LuPone's 'Gypsy' Gains Boyd: A Conversation with Boyd Gaines

It was certainly the most ebullient moment in The Roundabout Theater's 1993 production of the beloved musical SHE LOVES ME.  Boyd Gaines enthusiastically sang the show's title tune when he flung himself down in the stage's apron with his back to the floor and his upturned head virtually hanging in the lap of an unsuspecting audience member.  That moment, as well as the rest of his performance, won Gaines the 1994 Tony Award as "Best Actor In A Musical".  

This past season, ebullience was not to be found on the stage of the Belasco Theater where Boyd Gaines was front and center in R. C. Sherriff's 1928 British military drama JOURNEY'S END.  The harrowing tale of bunker life during World War I was just awarded this year's Tony as "Best Revival of a Play". In fact, Tony Awards seem to be a regular occurrence in the career of this actor.  In addition to the award for SHE LOVES ME!, Gaines has received the Tony in 1994 for "Best Supporting Actor in a Play" for his contributions to the late Wendy Wasserstein's THE HEIDI CHRONICLES and in the year 2000, he won the award for "Best Supporting Actor In a Musical" for his work in Susan Stroman's innovative CONTACT.  The actor has been the recipient of numerous Drama Desk Awards and Outer Critics Circle Awards.  Without a doubt, Boyd Gaines is one of the most acclaimed American Actors on the current scene.  He's also one of the most employed. 

JOURNEY'S END closed on June 10th and won its Tony Award only a few hours later, but Gaines had little respite.  At 10 o'clock the next morning, the actor began rehearsals for the role of Herbie opposite Patti LuPone's Mama Rose in the much-anticipated revival of GYPSY which will run at the New York City Center from July 9^th through 29^th.  It's a production which takes LuPone's extraordinarily acclaimed performance in the Ravinia Music Festival's 2006 concert staging of the show and plants it firmly in a full-scale production directed by the show's librettist Arthur Laurents. It's the first production of the Encores! new Summer Series. 

After spending a busy day in rehearsal for GYPSY, Gaines settled into a relaxed phone conversation to discuss his career and his upcoming projects.  Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Gaines came from a family which was certainly mobile.  The actor recounts that he attended about 12 different schools before heading to New York's Julliard.  His very first acting job in New York was in a production of SPRING AWAKENING that was transferred to Joe Papp's NY Shakespeare Festival.  "It wasn't the musical, obviously," the actor quickly interjects, "this was the original version of Franz Wedekind's play".  Since then, Gaines has become one of New York's most prolific actors. In addition to the aforementioned credits, Gaines has appeared in New York productions of THE SHOW OFF, TWELVE ANGRY MEN, BACH AT LEIPZIG, COMEDY OF ERRORS, as well as regional appearances at such prestigious institutions as Williamstown, The Westport Country Playhouse, the Long Wharf, the Guthrie and The Kennedy Center.  He's also done an enormous amount of work in the movies and has a huge list of television credits, having appeared on such television series as WILL AND GRACE, FRASIER, L.A. LAW, and was Valerie Bertinelli's boyfriend during the last season of ONE DAY AT A TIME. When questioned about which medium he prefers to perform him, the actor quipped, "I just like to work."  Married to Katherine McNenny and the proud father of a beautiful daughter named Leslie, Gaines has solid reasons to bring home paychecks on a regular basis. 

He's had a very healthy relationship with The Roundabout Theater Company, having done several shows for them.  "It's very familial there, as it has been at many of the regional groups I've worked with."  He recalls that during the celebrated run of SHE LOVES ME, there was a backstage faux pas that caused him great consternation on stage.  It was in the scene where Georg Novak (Gaines' character) visits Amalia in her apartment.  She is supposedly ill and he was bringing her some ice cream as sort of a get-well gesture.  The only problem was that when the actor was about to make his entrance, the ice cream wasn't in its usual spot and he went on without it.  As the missing prop was an integral part of the action and led to Amalia's coloratura aria "Vanilla Ice Cream", Gaines left the stage in character and ran downstairs to find the stage manager.  "There was a time when stage managers used to be right up there in the wings but that isn't the case anymore.  The result was that I was gone for a full minute." (It must be noted, though, that in stage time, a minute can seem like an eternity.) "I recall that Diane Fratantoni was left alone on stage. She covered herself with a blanket and cracked up while the audience sat in confusion." 

