The married couple ask each other the hard questions about their current Broadway shows.
Can you say Broadway power couple?
Not in the same show.
Julieta Cervantes; Richard Termine
Did you seek it out, or was it brought to you?
It’s a really dark character and a really dark story.
I knew that Adrienne Kennedy was someone whose work wasn’t done nearly enough.
Julieta Cervantes
I wasn’t familiar with most of her work, but I had heard of her.
We think it’s right that Adrienne Kennedy should have a Broadway debut.
When he confirms my gut feeling like that I know to run with it.
Richard Termine
I also knew that the piece scared me to death, so that was the reason to do it.
You’re so intense.
You go into a very deep zone, and I can always tell.
Evgenia Eliseeva
It’s just your prep.
It’s the way that you get your head into your work.
I can tell when you go into your deep submarine zone that you’re interested.
Will Swenson as ‘Neil Diamond' in ‘A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical’.Julieta Cervantes
McDONALD: Let’s talk Mr. Diamond.
How did people find that out?
McDONALD: A party trick is what led to this huge Broadway success for you.
I went on a family trip with your entire family and we were at Lake Powell.
Our youngest daughter hadn’t been born yet.
I didn’t grow up doing many campfires.
SWENSON: It was “Play Me.
“[Both laugh]I have to defend myself!
It’s very, very sexual.
I’m like, “Oh my God, he sounds like Neil Diamond!”
And then I remember thinking, “Oh my God, what are you singing?”
I couldn’t help myself.
I just went, “This is so inappropriate.”
McDONALD: Now here you are, starring as Neil Diamond on Broadway singing “Play Me.”
SWENSON: And I understand the lyric.
It goes back to my dad, definitely.
Neil’s my dad’s favorite singer of all time.
It was played every day in our house, and that’s not an exaggeration.
My dad had a stack of them in his bedroom.
McDONALD: Did Big Bob sing along?
SWENSON: I remember him screaming “I Am… McDONALD: Screaming it?
It’s this big ambitious orchestral score.
SWENSON: How familiar were you with Adrienne Kennedy as a playwright?
Talk about that a little bit.
McDONALD: I wasn’t familiar.
And I was ashamed of that, but also, I didn’t go to actual theater school.
I went to Juilliard, but I went for singing.
I never got a proper theater education that you would get if you actually majored in theater in college.
So I gave myself a little bit of slack for not knowing her work.
Lorraine Hansberry did that with ARaisin in the Sun.
And to help bring her work to more people felt like a necessary thing.
On top of that, to help ensure that she gets her Broadway debut at 91.
This woman has been writing prolifically since the sixties and writing groundbreaking plays.
This is a very important playwright that people have been studying.
She’s actually very popular within the academic world.
Her work has been studied a lot, but not in the commercial world.
It’s the hardest role I’ve ever played.
And every night I walk out there and I think, “This is the night.
Because it’s so hard.
But it’s absolutely worth it, so that’s fine.
1, 2, 3.
McDONALD: We basically said the same thing, Sally and childcare.
Our six year old, sweet Sally, she’s bearing the brunt of this right now.
SWENSON: We didn’t know this was going to time-out like this.
McDONALD: Literally four days apart.
SWENSON: So that’s been challenging.
I’ll get her then.”
Sitter gets her then, grand-mommy gets her then.
McDONALD: Sally gives us monologues about, “Why is it that people have to work?
It’s not fair.
Can you tell your boss?
I don’t understand.”
McDONALD: So, we’re the worst parents in the world.
That’s the hardest part.
McDONALD: And I’ve seen your show a few times.
SWENSON: What’s something in my work that inspires you?
I’m just completely blown away.
And then it’s like, “Wait, but that’s my husband.
This is what we’re working through.”
That excites me the most.
SWENSON: That’s nice.
McDONALD: Oh, shut up.
SWENSON: That’s how her show is billing her, which is true.
But the short answer is your process.
But you’re a truth-seeking missile.
You’re like a detective.
And you’ve been a role model in that regard for me.
It’s a quest to find these characters at their most true forms.
What you end up getting with you is the greatest performances that Broadway has seen.
It’s not up for discussion.
McDONALD: Oh my goodness.
