BWW Exclusive: Diary of an Englishman in New York- Selfishly Taking Our Clothes Off For The Greater Good

Academy Award winner Helen Mirren returns to Broadway as Elizabeth II in Peter Morgan's The Audience, which just opened at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. Playing one of Her Majesty's twelve Prime Ministers is Rufus Wright, who takes his audience with the Queen nightly as the UK's current PM, David Cameron.

Follow along as Wright takes us behind the scenes of The Audience's Broadway journey with 'Diary of an Englishman in New York'. Be sure to check back later this week for his latest installment!

Follow Rufus on Twitter (@rufusgwright) for even more updates!

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22 April 2015
Selfishly Taking Our Clothes Off For The Greater Good.

For the last month The Audience company has been raising money for Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights AIDS. A terrific cause, helping AIDS sufferers and now reaching far beyond.

In the West End, charity appeals are infrequent and don't last longer than a week. At the Schoenfeld we were told we were only doing 28 consecutive shows. We were lucky- It's Only A Play next door did 48.

The best way to cope with the onset of charity fatigue in both cast and audience was of course to deal with it the same way we get every acting job: be ruthlessly competitive, show them your pearly white teeth, and consider removing your clothes.

3 of the 5 Brits in the cast did a week's worth of curtain speeches. Michael Elwyn, who plays 50s British PM Sir Anthony Eden, spoke about Eden's son Nicholas, who died of AIDS. I performed a homage to the movie The Prestige by magically transporting the actress playing the young Queen from one part of the auditorium to another. By using both the actresses who alternate as the young Queen. Bill McCabe (Harold Wilson) was desperate for inspiration.

We'd heard that Hugh Jackman raised thousands by removing his still warm undershirt and auctioning it to panting audience members.

The thought of Bill reaching for the hem of his shirt was unlikely to open the purse of a wealthy Upper East Sider, so he had a better idea. Sell something that Helen Mirren has had close contact with. What better - and more British- than the bone china cup and saucer she drinks from in the show.

He threw in a photo of her drinking from it, a certificate of authenticity signed by Helen, and, as the bidding sailed past $2500, a selfie with Helen. One lucky woman won with her bid for $3000, bringing our 4 week total to over $107,000. That $3000 alone will provide 300 people with healthy meals anywhere in the 50 states.

So you can pay us to take our clothes off, or to keep them on, and everyone knows actors love an extra chance to show off- but that's proper money, that is. And every penny comes from you theatregoers.

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Previous Entry
14 April 2015
Take care (not to be offensive) while crossing the road

Before coming to live in NYC, I'd told my son about the famous WALK/DON'T WALK pedestrian crossing signs.

He's four, and learning what we call the Green Cross Code- basic safety while crossing the road. The Green Cross Code man was David Prowse- best known as the guy inside the Darth Vader costume. (Apparently he only realised they weren't using his voice- a gentle and not very scary West Country burr that made him sound like a pirate, when he went to a screening and heard James Earl Jones's voice instead).

Anyway - my son is used to the British version of the pedestrian crossing: red man standing/green man walking. So I was disappointed to see that WALK had gone and was replaced by a walking man made from white LEDs. In a country, like ours, where race is still what you might delicately call an 'issue', could you not have chosen a different colour in the LED catalogue?

Because now I find myself getting to ready to cross the road with a four year old who's already confused- he can't work out why the cars are on the wrong side of the road, can turn right on a red, and are the size of the buses back home, and now he's got me shouting 'Don't move until you see a white man! Is there a white man there? No? Well then you can't cross! You know full well that you aren't allowed to do anything until you see a white man. Now hold my hand!' And you should see some of the looks I've been getting. Even when I roll my eyes and mouth the words 'Road Safety' they still throw me a gesture that leaves no room for misinterpretation.

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Rufus trained at The Central School of Speech and Drama in London. He created the part of David Cameron in the West End production of The Audience and previously worked with Peter Morgan on the original Donmar Warehouse production of Frost/Nixon and in the filmThe Special Relationship. Other theatre credits include: The 39 Steps (Criterion), The One, The Backroom (Soho Theatre) The Empire (Royal Court), Serious Money, The Madness of George III (Birmingham Rep), Private Lives (Hampstead), Crown Matrimonial (Guildford and Tour), Mary Stuart (Donmar Warehouse and Apollo), Journey's End (Duke of York's), Trust Byron, Life With an Idiot and Franziska (The Gate), Single Spies (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Secret Garden (Salisbury Playhouse), and Richard II (London Pleasance)

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos