INTERVIEW Jack Cummings III helps ‘Benny & Joon’ jump from screen to stage
Photo: Benny & Joon stars Bryce Pinkham and Hannah Elless at Paper Mill Playhouse. Photo courtesy of Jerry Dalia / Provided by Richard Hillman PR with permission.
New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse has become a regional powerhouse for pre-Broadway engagements. If it’s playing in the Garden State, there’s a good chance producers across the river are thinking about a possible transfer.
There will likely be considerable interest in the playhouse’s most recent tenant: Benny & Joon, a new musical based on the iconic film starring Johnny Depp and Mary Stuart Masterson. This adaptation, directed by Jack Cummings III, features a book by Kristen Guenther, music by Nolan Gasser and lyrics by Mindi Dickstein.
Claybourne Elder plays Benny, and Hannah Elless plays Joon. Bryce Pinkham is Sam, while Tatiana Wechsler portrays Ruthie.
For Cummings, his journey began a while back when he was invited by producer Larry Hirschhorn to direct the production at the Old Globe in the fall of 2018.
“Larry Hirschhorn, the commercial producer on it, I know him, and he called me and asked me if I would take a look at the material,” Cummings said in a recent phone interview. “So the first thing I did was I watched the movie, of course, which I had a vague memory of. The thing that really jumped out at me was the subject matter. I was in love with a story about a brother and a sister being the central focus of a show, as opposed to a romantic relationship being the focus of a show. I have three older sisters whom I’m very close with, so that was kind of what drew me in.”
Cummings called the score contemporary musical theater, with some slight nods to the past, especially because the character of Sam likes old movies. The director said audiences may catch some influence from the likes of Carole King and Paul Williams. It’s heartfelt and sincere, not big and brassy.
“From the Old Globe to here, there’ll be four new songs, and five have been substantially rewritten and three reprises added or changed,” he said of the modifications during the show’s development. “The DNA of the show is the same, but in terms of the parts and things, the writing is changing daily. … What’s great about these three writers is they’re not really precious about anything. They’re always really looking at it very rigorously and closely, so they’re able to constantly adapt it to make it hopefully the best it can be. From our first preview in the Old Globe to our opening at the Old Globe, which was only eight days, we cut 15 minutes and changed a lot of stuff, and then we just had to stop because it was opening. So the same thing has been going on since then.”
The behind-the-scenes work on the musical has been intense, said Cummings, who is artistic director of Transport Group Theatre Company. Much of that intensity is focused on Pinkham’s character of Sam because he has many routines in the show that are similar to clowning and Buster Keaton sketches.
“That has to be very specifically scored, so it’s definitely an all-skate,” he said of rehearsals. “If there’s a section to be worked on, more often than not it will involve everybody. It’s like, OK, if we’re going to do this, then it affects this. … It’s very much a group effort in any kind of moment that comes up, and especially the moments that involve the character of Sam.”
He added: “I’m in that old school. It’s never finished; you just have to abandon it because you have to. … When I personally direct a show, after it officially opens, it’s hard for me to go back only because I can’t. It’s easy to watch during previews because you have a rehearsal the next day, so you can watch something and know that I get to fix that tomorrow. After it’s opened, that’s not the case. To me, there’s a line of mountains, and you climb one. And there’s one waiting right after that one to climb.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Benny & Joon, directed by Jack Cummings III, plays through May 5 at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.
