INTERVIEW: Brandon Williams brings villainy to ‘Gettin’ the Band Back Together’
Photo: Gettin’ the Band Back Together, the new Broadway musical, stars Brandon Williams as Tygen, a real estate king and bandleader in Sayreville, New Jersey. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus / Provided by BBB with permission.
NEW YORK — When audience members first see Brandon Williams’ new character, Tygen, in Gettin’ the Band Back Together, a deep, memorable impression is made. He walks around the Belasco Theatre stage with a dedicated entourage of bad guys, all of them ruling over the good people of Sayreville, New Jersey. He also has his eyes (and large, highlighted hair) set on beating his music rival, Mitch (Mitchell Jarvis), in a battle of the bands competition.
As if things weren’t villainous enough, Tygen is also a local real estate king, and he’s determined to cash in on the hard times of the neighborhood. But Mitch stands in his way.
If Mitch and his band win the gentleman’s bet and takes top spot at the competition, the foreclosures stop. If Tygen and his band win the competition, Sayreville will never be the same again. Moo ha ha!
Williams brings great energy and tyrannical humor to the role, which he has been developing for a long, long time. “I’ve actually been doing this for eight years,” Williams said in a recent phone interview. “Once they added music, I was brought on board. And probably three or four times a year, a group of actors would get together, and we’d do a reading of it, work on the songs. And then about four years ago, we did an actual production of it in New Jersey.”
After the New Jersey production, word came down that Gettin’ the Band Back Together was headed for Broadway, and Williams jumped on board (so did Marilu Henner, Jay Klaitz, Manu Narayan, Sawyer Nunes, Kelli Barrett and Paul White). Now he’s making his Broadway debut in the musical, which runs at the Belasco through Sept. 16.
“From the very beginning, they gave me total … freedom to play around and do whatever I wanted to do,” he said. “I received very little direction as far as development of the character. … It’s funny, he has almost a Shakespearean feel, which I think I brought to it from the very beginning as far as the soliloquies and how he speaks, and that kind of guided how I interpret the character.”
Williams said Tygen, who is the butt of many jokes, is a combination of Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller and William Shakespeare’s Richard III. It’s an original characterization set in a town and state that Williams knows well.
“I have lived in New York for 26 years, so I definitely know a good deal about New Jersey,” he said. “What I always say is I’m from Arkansas originally. That’s where I grew up, and Arkansas is the New Jersey of the South. It’s always the butt of the jokes in the South, just like New Jersey is.”
The cast’s dedication to New Jersey and the community of Sayreville can be evidenced by who was in the audience for the musical’s invited dress rehearsal. “We all had our friends there, but they also invited the entire town of Sayreville,” the actor said. “That was the most exciting show, and it was the first performance in front of a live audience. Also, the town of Sayreville was just so psyched to see their town be in the spotlight.”
Williams said the most important character in the show is the audience. There are many jokes that involve a casual wink to the crowd, and watching the show, it almost seems like the actors are about to break the fourth wall and give in to all the hilarity. Where these laughs would land was not immediately apparent during the development stage.
“That’s something you don’t really quite understand when you’re reading it in a room or you’re in rehearsals for seven weeks,” he said. “Until the audience is there, that’s really when I discovered my moments, and that was a big process over the course of the previews. My character, in particular, because he has so many of these soliloquies at the front of the stage and so many little quick entrances and exits — you can really utilize the audience to make something land, so I feel like more than any of the characters, I have more of a relationship with the audience. I take things to the audience more, and by the end of the show, I feel like I know them, especially the more vocal ones. I have little relationships with them because I look when they’re booing or cheering or hissing or whatever.”
Williams has been a performer his entire life. In the first grade, he impressed family and friends with his original rendition of “Rhinestone Cowboy” at a local talent show in Arkansas. He then acted in community theater productions and went to school at Carnegie Mellon University.
Today, he’s an actor in several different media.
“Right now I’m actually talking to you in my voiceover studio at home,” he said. “That’s my mainstay over the many years I’ve been doing this. Right now I’m actually the brand voice for Nat Geo WILD. I have been for almost five years. … Earlier on I did a lot of classical theater, and I think that I’ve always known that I have a somewhat resonant voice. And I have an agent, and they get you auditions. You start out doing radio voiceovers, and you do television. Now I’m in the world of promos and narration. I do a lot of audio books as well. That’s what my favorite voiceover is to do: audiobooks, because you get to tell the story from the beginning to end.”
Even though Gettin’ the Band Back Together will end its run Sept. 16, Williams’ acting (and his voice) will continue on in many different forms.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Gettin’ the Band Back Together, starring Brandon Williams, plays through Sept. 16 at the Belasco Theatre in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
