An Interview With Robert Emmet Lunney

When the first act of Warren Manzi's PERFECT CRIME ends, the audience sits in stone cold silence.  The silence lasts for a few moments after the houselights are brought up and when the audience does finally react, they are abuzz about the convolutions of the plot that is unraveling before them.  According to actor Robert Emmet Lunney it's "hopefully because the audience is thinking; maybe even perplexed." 
 
Sitting on Jay Stone and Warren Manzi's comfortable set for PERFECT CRIME after a recent matinee, Lunney proved to be an amiable conversationalist. His Broadway credits include MAURITIUS, DEUCE, THE GRADUATE and DANCING AT LUGHNASA.  He's guest-starred on television's "Law and Order" and recently taped a segment of "Lipstick Jungle." He also will be seen in Nora Ephron's upcoming film "Julie and Julia" that opens this spring. Lunney is also a playwright and his FOR NINA was a semi-finalist for the 2007 O'Neil Playwrights Conference, while his PATRIOT ACT (AN OCCURRRENCE AT YANKEE STADIUM) has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and was recorded as part of the Coyote Rep's Sound-Play series. Married to actress Jan Maxwell, he'd been out late for the opening of her play TO BE OR NOT TO BE and its after party.  The interview was interrupted several times by phone calls from the actor's 12 year old son, Will, who had also been to the play and the party.  Each call illustrated that although Lunney and Maxwell are working actors, they still make time for the responsibilities of parenting. 
 
Born of Irish heritage in Denver, Lunney explains, "I'm a three-named person because there's another Robert Lunney in the unions.  I've never seen or heard of him, though.  I arrived here in 1976 and I was able to join SAG because I had a one-line part in "Cinderella Liberty" which was shot in Seattle.  When I put down my name as ‘Robert Lunney' they told me I couldn't do that because there was another actor with that name.  I asked if the other guy was old and about to pass on and was told that he was about my age.  So I went by the name ‘Robert Emmet" for a long time.  Then I was standing-by for the actor Stephen Rea in SOMEONE WHO'LL WATCH OVER ME and Stephen came up to me and said, ‘Robert Emmet?  Robert Emmet?  It's ridiculous.  It would be like someone in America coming up and saying, "Hello, I'm Abraham Lincoln".'   In Ireland, families with the last name Emmet will not name their sons Robert out of deference to the famous patriot Robert Emmet who, in 1803 or something, was sentenced by the British to be ‘Hanged, drawn, quartered and his head struck off.'  I think he died long before they got around to chopping off his head!"
 
Lunney had performed as "Robert Emmet" for a long time. "Our son, Will, was born in '95 and someone gave us a savings bond for him, but it was made out to ‘Will Emmet'.  I realized it was confusing, so after a few years I decided to use my real last name and be a three-named person."  As far as anyone knows, the other Robert Lunney is still around.

At the age of two, Lunney's family moved to Seattle. "My father claimed that as a kid I'd see a ninety minute movie then spend eight hours acting it out for him. I don't remember doing that. I just thought I was being incredibly witty and charming, but I think it probably drove him nuts.  Now my son does it.  He's been following me around telling me in great detail about every moment in ‘I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.' ...I'm sorry, Dad."

 
Lunney readily admits that he doesn't come from a theatrical family.  "My parents did not grow up going to the theater and my older siblings couldn't have cared less. I don't know why I became so interested. My first real performance was horrifying.  It was in a Christmas pageant and I was one of the kings.  I was in the sixth grade at St. Francis of Assisi School in a suburb of Seattle and there were the McKechron girls-there must have been five of them.  They could all sing and they were all beautiful.   Katie McKechron was in my grade and I had to come down the aisle of the auditorium and stop midway.  I had a deep voice and as I was holding my frankincense and wearing this silly costume, I spotted all five McKechron girls looking up at me and smiling.  I was supposed to sing, ‘Frankincense to offer have I....' but I choked, it came out all squeaky.  I was so scared I was crying and I couldn't get it out, but I still went through with it.   You would think that would put a kibosh on acting for me but it didn't." 
 
The actor was also an altar boy in those days and he thought the pre-Vatican II liturgies to be highly theatrical.  "I learned the Latin responses for the masses and the next year they changed everything into English. " 
 
Upon entering high school, Lunney became something of a jock.   He played football and wrestled because "the football coach wanted his players to be wrestlers so they'd get tough."  Baseball, however, was really the sport he loved.  "But I couldn't stand the coaches and the mentality of some of the guys.  I told jokes a lot and they didn't get them."  One day the actor turned to one of his buddies and said, "You know what we need?  We need a theater department."  He quit baseball and went to the principal with his friend Bob and the boys expressed their feelings.  The principal was very amenable and suddenly a theater department was born at Kennedy High School in Seattle.  "It was fun and we were proud of that," the actor says with considerable satisfaction.  "Yeah, it was exciting!" 
 