There was confusion of another sort when Gaines returned to The Roundabout for their revival of Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY.  It seemed that the role of Bobby was a perfect fit for Gaines' good looks and singing talent, however the experience turned out to be a rather sad experience for everyone involved.  Actor Danny Burstein (currently appearing in THE DROWSY CHAPERONE) was in the cast of that COMPANY production.  He recalls that Gaines " had vocal problems and he'd come backstage with x-rays of his vocal chords. They were terrifying. Boyd rehearsed the whole show and wound up doing less than half of the performances. His understudy, Jim Clow, never had a real rehearsal process but was forced to jump in and save our asses."  Today, Gaines looks back on the experience and explains, "I had and still have a  reflux condition which causes stomach acids to repeat on me and virtually scorch my vocal cords.  It's under control now, but was undiagnosed at that point.  I rehearsed the show but began missing performances.  Finally, Scott Ellis (the show's director) told me I had to 'get well', so I took two weeks off, was diagnosed and quickly got better. I was able to return to the show and record the cast album.  The experience has given me great sympathy for performers like Bernadette Peters and Donna Murphy who get criticized in the press when they miss performances." 

In 2001, Gaines did something he hasn't done much of in his career:  he replaced another actor in a long-running show.  For five months he played Cliff Bradshaw in the Roundabout's long-running revival of CABARET.  How did he like the experience?  "I hated it," he remarked.  As is the case with most actors who are shoehorned into shows that are already in performance, the actor was rehearsed by the assistant director, "although the director did work with me a few times before I went on in the role."  It wasn't until a new leading lady was brought into the revolving door cast, that Gaines got more rehearsal time and relaxed into the part. 

The contract that the actor had signed with The Roundabout to do CABARET allowed him to leave a month early the much talked-about dance/theater piece called CONTACT went into production.  "Susan Stroman was over in London filming the television version of OKLAHOMA! which she had choreographed for Trevor Nunn over there.  There were a series of phone calls back and forth and I was finally cast in the centerpiece of the production.  I literally thought that Susan had mixed me up with someone else"   Gaines never had much dance experience, yet his character was that of an advertising executive who truly wanted to dance.  Here was an instance where the actor's shortcomings worked to his advantage in the role.  In reviewing the show for the New York Times, critic Ben Brantley commented, "Mr. Gaines, who is not a professional dancer, makes whatever tentativeness he's feeling work like gangbusters"   Not only was CONTACT a hit, but it became the longest running production ever to be done by the Lincoln Center Theater.  Images of Gaines pursuing the illusive Girl in The Yellow Dress were soon seen on buses and on billboards across the city.  Deborah Yates, who played that Girl in The Yellow Dress, expressed her appreciation of Boyd Gaines' professionalism in an interview with Broadway.Com.  She said,"Boyd is an amazingly generous actor.  That [final romantic] scene was always a little different.  Every night he'll have a different delivery. It kept me alive and listening because he was completely 'present'.   When I looked in his eyes, he was there.  It made it easy to do that scene.  It was like having a conversation."   

The 2004 season at The Roundabout Theater included what was billed as the "Broadway Debut" of Reginald Rose's TV drama, TWELVE ANGRY MEN.  Although the play had been performed across the nation and had become a staple for community theaters and the movie starring Henry Fonda  is firmly etched in many memories, the stage version had never been done on Broadway.  In a production that was directed by Scott Ellis and included such theater veterans as Philip Bosco, Peter Friedman, and Michael Mastro. Boyd Gaines was featured as the pivotal Juror Eight.  Once again Brantley had praise for Gaines: "Mr. Gaines, the eternally clean-cut actor who won a Tony for CONTACT, is almost too well cast in the part."  Although the play was originally scheduled for a limited run at The Roundabout, it became extremely popular with the audiences.  It was a play that had the audiences so engaged in the story that a strange, almost eerie silence fell over every performance.  Obviously the crowds were caught up in it and Gaines' performance was the glue which held the pieces together.   

In the conversation with Gaines, the actor was told that every once in a great while, the right actor meets the right role and brings very special qualities to the performance.  This was exactly what took place during his performance as Juror Eight.  The actor seemed to be genuinely touched by the encomium and responded with a simple, "Thank you.  That's very special to hear."   His humility was extraordinarily charming.  He also pointed out that TWELVE ANGRY MEN is a true ensemble piece and the all-male cast bonded and had a good time together backstage.  They still get together when the occasion arises. 

