BWW Exclusive: Diary of an Englishman in New York- Voting Myself out of Work

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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18th May 2015
Voting Myself out of Work

Last week I wrote about the British actors in The Audience watching our General Election unfold during our show last Thursday evening.

In the show I play Tony Blair and David Cameron- the Conservative leader who won the election. He's known as a large and contented looking chap, with a face like a big toe, millions of pounds in the bank and close links to the network of old Etonians that run the country. He came to see the show in London and was perfectly charming, although politically I'm not a fan.

Those of you who have seen the show will know the premise: all of us PMs have one or more scenes with Helen Mirren's Queen. The Cameron scene is kept up to date with current events. When we performed the play in the West End in 2013, every fortnight or so we'd incorporate references to whatever was happening in the news: Margaret Thatcher's death, the Pope's resignation, or Prince George's birth. Often, we'd cut the jokes after a few weeks, when they started to feel stale. Bizarrely, only the Pope reference has stayed in: the Queen says: 'To be the Queen of England is not a job or a shift you put in. There is no abdication. Or retirement. Like the Pope'. It still often gets a round of applause two years after Pope Benedict resigned his position as pontiff through ill health.

On Broadway we started with material about the death of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. The Queen mischievously tells Cameron that she took him for a ride around Balmoral in a Land Rover (which is true), and he was completely terrified, having never been driven by a woman before. After the King's death didn't feel current anymore we cut it and went on to a chat about what gifts the Camerons had exchanged with the Obamas after a recent trip. As the Election loomed, we knew we had to mention it.

Helen, writer Peter Morgan and I exchanged emails and ideas about how to add references to the election- Peter sent a draft, and Helen and I met before the show in her dressing room to run through the new material. In the week before the election, Helen added the line 'Don't you do all your campaigning on Twotter, or Twatter, or whatever it is?...'

As election night loomed I really thought I'd better take a look at my contract. An actor friend in London told me he had an audition to play Ed Miliband (the Opposition Leader) in the London production of The Audience (starring Kristen Scott Thomas), and would slot in if Miliband won the Election. In the end his audition was obviously cancelled, along with half a dozen other actors who'd been up all night practising their Miliband impressions in the mirror.

So if he did win, where did that leave me? My Blair scene would remain, I'm sure- but would the producers get another actor in to play Miliband in New York as well? I'm a pretty good mimic and had worked up a fairly good impression- the wig mistress had her eye on a big dark wig that would work- would they let me play 3 different PMs in the show?

Also I had voted for Miliband myself: would this be the most unusual way yet someone had indirectly got themselves fired? 'How did you lose your last job?' 'I voted myself out of office. I fundamentally disagreed with the way I was running the country and decided it was time for change.'

Well. My job's safe. And we're crossing our fingers for Britain.

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Previous Entry
15th May 2015
Tearful British actors witness British General Election

The four British actors in the Broadway production of The Audience were stepping on stage as the first results were declared in the British General Election last Thursday.

I play Tony Blair (Labour/ Democrat) in Act 1 and current Prime Minister David Cameron (Conservative - or Tory/Republican) in Act 2. A feat of breathtaking versatility, achieved solely with the use of a wig, blocks behind my ears, clip on teeth, lifts in my shoes and body padding.

NY audiences seem to know who Blair is and are surprised at the fairly negative way he's portrayed in the show. 'You guys really don't like him much, do you?'

Cameron raises the odd flicker of recognition. But then he's not the most memorable of politicians . The writer Caitlin Moran described him as 'C3P0 made of processed ham' and he has a face most would rather forget.

But last Thursday was the day, once every 5 years (rather than your 4), when Brits go to the polls to elect their leader.

There aren't many actors who are committed Conservatives. The theatre community and the Tory Party have an uneasy relationship: we put on plays mocking right wing politicians and their beliefs, they slash arts funding. We put on angrier plays in smaller venues with shabbier costumes, those plays transfer to bigger venues, play to thousands and make millions, the politicians take the credit for our thriving theatre community and use it as proof we don't need the funding.

It's odd playing a character whose personality and politics so oppose your own. Of course the actor's job is never to have an attitude towards the character they're playing. You work out what your character wants, and set out to get it, as truthfully as you can. Personally, I think Cameron is insufferably smug. But you can't play 'smugness'. You can only play 'I'm right and I know it.' I think he's sneery, but can only play 'These fools don't understand my brilliance.'

The four of us repaired to my apartment in Brooklyn to watch the results come in. Election results tend to come in from midnight-4am GMT with a definite result emerging around 5am- fortunately 7pm-1am for us.

Predicted results of a coalition between the Conservatives and one or more parties proved unfounded. The Scottish National party swept Labour out of Scotland and the Conservatives routed them across England. C3P0 won the election fair and square. Still. At least it means I still get to appear in the show. There was a good chance I'd have been let go if the result had gone the other way. I'll explain next week...

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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