Interview: Anthony Heald's Double Duty in THE ELEPHANT MAN

Anthony Heald was offered a Broadway role he couldn't refuse.

Make that two roles.

Heald not only plays the gruff sideshow manager Ross in the revival of The Elephant Man, but he also portrays the benevolent Bishop How.

"The opportunity to be back on Broadway was a draw, and the chance to work with these great actors," he said before a recent performance, was too good to pass up. He was also enticed by the chance to play "these juicy parts," which he found to be "extremely different characters, both vocally and morally."

Heald had left New York in 1966 for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, where he acted in repertory. "At the time I was the father of two very young children," he said.

"What I loved about Oregon was working on different plays, sometimes on the same day. This fit right in." Heald was familiar with the story of John Merrick (whose actual first name was Joseph) and was eager to participate in the drama's revival. "I had seen the original production in 1979" - with Philip Anglim as John Merrick - "but I never saw the film" (with John Hurt). This time, Merrick is brilliantly performed by Bradley Cooper.

"I'm much more seeing the story the way Bernard Pomerance [the playwright] tells it. And [director] Scott Ellis has the audience imagine Merrick's deformities, as interpreted by Cooper without prosthetics.

"I remember being amazed by the play," Heald said. "It was very unlike anything I'd ever seen."

As Ross, Heald is a menacing exploiter of Merrick, who attracts the attention of Dr. Frederick Treves (Alessandro Nivola). Treves ultimately brings Merrick to London Hospital where he becomes a society darling.

In reality, Merrick was born in 1862 in Leicester, England. At the age of 16, he entered the Leicester workhouse for a stay of more than five years. In 1884, sideshow manager Tom Norman took on Merrick as one of his main attractions.

"It all starts with the words," Heald said. "And one way that Pomerance does it so beautifully is the way he has the characters speaking in very different voices, literally."

Starting with Ross. "I wanted to suggest an earthy quality, with low tones and a gravelly sound from my chest," Heald said. "He's kind of slovenly in his walk and stance-a lower center of gravity.

"His center is more in the hips and abdomen," he said. "He's a sloucher with a slight limp." Another challenge for the actors is having a raked stage to stand on. It's not as hard on the men, he said, whose footwear easily adapts to the floor. "But the women with those high heels have it much harder," he said.

Bishop How is worlds apart from the commoner Ross. "The bishop uses complicated choices of words, with a sophisticated syntax," Heald said. It's obvious How is accustomed to speaking in public.

"He has an almost poetic use of the language. The actual bishop was very much a saint, and I wanted to depict him more in the head, more erect with shoulders up, head held high.

"Someone with enormous dignity."

Heald's approach integrates the visceral with the cerebral and his characters are fully formed. "I work a lot with the physical, with the walk. And so when I would get into the rehearsal hall, I'd put on the vest and a hat and I'd kind of limp around the hall trying to get his gait as close as possible."

The bishop's objective with Merrick is simple: to uplift and educate. "He wants desperately to help console him, but How finds it terribly frustrating-trying to say the right thing." Ultimately, he gives Merrick a hug because words just wouldn't suffice, Heald said. "Consolation is a wonderful part of the play. It's said a number of times by different characters."

Heald manages to change characters within seconds. "I have a quick change into the first bishop's scene," he said. "I have about 90 seconds in front of the mirror, I use a lot of hair spray and I rub off spirit gum from my upper lip. I concentrate on taking the Bible and standing tall." Before he makes his ­­first entrance, "I read­­­ a little bit of Job."

In the second act, the bishop kneels with Merrick and the actors carry on an improvised conversation for each performance, he said.

"Bradley is the most astonishing actor I've ever worked with," Heald said. "He always stays in character.

"It's the age-old Pygmalion story of an individual being picked up from the gutter and turned into a refined creature. It fits into a paradigm, but it goes deeper than that," he said. "It's a story about the underlying humanity that exists in all of us."

The drama succeeds because, "It not only reaches out to those who are strikingly different, but we have to recognize that they are who they are."

As Merrick becomes more popular with upper crust society, "each character tends to create their own personal John Merrick. Treves is so condescending," Heald said. "When he's tutoring him on gratitude and forces him to say 'This is my home,' it's like he's training a dog. It's not the way to treat a human being."

The play makes use of the tension that exists between faith and science, he said. "The bishop makes the point very strongly that the good in the world comes about through the efforts of well-meaning people who help their fellow man," Heald added.

"I don't know how you can't be affected by the journey John Merrick takes in the play. Bradley is so extraordinary-sometimes I work 18 inches away from him and all I see is John Merrick.

"I hope that the audience walks away moved and entertained," Heald said. "Ultimately our job is to tell a story in a way that is compelling."

The Elephant Man is playing at the Booth Theatre, 222 W. 45th Street through February 22.