When mailings were sent out for this season's JOURNEY'S END, playgoers were greeted with a different picture of Boyd Gaines.  Gone was the clean-cut image that Brantley wrote about in his review of the Rose play.  In its place was a mustachioed man in World War I British army gear.  Suddenly the actor had gone from the youngish fellow with a sincere "aw shucks" demeanor to a more mature actor.  "I've always been a character actor," Gaines explained. "It's just that now I am playing real 'character roles' and parts that I'm the right age for"  He's doing it well, too. JOURNEY'S END earned the actor yet another Tony nomination, but the award this year went to Frank Langella. The play was one more all-male ensemble and the cast worked together effectively.  According to the actor, the dim lighting on the set worked to their advantage.  "There was talk about raising the lighting levels, but that was ruled out for the sake of authenticity.  It also kept us focused on the text because we couldn't see even the first few rows of the audience."

What the cast COULD do was hear the silence of another play which mesmerized the audience with its words.  The crowds were attentive to the dialogue and came to care for each of the characters that Sherriff had written and became emotionally involved in the shattering climax which the director had conceived for this production.  The original stage directions called for all the characters to leave the bunker and for sound effects and special effects to create the demolition of the bunker while the audience realized that those who inhabited it were perishing in the war.  However, director David Grindley devised an incredibly effective alternative to the original ending.  He had the entire cast walk out in their battle regalia and face the audience while the piercing and shrieking sounds of battle played over the theater's sound system.  While this was happening, a replica of the Ypres War Memorial and its list of war casualties slowly was raised behind the actors.  It was a chilling moment which galvanized the audience who remained silent until the cast simultaneously removed their headgear and took a group bow.  "At this point the lighting level had been raised enough so that we could see the audience and it was obvious that we affected the crowd.  Many people stopped me afterwards to tell me how moved they were by the experience."  Featured in the cast were Jefferson Mays, Hugh Dancy and Stark Sands.  There will be a reunion of sorts in the next few months as Gaines plays Colonel Hugh Pickering to Jefferson Mays' Henry Higgins in The Roundabout's upcoming staging of George Bernard Shaw's PYGMALION.  As of this writing, no casting has been done for the role of Eliza Doolittle. "One name is being tossed about," said the actor, "but nothing has been decided." 

Now Gaines is focused on GYPSY and his rehearsals with Patti LuPone and Laura Benanti.  What interested the actor in becoming part of such a production?  Without missing a single beat in the conversation, he replies, "The chance to work with Patti again."  In 2002, director/choreographer Robert Longbottom put together a one-night concert version of Cole Porter's ANYTHING GOES, which reunited LuPone, Howard McGillan and Linda Hart—all of whom had appeared in the acclaimed 1987 revival of the show at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.  In the concert, Gaines essayed the role pf Lord Evelyn Oakleigh  and got to clown his way through "The Gypsy In Me".  So satisfying was the experience, that the actor is very happy to be playing opposite Patti LuPone for a longer period of time. 

In the original 1959 production of GYPSY, Herbie was played by Jack Klugman who was not known for his musical skills and did very little vocalizing.  Subsequent productions of GYPSY have allowed the character of Herbie to sing considerably more than Klugman did.  How much singing will Gaines do in this version?  "As little as possible," he quickly remarks.  "Actually we're fooling around right now with how much I'll be doing.  Nothing is set yet." 

Those people who traveled to the suburbs of Chicago to attend the Ravinia stagings of GYPSY have strong memories of LuPone's performance.  Her rendition of "Everything's Coming Up Roses" brought the house down at the end of the first act and her "Rose's Turn" seared the stage and earned the star a well-deserved two minute standing ovation. "It looks as though the same thing is going to happen here," Gaines enthusiastically commented.  "Patti's performance is something people will remember for a very long time."  That may certainly be true, but it's also probable that Boyd Gaines will be contributing yet another sterling performance to his already impressive roster.

Could it mean there'll be another Tony Award in his future?
 

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GYPSY will play at the New York City Center, located on West 55^th Street between 6^th and 7^th Avenues.  Performances are from July 9^th through 29^th.  The performance schedule varies, so check with www.citycenter.org for details. 

Photos - 1) Boyd Gaines, by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.; 2) Boyd Gaines with Contact co-star Deborah Yates; by Craig Brockman; 3) Stark Sands and Boyd Gaines in Journey's End; by Paul Kolnik; 4) Gypsy co-stars Laura Benanti, Boyd Gaines and Patti LuPone; by Joan Marcus