The school rented ACT Theater in downtown Seattle for their spring production for three consecutive years and Lunney became the treasurer.  "We operated in the black the whole time," he adds with a beaming smile on his face.  Interestingly enough, Lunney got many choice roles but most remembers NOT getting the male lead in DAVID AND LISA. I was upset with the director because I should have gotten the part. My friend Bob got to play the doctor in that.  I was playing one of the thugs or something." 
 
Lunney and his friend figured out ways to get out of class to drum up interest in the play, so they went from classroom to classroom and played scenes from DAVID AND LISA. "Because I didn't have the part, we knew it wasn't right for me to do too much. We'd do this lengthy introduction - big buildup -- and then present this tiny, tiny scene from the play.  Bob would leave the classroom, assume his role of the doctor, while I sat sullenly at a desk for a long while. Finally, Bob would knock on the door, I'd say ‘Who is it?' he'd say ‘Dr. I-Can't-Remember,' I'd say ‘Go away' then sit sullenly for a few more beats. Then I'd thank the class and leave. Bob never came back in. Obviously, the young actors didn't believe in giving away too much for free. 
 
At the University of Washington, Lunney joined a fraternity because he thought the living conditions would be better, as would the food.  "I liked it for a while, but then I really grew to hate it.  I hated what they did to the young kids during the hazing, and their mentality was just plain awful: jock-guy-sexist-racist.  I'm sure there are exceptions, but I hated it. I wanted to quit right before Initiation, but my father convinced me to go through with it ‘just in case,' so I quit the day after. I hated it. I thought I wanted to be a lawyer or something.  Anyhow, I started taking theater courses the following year and stayed with that.  It was a fascinating time. When I got into the Professional Actors Training Program (PATP) at UW, I sat down with Eve Roberts who was my acting teacher and mentor and I mentioned that I was considering UW, NYU, and A.C.T. in San Francisco. She asked to see the faculty lists of each school. Her concern was that there weren't enough good acting teachers to go around to the 13 PATP schools that existed in 1973. I thought that was fascinating because by 1987, there were 437 Professional Actor Training Programs

While at the University of Washington, Lunney was cast in many productions, but his favorite was the role of Gottleib in Bruce Jay Friedman's STEAMBATH.   "Gottleib might have five lines, I don't know, it was a sort of Harpo-type part.  I loved doing it.  I always wanted the big part and this certainly wasn't it. This was virtually a silent part -- in fact, I think it WAS silent -- it was a series of bits.  I didn't know you could get that sort of laughter out of an audience!   It was a lot of fun!" 
 
Coming to New York, Lunney's first professional job was understudying Eric Roberts in Bill C. Davis' MASS APPEAL.  It was in that production that the actor met Milo O'Shea, "who was absolutely terrific to me.  He got me my first agent and became a very good friend. He really helped me out."  When Eric Roberts left the cast, the role of the young seminarian was taken over by the playwright.  "That was...unfortunate from my point of view," says Lunney.  Really, what understudy wouldn't desire to move up to the role when the original star leaves the cast? 
 
More recently, Lunney was seen in Terrence McNally's DEUCE; the play that starred Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes as a pair of retired tennis pros.  Lunney once again was hired as an understudy-this time for the two male roles in the play.  One of the roles was essayed by Michael Mulheren, who had a filming commitment during the rehearsal period.  "That meant I had a full week of rehearsals, which was great for me.  We were still in the rehearsal room and Michael Blakemore, a director I absolutely adore, didn't care one bit about what Michael Mulheren had done -- Mulheren was great -- but I was the guy in the room and he encouraged me to bring my own interpretation to the part.  I was free to create my own performance.  Angela and Marian were terrific about that." 
 
The actor has nothing but admiration for the Missus Lansbury and Seldes. "These two women had to sit throughout virtually the entire performance. I don't know many actors who can learn their lines without moving around. Often you end up getting rid of the movements. But first you get the physicality into your body, and then it gets into your head and, finally you can stand perfectly still and deliver the lines.  These ladies didn't have that luxury.  They had to sit, and most times they couldn't even relate to each other, they were watching an imaginary tennis game out front.  I think that is a Herculean task for any actor." 
 
