INTERVIEW: Leenya Rideout discovers how to live with ‘Wild Abandon’

Photo: Leenya Rideout created and stars in Wild Abandon. Photo courtesy of Carol Rosegg / Provided by Matt Ross Public Relations with permission.

Leenya Rideout, the Broadway performer known for Cabaret, Company and War Horse, has crafted a new show that explores the relationship between her and her mother. Wild Abandon continues through Oct. 21 at the Irish Repertory Theatre’s W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre in Manhattan.

In the solo show, which also features original music by Rideout, the actor not only plays herself, but her mother as well. The audience views the character of Leenya performing alone in a Long Island pub, stuck there because of a snowstorm outside. On the other side of the stage, Rideout plays her mother, a church lady, who is also an artist and whose artwork is displayed in the show.

The journey that these two characters take, recognizing their differences and cherishing the complexity of their relationship, is what gives Wild Abandon its main thesis.

Recently, Rideout spoke with Hollywood Soapbox about portraying both herself and her mother in the show, which is directed by Lisa Rothe. Here’s what she had to say:

On what audiences can expect from the show …

“A girl walks into a bar and starts monologuing about her mom. It’s a night of reckoning for both characters that I play, myself and my mom, and it starts out with a snowstorm and a bar on one side of the country. On the other side, my mother is leading a prayer circle in her church, and both end up talking about their worries, about each other, from across the country. And it features my original songs and music, and my mother’s paintings and artwork. They’re actually literally there on the set and become characters a little bit in the play as we go through it.”

On the development of the show …

“So it started out I would say 15 years ago in my acting class with Michael Howard when he asked us to do a personal monologue exercise and have us play our parents, and I started to impersonate my mother and realize that there was a lot of dramatic material in that relationship — and kept mining it over the years and thought this is the crux of what I am trying to figure out as a person on this planet right now. I’ve done readings, rewrites and rewrites and rewrites and rewrites and just readings all over. I’ve traveled to different theaters all over the country and had friends listen to me there and give advice and listen, and finally I just thought why don’t I just try to send these to some theaters that I know would be perfect. And the very, very perfect theater, the most perfect theater for it took me up on it, and that’s Ciarán [O’Reilly] and Charlotte [Moore] at Irish Rep.

“And I couldn’t believe it. I was really stunned and had been in denial up until very recently, and they said, ‘Find a director. Find designers.’ And I couldn’t believe the people that came on board as soon as they read the script and everything. I’ve just been blown away and pinching myself. Lisa, my director, was actually recommended to me by my husband, Ted Coach, who is an actor. … And she responded to the scripts right away, so she has been my dramaturg as well as my director and just really helping me trim and shape and form the script to be what it is now.”

On the many hats she is wearing …

“I’m not just doing a one-woman show. I wrote it, and I composed it. And I arranged it. … And I have to say the rewrites are the most mentally exhausting just thinking how can I twist this around and make this work. Sometimes I have to do it on the fly, so, yes, it’s been exhausting. I was sort of lucky enough to have a play right before this that was going on all summer at 13th Street Rep, where I played a humongous role that was basically a two-hander where I had a lot of the lines, and so I was sort of mentally prepared for how much I’d have to remember in a great way. I was already primed for a marathon, but this is definitely the biggest challenge of my life.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Wild Abandon, created by and starring Leenya Rideout, is currently playing the Irish Repertory Theatre’s W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.