SWENSON: But watching you, your process to get there, is amazing and inspiring to me.
McDONALD: Thank you, babe, but I know there’s also living with my process.
That’s another question.
We’re both so exhausted because we’re both working on shows.
Because you have to be able to show up and sing.
SWENSON: Thank heaven that you understand.
McDONALD: I get it.
I totally understand it.
And when we’re past this, you’re going to let me sleep for a year.
SWENSON: What’s the hardest part of your job every night?
McDONALD: I’m immediately breaking the rules and amending this question.
SWENSON: Pacing myself.
Vocal efficiency, that’s the hardest thing for me.
And then when we got to some of the more upbeat numbers, he clapped and was singing along.
Once I got to know Neil, he’s a very nurturing man.
He seems very interested in helping me.
His first questions to me were, “How’s the sound?
How are the guitars?
Are you taking care of yourself?”
He just went into caretaker mode.
McDONALD: Which is so sweet.
SWENSON: Because it could have been, “This is wrong, this is wrong.
You’re saying this wrong, that’s not what happened.”
It wasn’t any of that.
McDONALD: You performed with him too.
At Fenway, at the Red Sox game.
When we had Sally, you seemed really happy that day too.
It feels like you were living a dream come true for you and your dad at the same time.
SWENSON: That was a once in a lifetime moment.
Adrienne is alive as well.
Do you feel any added pressure?
It’s a semi autobiographical story, it’s a semi autobiographical character, Suzanne Alexander.
She wrote four plays where this character appears, and they’re all based on her and her experiences.
But I would say the great thing has been [her answering] any questions that I’ve had.
Because I have a relationship with Adrienne now, I talk to her on a weekly basis.
We email practically every day.
Other scholars will be like, “Well, what she meant by this was…”.
I’m like, “No, I just asked her.
What she meant was what she just told me.”
Any questions I’ve had the entire time, I’ve been able to go right to the source.
I feel like I get to go to the oracle every time.
And if my interpretations are off, she is the first to tell me.
And if my interpretations are correct, she is the first to tell me with that.
In all ways, I feel like it’s actually a huge blessing that she’s still alive.
And when you said that you’re doing this with the role, that’s right.
Stay away from doing this, but that’s correct.”
And what has been most illuminating to you in having to do that on your own?
Your process is so hungry.
Thank goodness for YouTube, it’s the most amazing resource.
It’s so weird.
McDONALD: My Adrienne Kennedy is now sounding a lot like Neil Diamond.
It’s getting a little confused.
What is your favorite song to sing in the show?
And what do you think my favorite song is that you sing in the show?
SWENSON: My favorite song to sing… Well, it’s varied lately.
And it’s the first time Neil’s at the peak of his powers in the show.
It’s simultaneously the hardest song that I sing all night because it’s very bombastic.
I love those two.
And your favorite is probably, “Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show?”
SWENSON: “Holly Holy?”
I have no idea.
McDONALD: I love them all.
But “Solitary Man.”
Because it’s so pared back and he’s in such a vulnerable, pure state in that moment.
It’s just a very powerful moment and that’s the one that always gets me.
SWENSON: What show are you dying to do with me?
McDONALD: I am dying to doAnthony and Cleopatrawith you.
We would have some good fun.
I have no idea what our marriage would be like after that.
Maybe it’d be even better, maybe it’d be a really cathartic thing to do.
But those are my two.
McDONALD: What’s your favorite in-between show snack?
In between show food is very important.
McDONALD: Oh my gosh!
And we had grilled cheeses this past week.
SWENSON: Well, it’s Melt Shop as of last week.
SWENSON: I was going to ask you how you let go of your dark, dark shows?
You choose a lot of dark material.
McDONALD: I’ve learned to leave it at the theater.
I have to say physically out loud, “Thank you,” to the character.
“Thank you for letting me inhabit you.
I will see you tomorrow.”
But I have to do an actual physical thing where I leave it there.
I had to do that with Billie too.
And before I didn’t do that, I would bring them home with me.
SWENSON: And you say it out loud?
McDONALD: I do.
SWENSON: I haven’t been doing dark things so I’m happy to stay in Neil’s world.
McDONALD: When we doMacbeth, it’ll be a different story.