The stage adaptation of THE GRADUATE provided Lunney with his longest run on Broadway, although DANCING AT LUGHNASA was a close second.   He shared the stage with Kathleen Turner, who was followed by Linda Gray.  By the time Lorraine Bracco took over, Lunney had left the cast for other projects. "I thought the play wasn't very good.  Terry Johnson, who wrote and directed it, is terrifically talented but I think he may have written it to set himself up financially.  We played in Baltimore, Toronto and Boston before we came into town.  We had a good group of actors and we all liked each other very much.  In each place we played, we'd get roars during the Curtain Call, with audiences standing and cheering.  Some of us would say, ‘This isn't that good, is it?'  Then we started thinking maybe it was.    When we got to New York they weren't doing that anymore. But, it ran for a long time.  I think the people came because they wanted to see a famous person take her clothes off." 
 
In 1987 Lunney did a play called NO END OF BLAME by Howard Barker at the Potomac Theater Project, which once was known as the New York Theater Studio; however they re-located to Washington DC.  "I had never read any Howard Barker and my friend David Purdham was supposed to play this role.  David, however, took a job up in Williamstown and had to bail on these people and recommended me for the part.  The director, Richard Romagnoli, called me, I read the play and I realized I'd never come across anything like it before.  I was thrilled by it. The writing is phenomenal.  It's angry, sexy, dirty, driving and very, very political, but highly theatrical and funny.  I  did NO END OF BLAME and two years later Jan and I went back and did Barker's THE CASTLE again with Romagnoli directing." When Lunney and his wife returned to New York they wondered why Barker's works hadn't been done in the Big Apple, but with casts of 30 or more, the practicalities of such productions are prohibitive.  As a result, they've done staged readings of Howard Barker plays.  Thus, "The Barker Project" was born and continues sporadically today. PTP is once again based in New York City and this summer Lunney will be doing THE EUROPEANS for them.
 
In joining the cast of PERFECT CRIME, Lunney becomes a part of theater history.  The whodunit has been running since April of 1987, first at the Courtyard Playhouse and now at the Snapple Theater Center.  It is now New York's longest running play and there's no end in sight for it.
 
What's it like to join the cast of a play that has been running this long?  "It was pretty unique," responded the actor.  "I got together with the stage manager Brian Meister and Andrea Leigh, who understudies leading lady Catherine Russell.  It was the first time I'd had my lines down before starting rehearsals.  It was great to come in off-book.  I rehearsed with them and watched the show. I loved what Patrick Ryan Sullivan was doing in the role I was taking over and when he took a day off I got to see understudy Don Noble do a different great job in the part.  Not hearing the same exact rhythms to the lines helped me bring more of my own thing to the character.  I also had one rehearsal with Richard Shoberg and on the night of my first performance I had a put-in rehearsal with Catherine a couple of hours before the show. One day in the middle of last week I realized that this is the strangest job I've ever had.  I didn't get to build the character and yet I go out and ‘do it' every night.  I've never done anything like this before!  My role is great.  In fact, all the roles are great." 
 
Lunney has nothing but praise for his cast-mates.  "Richard Shoberg is terrific.  I love being on stage with him.  He listens and we play off each other.  Michael Brian Dunn is doing a wonderful job as Lionel and that may be the most difficult role in the piece. To play with Catherine Russell is incredible.  I figured that she wouldn't be coming up with anything fresh after playing the role for all these years and there'd be nothing I could do to change her take on my character.  That's not true at all. I don't know how she can do that after playing the role for 21 years!  They're all terrific people!" 
 
Perhaps it's because of the wholly professional cast.  Perhaps it's because of Manzi's clever script.  Perhaps it's because theater-goers are in dire need of material that will get them to concentrate on something other than the financial woes we are all experiencing in these trying times.  Perhaps it's a combination of all of these things, but the audience enjoys PERFECT CRIME very much.  As they left the theater that afternoon and walked out into the sunshine on a balmy October day, the conversation was about the play.  It wasn't about where they should have dinner or how they could buy souvenir merchandise with the play's logo emblazoned on it. Nor were they expressing their amazement at falling chandeliers or huge animal puppets. They were discussing Manzi's play.  Quite obviously the crowd had been so engrossed in the plot and the cast's skilled characterizations in it that they forgot about the more mundane aspects of theater-going.  Undoubtedly, PERFECT CRIME is a play that will also provide Robert Emmet Lunney a longer run than any he's had before.

PERFECT CRIME is being presented at the SNAPPLE THEATER CENTER located at 210 W 50th Street.  Tickets are available at  www.Ticketmaster.com

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