INTERVIEW: With Broadway shut down, Alex Brightman tries to find the bright side
Photo: Alex Brightman stars as the title character in Beetlejuice on Broadway. Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy / Provided by Polk & Co. with permission.
When Broadway shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, there were many unfortunate realities that theater lovers had to face. One of the casualties was Beetlejuice: The Musical, which ended its run prematurely at the Winter Garden Theatre (one hopes it comes back from the dead at another theater).
The star of the horror-filled musical was Alex Brightman, who also played Dewey Finn in School of Rock: The Musical. His performances in the two comedic shows were celebrated by critics and earned him double Tony Award nominations.
Since COVID-19 struck, and the theater world was turned upside down, Brightman has kept busy. His latest project is playing Renfield, the bug-eating lunatic, in Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, a new podcast by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen. He stars in the audio series with many other Broadway actors, including Christopher Sieber, Laura Benanti, Annaleigh Ashford, James Monroe Iglehart and John Stamos, among others.
Recently Brightman exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox about the new podcast project. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
Why was it important for you to join the cast of Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors?
My great great great great grandfather’s best friend’s aunt’s accountant’s enemy’s doctor’s masseuse told me on his dying bed, ‘Alex … there will come a day where you will be called upon. It will be no easy ask. But you must oblige when called upon for this great challenge.’ I just have to believe that Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors is that call, so I couldn’t say no.
There’s also the money. They paid each of us $6 million to record our parts, which I thought was financially irresponsible … but who’s saying no to $6 million? Now I have a couch made out of caviar. Who else can say that these days? Probably nobody.
I think it was also important for me to play Renfield in this adaptation because the role is basically me. I didn’t have to do any real character building because I feel like we’re so similar. In fact, there was a moment there where I didn’t know where Alex began and Renfield ended, you know? It was a real Daniel Day Lewis situation for me. It made it hard on my family, of course, what with the bug eating and all. They didn’t mind the accent … I do accents all the time. My dog won’t speak to me anymore. What was the question again?
Was the experience fun, challenging, different?
I have always been such a fan of voiceover and the people that are lucky enough to get to do it. So this fulfilled a real childhood (and adulthood) dream for me. It was a blast to be alone in a guest bedroom, holding pillows on either side of me, trying to be funny and taking direction over the internet. What a world. But it was a blast. I wouldn’t say it was challenging because everyone involved made it so fun and easy. So it just felt like playing around with a bunch of friends. That’s the way I want to work forever.
Are you a fan of the original novel and the many adaptations over the years?
I am a huge horror fan. But to be honest, I think one of my blindspots is the whole Dracula thing. I need to do more watching and reading when it comes to Dracula. If I’m being completely candid (and this isn’t a joke), the movie adaptation about Dracula that I’ve seen the most is Dracula: Dead and Loving It, with Leslie Nielsen. I stand by that movie, by the way. There are moments in that one that feel comedically similar to Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors. I think that’s why I was drawn to do this. It cracked me up.
[Read Hollywood Soapbox’s interview with Annaleigh Ashford.]
How different was the acting for this podcast versus your work on stage?
The money is severely different. Just kidding. I received $6 million for this, as I previously stated. In all honesty, because this was such a farcical and tongue-in-cheek version of this story, it felt easy to jump in like we were doing a rehearsal for a stage show. I think a similarity between stage work and radio play is that you have to use your voice calculatingly. On stage, it has to reach the back of the theatre in the same way it was meant to be received in the front row. On a podcast, you must take great care that the feelings and emotion reach across the impossible science that is the internet and somehow convey some semblance of that same emotion in a listeners ears. So you are really relying on making your voice as three-dimensional as possible.
The other difference is that I recorded it with no pants on. And I’m not really allowed to do that on stage most of the time.
[Read Hollywood Soapbox’s interview with James Monroe Iglehart.]
Are you hopeful that the New York theater community will rebound from this pandemic?
I’m not hopeful … I’m certain that the New York theatre community will bounce back after this whole terrible mess is over. I’m glad that we’re taking our time and not rushing back to big groups. Theatre is communal by nature, so 100% of what we do had to stop. It’s about big groups. But nobody is going to let theatre go. It’s too personal. It’s too emotional. It’s too tied to what we are as a society. We crave stories. We crave community. And we crave entertainment to make us forget how shitty life can get sometimes. I am not sure when we will be comfortable enoughto step into a theatre en masse. But when that day/night arrives, and the curtains rise again, the wait will have been worth it.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, featuring Alex Brightman, is now available to download and listen to on the Broadway Podcast Network. Click here for more information.
