stars were being made, deals were being brokered.When you look back on it, it's easy to take a romantic view of it-the cigarette smoke, the jazz bands playing. But if you really scratch the surface, you can see what was really going on.
How's your co-star John Lithgow? You said early on that you were excited to get to work with him.
What's really great about John is that obviously his reputation precedes him, but he's all about the work. He's not about displaying the mantle of the actor that he is. He's a wonderful man, and he's been extremely generous in his spirit and comradeship throughout the rehearsal and out-of-town process. We're all in this together and there's no one more aware of that than John. He's been great at fostering a communal effort.
How does it feel to have your face plastered all over the city, on the Sweet Smell posters?
It's a little weird. Most weird is the big Times Square billboard. I was walking by it the other day with a friend and I just wanted to get out of Times Square before I could see it. I didn't want to have to say, "Yeah, that's me." Something about it is just strange when I'm with a friend. It's like, "Hey, do you want to see an 18-foot version of my head?"
You won great acclaim last season performing off-Broadway in the one-man-show The Good Thief. What did you learn from that experience?
It was probably the most important thing that I've ever done in terms of challenging myself by tackling something that I was terrified of. The thing that was great is that I truly had no concern about that production, in terms of what it could bring me career-wise. It was purely just a chance to do a play that I was in love with. So I learned that sometimes when you're doing something for the right reasons, good things happen. It was a big surprise that it became bigger than it was. It was supposed to just be three weekends of four shows a week. So, to have it become a commercial run at 45 Bleecker and then to play in Ireland for a week.It had this amazing life.
How did you land your first Broadway gig, in the ensemble of Blood Brothers?
My friend Sam Samuelson, who's an actor, called me from Toronto and said, "Brian, there's this part-you just have to do it." I had heard of the show because my sister had seen it in London. Anyway, Philip Lehl was leaving the show to do The Kentucky Cycle and they needed a replacement so my buddy Sam was looking out for me and said, "Here's you chance-you gotta get in." Anyway, I went down to [casting director] Pat McCorkle's office, dropped off my picture and got an audition. Talk about a Sidney moment-my headshot was under the door before the office even opened!
