Molly Regan Keeps It In The Family: Her Journey to August: Osage County

It's not an easy feat for an actor to come into an ensemble in the middle of a run. Add into that replacing a lead actress in the year's Pulitzer, Tony AND Drama Desk winning play two days after that actress won a Tony for her performance.

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As Molly Regan will tell you, it's not easy. "Talk about post-Tony terror," she laughs. At the end June, she replaced Rondi Reed in Tracy Letts' hit play August: Osage County as Mattie Fae. BroadwayWorld.com got a chance to catch up with her and chat about all things August- from her journey from Midwest dinner theater to Broadway to what she attributes the play's success to.

Faetra Petillo: BIG Congratulations on coming into August: Osage County.

Molly Regan: Thank you, it's been a real thrill.

FP: You have been with Steppenwolf for some time now, right?

MR: I started with Steppenwolf in 1984 and then I became a company member in 1985. But my first show was in 1984 so that's about 23 years now. A long time.

FP: Had you been working a lot prior to joining or were they really your first experience out of school?

MR: I had been working somewhat- a little bit off-Broadway before then and I had started out in Minneapolis doing dinner theater actually. I moved to Minneapolis after graduating from Northwestern because I thought it would be an easy place to get my equity card. Or at least easier than trying to do it in New York. Which it turned out WAS a good place for me to get a few shows under my belt. I was doing musicals back then, so that helped. 

I got into Steppenwolf because my friend Austin Pendleton was directing out there and he was doing a production of Three Sisters. They lost their Olga on the first day of rehearsal and he said, "I think I know someone who could do it." And I did it! That was my introduction to Steppenwolf. It really just fell in my lap-- it was the luckiest break of my career.

FP: Did they invite you into the ensemble right after that? Because I know that there's some kind of a process ensemble members go through to join the company- it doesn't happen right when you start working for them, correct?

MR: There is. But I was actually the exception to the rule it seemed because right after I finished the show I returned to New York and Gary Sinise called me up and asked me to become a member of the company. It was very quick and unusual- that doesn't really happen anymore. I just fooled them (laughs)!

FP: Yeah, you must have. I've spoken to a few people that have also come from Steppenwolf and everyone's experience is so different in terms of how they were asked to be part of the ensemble. It's such a strong community and it seems like there's such a unique almost "hazing" like process behind it.

MR: Yeah, it's been different for everybody. Mostly now people have to work with the company for a little while. I really lucked out.

FP: Have you kept your base mostly in Chicago to work with them? I know you've worked in film, television and here on stage in New York several times, but are they still your home?

MR:  Absolutely. Although, the only time I ever lived in Chicago I wasn't working for them. I actually live here in New York. But they are absolutely my artistic home and that's a wonderful thing in the theater to have a home like that. When I first joined I would go there at least once a year, sometimes twice to work with them. It's less now, but sometimes it can be every year and sometimes there could be a few years in between my trips. It really depends on the season and what roles they have for you. I'm getting older now, and I want more substantial parts for three months away from home now. That's just what happens when you get older-- you can't pack your bags the same way you could when you were 25 or 30. I really ask myself now if it will be artistically rewarding to be away from home for three weeks. But we are always involved and in touch with each other about what is going on. Sometimes I've gone out there to teach in the summers, and I did a little directing out there too.

But it all feeds you. The teaching, the acting, the directing...it all links together. Which is so rewarding. I don't know any other place like it. Maybe there is and I just don't know about it.

FP: I don't think so. Not very many at least if there are. I think Steppenwolf stands out as a unique beacon in the industry. It's very rare.

MR: It is rare. It's amazing it has survived this long. Because there were several times when the company could have fell apart and it didn't. It's a real testament to the leadership that it didn't and it's thriving. And now with August, it's the biggest it's ever been because this has been just such a huge success. It's a phenomena. It's a real thrill to be part of it.

FP: How did you become part of it? Because you are coming in replacing Rondi Reed but had you been a part of it in the early stages at all or were you keeping track of it in any way?

MR: I hadn't been involved in the production at all, actually. I saw it last summer and was completely blown away by it. Everyone was just at the top of their form- it was a real coming together of all the elements. A couple of people in the company approached me because at that time, Rondi wasn't sure she was going to come to New York at all. She had doubts about re-locating and luckily they wound up convincing her. But at the time, a couple of people had suggested it to me and even Rondi said, "If I don't go you should do this". So that was the first inkling I ever had but I wasn't approached by the director or the artistic director just yet. But when I went out to do Dead Man's Cell Phone in March I talked to them and said if there was any possibility that I could replace Rondi when she was planning on leaving I would like to do it. And then when Rondi made the decision to leave it was formally offered to me.

But I'm so unlike Rondi when I saw it at first I was like, "What do they see in me for this part, I'm so different". And she was so incredible in that part I just didn't see where they were going with it. But Anna actually said that to me-- she said she could have cast another Rondi type or a Rondi clone but she didn't want to do that.

FP: That's really funny that you mention that because looking at the cast changes I had look over my program a couple of times from the pictures I saw because you remind me very much of Deanna Dunagan in terms of your presence and Estelle Parsons really resembles Rondi more. I thought at first I was just confused about who had replaced who. It seems like that at least physically they reversed you.

