Interview with Director Scott Ellis

Ted Sod: Can you tell us about your role as Associate Artistic Director and how that manifests itself at Roundabout?

Scott Ellis: That happened about 19 years ago. I can't believe the time that's gone by. After She Loves Me, Todd Haimes asked me if I would come on board as an Associate Director, which I did. Then, a short time after that, he said, "Would you come on as Associate Artistic Director?," which I was thrilled about.

Todd runs the theatre. He makes all the decisions. What's nice for me is I can bring projects to him or he can suggest ideas to me saying, "Would you be interested in directing this?" Other than that, I'm involved with anything else that he needs. I have the best job possible.

TS: Does that mean that you brought On the Twentieth Century to Todd, or did he suggest it to you? How did that work?

SE: When we sit down and talk about possible shows, we just talk about plays and musicals that would be exciting shows for us to do. On the Twentieth Century was always something I wanted to do because of Kristin Chenoweth. I believe in one of our conversations, I brought it up. Although to be honest, we're so much on the same wavelength that he might have brought it up. I know it's something that we discussed a while ago. I said, "I want to do it, but it has to be with Kristin."

TS: Is that because it takes such a specific talent to play Lily Garland?

SE: It's almost like saying I'm going to do Hamlet without knowing who your Hamlet is. You've just got to know who's going to play Lily. She's got to be funny and beautiful and sing like crazy. There are so few people who can do it. For me, it was always about Kristin. When she said yes, I said yes. We've been planning this for a while. Between our schedules, things moved and shifted, but if she had said no, I would not have done it. Basically, I'm doing it because of her.

TS: Do you see this musical as a love story between Oscar and Lily, or is it more complex than that?

SE: It's such a wonderfully written piece - the entire action takes place on a train traveling from Chicago to New York City - and all the characters have a certain amount of time to finish getting what they need and want before they get to the final destination. It certainly is an unusual love story since Lily and Oscar both have huge egos and live in the world of entertainment -- which has great importance in their lives - and that's something people in show business can relate to. It's a lopsided love affair. I think we've all been in them. I certainly have been in them one way or the other. It boils down to if you're going to commit to being a show biz couple. Basically, if you're meant to be together, then you're meant to be together. I think the "madcap" love between Oscar and Lily is part of the story.

TS: Did you have to do a lot of research on this period? Is this a period you're familiar with?

SE: Yes, I'm somewhat familiar with this period, but I certainly wasn't very familiar with the train. The train is as important as all the characters in the musical. I did a lot of research on the train as well as some research on the period. The theatre show-biz types don't change much no matter what era we're in. The question of how you balance being in show business with your personal life isn't very different. For me, it really was important to understand the train and the types of people riding or working on it. There was a certain level of income that meant you could afford to go on that train and could live like that and expect to be treated well.

TS: Train travel seems like a whole different world today.

SE: The whole world of this musical is different.

TS: Because -

SE: Because of the way stars were handled and looked after during the 1930s. We don't operate the way that world did anymore because today everything is so Internet-driven and about going viral and making an instant splash - it's not controlled like it was back then. All of that image stuff was so controlled. They had press agents who made up stories and kept their images glossy -- the way they were supposed to be perceived by the public. It's impossible to do that anymore. You can't hide anything anymore. Someone's going to find out something you don't want them to.

TS: Do you see Oscar as someone who created Lily's public persona?

SE: Oscar was an impresario, and that was his job -- they were able to keep that artifice alive without any fear of the press finding out something dark and deep and all of that. That's very different from how it is today. The men in show business like Oscar created people like Lily Garland. They changed their names, they gave them images, they gave them back stories, they gave them boyfriends, they gave them girlfriends. They controlled all that.

TS: What were you looking for when casting this show?

SE: Casting, to me, is always the same. It's a very important part of a director's job. I pick people that I sense I'd like to be in a room with and will enjoy the rehearsal process with because that's the best part. A lot of these people I've worked with, I've known for a while. I get to pull those people back into a room to play with. Some of them, I don't know. I've never worked with Mary Louise Wilson yet, but I've been a huge admirer and fan for a long time. This is an opportunity to say, "Great. I'd like to work with her!" I think part of casting this show is finding actors who are all a little off-center, you know?

TS: You need incredible singers.

SE: That score is pretty remarkable. You've got to really fill that space.

TS: Will you talk to us about how you've been working with your set designer? David Rockwell is someone you've worked with many times.

SE: The one thing you have to start with is that it takes place on a train, and the train has to leave at some point. We went back and started research on the actual train itself. We started that way. How do you move that train? You knew you had to get rid of the train several times because of flashbacks. The authors were so smart to do the flashbacks. It allows us to get off the train. When you get off the train, you better have something big visually and emotionally. So many of the meetings were about just the mechanics of where the train lives, where are you going to put the train, how are you going to do all that? It took us a long time to figure those logistics out. Thank God I am working with David.

TS: You've gotten great reviews this season for your direction of a comedy/farce, You Can't Take It With You, and a drama, The Elephant Man. How did you pace yourself?

SE: Honestly, you never know when things are going to line up. I certainly didn't expect it to line up this way. I was going to do a film that fell through in the summer. All of a sudden, I was available. Out of the blue, I got a call about You Can't Take It With You. That was very, very fast, but it fit into the schedule. The timing actually worked well because The Elephant Man's dates got changed. We were supposed to do The Elephant Man last season in the fall. It got moved because of scheduling problems with Bradley Cooper's filming schedule. I think the hardest one was actually You Can't Take It With You because I was starting from scratch with no set, no nothing. The Elephant Man I did in Williamstown, so I had a sense of that even though we changed a lot. On the Twentieth Century, we had also been working on for a long time -- so we had really just jumped ahead to design the set. It just all worked out because the starting dates spread out in a way that was manageable. You just have to stay on top of it.

TS: When I talked to Kristin, she said, "You know, playing a part like Lily, you have to live like a nun." Did you have to live like a monk?

SE: No, because I was not allowed to. You can't live like a monk if you have two five-year-old twins. That ain't happening. Just the opposite actually.

TS: What's coming up for you after this? Will the film come back?

SE: Who knows? Film is always - it floats in and out. After this, I'm going out to San Diego to the Old Globe to do my first Shakespeare. I was asked, and I've never done a Shakespeare.

TS: Which one?

SE: The Comedy of Errors.

TS: Perfect. You've already done The Boys from Syracuse.

SE: Well, it's a bit different from the musical. Barry Edelstein, the Artistic Director at the Old Globe, gave me a list of shows that they have and haven't done recently, and I was looking at a drama. Again, with most of the Shakespearean dramas, you need to know who the leading actor is. Barry said to me, "You know what? If you want to do a comedy, The Comedy of Errors is the shortest play Shakespeare wrote." I said, "Then I'll do that. If I'm going to do my first Shakespeare, I'll do a short one and see if I can do it."

TS: It's also one of his earliest plays. And you got the two sets of twins to cast.

SE: I know about twins.

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On the Twentieth Century will begin previews Friday, February 13, 2015 at the American Airline's Theatre. For more information and tickets, please visit our website.