INTERVIEW: Broadway’s Brenda Wehle on the caring and concern in ‘Mary Jane’
Photo: Mary Jane stars, from left, Rachel McAdams and Brenda Wehle. Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy / Provided by official site.
Mary Jane, the hit play running at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, stars Rachel McAdams as the title character, a mother who is trying to give the best life she can to her seriously ill child. Mary Jane is surrounded by a support system of women, both friends and healthcare workers, and on her journey, she meets two pivotal people: her apartment’s super, Ruthie, and a Buddhist monk by the name of Tenkei. Both, in their unique ways, provide caring and concern at the exact right time, and both roles are brought to life by the same actor: Brenda Wehle.
The Tony-nominated work, written by Amy Herzog and directed by Anne Kauffman, continues on Broadway through June 30. The show actually premiered seven years ago at the Yale Repertory Theatre, and then it opened at off-Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop. Wehle, known for her Broadway turns in The Crucible, Spinning Into Butter, The Grand Manner and Pygmalion, portrayed her two characters in the original production seven years ago as well.
“I did do the earlier version as well seven years ago at the New York Theatre Workshop,” Wehle said in a recent phone interview. “When I first read the play, I couldn’t quite figure out anything other than I wanted to do it. It was a complicated experience reading the text, but it was deeply, deeply effective. And I wasn’t sure how that worked. The characters that I play are so very different in many ways, but their hearts are exactly in the same pool. They talk to one another in a funny way. … Susie Pourfar and I were the only two that came from the original cast, so it’s also interesting to witness how things shift — but not I think visibly — when you’re working with different actors. Since it’s the same, there’s a tremendous amount of caring and concern, deep humor, intimacy, all those things that I find are often rare in a play to express.”
The first character that Wehle portrays is Ruthie, the super of the building where Mary Jane and her child reside. Ruthie is the first woman to enter into the title character’s life and offer support, kindness and a helpful ear. Mary Jane, in turn, offers her unique brand of optimism. Even though her child is facing an uncertain future and serious health problems, she is determined to stay on schedule and remain upbeat. Ruthie seems amazed by this positivity, given the circumstances, and the two have an engaging conversation for the first few minutes of the play.
“For things that happened to [Ruthie] in her life, she’s grown from them, I would say,” Wehle said. “Her humor around certain things has been long and hard-won. I just feel that she’s innately caring. … I think it’s 11 minutes that I’m on stage for that character. You learn so much about her. You feel like you know her in a way. … I find that the audiences listen to this play in rare form. It becomes a real community itself. The audience participates in the same acknowledgments of the pain of it and the joy and the humor — being alive, being alive.”
Wehle and Pourfar have the interesting perspective of having been with the piece seven years ago and now are helping to mount its Broadway premiere. Somewhat amazingly, there have been virtually no changes on the part of the playwright in those intervening years. The two minor alterations: a Facebook reference is now Instagram, and Mary Jane works from home, as so many people grew accustomed to during the pandemic.
For Wehle, her time in this new company has been a joyful one. Acting alongside her are McAdams, April Matthis, Pourfar and Lily Santiago. Her scenes are with McAdams, an Academy Award-nominated actor who recently starred in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
“It’s a real joy to play with Rachel,” said Wehle, who has also appeared in Come Back, Little Sheba and The Big Knife. “She is one of the dearest, warmest, most generous human beings, let alone a fabulous actor. She’s just so available, I guess is the word. I wasn’t very familiar with Rachel’s work. My kids were and were so excited about the fact that she was going to be doing this. One is coming from California to see this play because of [McAdams] really. She had already seen the play before, but Rachel is just I think available. [That’s] sort of the halo around her. She is just open and caring, and there’s not a phony bone in her body.”
Without giving away too much about how the story progresses over the 100 minutes of the play, Wehle returns to the stage for the show’s final moments to play Tenkei, a Buddhist monk who wears beautiful robes, a wardrobe choice that has helped the actor get into the mindset of the character.
“I don’t think there’s anything I don’t like about the second character, to be honest with you,” she said. “It’s interesting because I, myself, have been very interested in Buddhism for a long time. … When I put that [robe] on, there was a sacredness about it. … You were there to bear witness is what it is; that’s basically one of the tenets. You’re there bearing witness. You can’t tell anyone what to do. You just listen and be there for them, and that’s the richest part of the character for me to explore. It’s different in many ways every performance. It’s so alive. I keep thinking about that in the play. Everyone is so alive in it. It’s not a demonstration; it’s a state of being. We all feel that by the way; the cast all feels it. We’re very close.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Mary Jane, featuring Brenda Wehle, continues through June 30 at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway. Click here for more information and tickets.