MR: Yeah, they definitely did.

FP: I didn't see the production with the original cast, but after seeing you and Estelle I can't imagine it any other way- it's a real testament of the show and Anna's direction.

MR: If you were to cast sisters as types you would cast Deanna and myself and Estelle and Rondi-- at least from a physical point of view. And Anna's view on it was, why would she just go out and get someone that would imitate Rondi? Or why should she cast someone who would imitate Deanna? She wanted to go a different way.

FP: How long did you have to rehearse?

MR: It was tough. For three weeks we rehearsed with the understudies who are wonderful but we weren't rehearsing with the people we would actually be performing with. So three weeks of rehearsal and then we got two weeks of half-days with the actual cast. So talk about terror after the Tonys. Right after everyone won- there we were ready to take the stage (laughs). That was scary. But we've worked our way into it now. It was a typical replacement process but it's such an ensemble piece it was a little more difficult not to get to work with the people you would be on stage with until so late. But we're working it out and we're having a great time. And people are still coming!

FP: I know, it was packed when was I was there!

MR: I know, it's crazy! They say summer is supposed to be a slower time for theater but that hasn't been the case for us.

FP: Why do you think August: Osage County took off like it did and still continues to be so successful? Tracy Letts has been well established for a long time as has Steppenwolf- but the fury of this play is just unprecedented- what do you think it is about this play that has contributed to its success on Broadway?

MR: I think it's because there aren't a lot of things like August: Osage County out there right now. I think it speaks to a desire in the audience. This play isn't modernist in its approach- it's a lot of fun, it's accessible, it's very plot driven- it's a lot of things that people have a hunger to see. The plot and the humor keep you on the edge of your seat and he just keeps coming at you with one funny thing after another in the middle of this horror. It's a fun ride for the audience. It's kind of an old fashioned play too, I think.

FP: I agree. In fact when the play was over one of my first thoughts was that this is our time's Long Days Journey Into Night. This is our Death of Salesman. And that's not to say it's not unique but it's really classic in style and structure and it speaks to a timeless issue- family drama. And oddly enough, I don't think that's really been touched on in a long time at least not quite in this way.

MR: Yeah, and it's such a great balance of humor and darkness and it touches on so much. There are people that come and they just cry through the whole thing. And then there are people that come and laugh through the whole thing. In fact a friend of mine came to see it a couple of weeks ago and she said at the end of the second act, after the big dinner scene, all these people were laughing and she was sitting there bawling. It just hits some people so deeply. Another phenomena of it is the repeat customers. We have so many people that come back and bring people because they think they have to see it.

FP: It's very unique especially with the cost of Broadway tickets now and the economy-- you guys recouped exceptionally quickly, especially for a non-musical. I think it has a long successful future ahead of it too.

MR: We hope so! It's funny we come out every night looking out at these huge houses and wonder when the bomb is going to drop. It's the middle of the summer and it's a straight play, but it's going really well. I'm surprised at how many tourists we have, they usually go to musicals but they are coming to see us which has been great. When I come out of the stage door to sign programs I ask people where they are from and almost everyone I've talked to lately is a tourist. One woman came last Tuesday and I signed her program and she said she had also come on Saturday night but she had to come back to see it before she left town. So she came twice in three days. I've never known anything quite like it.

FP: Talking a little bit about your role, Mattie Fae- what can you say about her and your experience playing her so far?

MR: Wow, so much...I just think she is a real survivor. And she's filled with so much love and guilt when it comes to her son and her husband too. She has climbed out of so much to raise herself above it. Comparing her to Violet (the matriarch played by Estelle Parsons)-- Violet is someone who has been destroyed by her life and Mattie Fae has coped. She clawed her way out and made herself a survivor from her rotten childhood. So what I love is that she is a survivor and she copes, but realizes I think at the end that she's coped in all the wrong ways. And I think at the end she has a real journey and she grows. And I'm still growing with it too and I'm still learning thing about her. And it's good I'm doing it eight times a week so I have a lot of practice!

FP: Well you guys are doing a phenomenal job.

MR: Thank you. And you know what is funny, when I saw it for the first time in Chicago my first thought was, "I would kill to be at that dinner table right now".  And it's such an actor response, but here I am and I'm so happy to be here.

In addition to August: Osage County Molly Regan has appeared in The Crucible, Stepping Out and London West End: A Love Song. She's appeared off-Broadway in The Seagull, Two Gentleman of Verona and Booth. Her film and television credits include Pollock, Bullets Over Broadway and New York Stories.

Direct from a sold-out engagement at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the Tony 2008 winner for Best Play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Tracy Letts (Bug, Killer Joe) August: Osage County began previews Tuesday, October 30 at the Imperial Theatre (249 West 45th Street). It now makes it's home next door at the Music Box Theatre. The performance schedule is as follows: Tuesdays - Fridays at 7:30PM, Saturdays at 8PM, Wednesdays & Saturdays at 2PM and Sundays at 3PM. Tickets are priced at $26.50-$99.50 and are available at Telecharge.com or (212) 239-6200.  Visit the official show website here: AugustOnBroadway.com