INTERVIEW: Alex Mandell on the ensemble excellence of ‘Murder on the Orient Express’
Photo: Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express features, from left, Mark Jude Sullivan, Alex Mandell and Leanne Antonio. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Daniel / Provided by The Press Room with permission.
MILLBURN, N.J. — The Paper Mill Playhouse recently unveiled the stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, a play written by Ken Ludwig and currently running through Sunday, May 14 at the venerable New Jersey institution. The show, which actually had its world premiere a bit farther south at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, stars an ensemble of talented actors bringing to life Christie’s classic whodunit tale. At the center of the narrative is the beloved character of Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective played by Anthony Cochrane — with this iconic mustache intact. Also appearing at the Paper Mill are Karen Ziemba, Gisela Chipe and Donna English, among many others.
One of the key characters in this murder mystery is Hector MacQueen, brought to life by accomplished actor Alex Mandell, who is no stranger to the Paper Mill stage. Last year he appeared in Clue, another murder mystery, which was also directed by Casey Hushion. He’s also a veteran of New York City’s The Play That Goes Wrong, which still enjoys a successful run off-Broadway.
“This is my second show,” Mandell said about his Paper Mill career. “Always a delight to work there. The staff is amazing. The artistic team is amazing. They hire great people, and the backstage life, as they say, is always a great experience.”
Mandell counts himself a fan of murder mysteries, but he was new to Christie’s work when he signed on the dotted line for Murder on the Orient Express. He hadn’t read the original book, but he does remember enjoying Kenneth Branagh’s recent cinematic adaptation (starring Branagh as Poirot).
“I tend to be cast in murder mysteries,” Mandell said. “This is my third one in a few years, so I don’t know, something about me screams murder and intrigue. I wasn’t super-familiar with Agatha Christie’s work. I obviously know of her acclaim and the breadth of [her work]. I was familiar with [her play] Mousetrap a bit, which I guess is still running on the West End. I knew how popular she was, but I had never experienced an Agatha Christie novel before or a play for that matter.”
Mandell was excited to work with Hushion again after his successful run in Paper Mill’s Clue. He said the chance to work for the director was all the selling points he needed to join this production.
“We worked on Clue together and just formed what I hope will be a lifelong bond,” he said. “I think she’s such a smart director and just incredible energy to be around, so as I knew that she was involved, I was on board. But I think Hector, the anxious, nervous type, is certainly nothing new for me. It’s an archetype that I tend to get cast in, and I was excited to have another go at exploring [how] that nervous energy and anxious energy … manifests itself in a different way and hopefully in not a stereotypical, cliche way as can so often be the case with shows where you have an ensemble piece. You have a number of different characters, and they all have their quirks. I think it’s easy to build the ensemble out in a fairly stereotypical way, and I think something Casey does so well is finding the humanity at the heart of the story and at the heart of these characters, bringing out certain qualities of them that form a well-rounded person as opposed to an archetype on the page. So I was excited to explore some of that.”
One of the joys of acting in Murder on the Orient Express for Mandell is the team effort that’s needed to pull off this murder mystery night after night. That ensemble excellence was on fine form at a recent performance, where the the hurried comings and goings of the actors felt like a murderous production of Noises Off. On stage, Christie’s creations travel in and out of train compartments trying to figure out what happened and whodunit, all while the Orient Express is stuck in a snowdrift. But have no fear, Poirot is on the case.
Mandell said he first got into acting because he loved the ensemble nature of the art form. He loves being part of a family on stage and building that community feel with the audience.
“There really isn’t a theater without an audience,” said Mandell, who understudied A Christmas Carol and Hand to God on Broadway. “I think the fun of being in an ensemble is every show is different. The more people there are on stage, the more opportunities there are to find private moments together that might not necessarily be caught by everyone. But I think the really interesting stuff is in the details of interpersonal relationships between the characters. If 10 people in the audience out of the 1,000 that are seated there catch a specific look from one character to another, or if there is a graze of a hand or something, that tells a story in such an interesting way and really fills out the details and intricacies of the ensemble as a whole, and I think it deepens the story that’s being told.”
Mandell added: “The ensemble scenes in this one are interesting, especially the final scene of the show. Really much of the play is being driven by Poirot, so there’s a lot of sitting and listening and gathering of information. … I think we find new small moments between ourselves. I’ll catch a glimpse of someone doing something I’ve never seen before, and then that informs my behavior up there as well. I think the more people on stage, the more opportunities you have to build those little details together and the more factors there are that continue from night to night. Obviously the blocking for the most part stays the same, but there’s definitely a communal energy that drives the piece. And I think all of those little, tiny details that change from night to night shift the energy from one place to another. That’s different every performance, and that’s the beauty of live theater.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, featuring Alex Mandell, continues through Sunday, May 14 at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.
