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The Westons are in crisis mode.  At every performance, the fictional family at the center of Tracy Letts’s August: Osage County generates more than enough comedy and drama to keep audiences on the edge of their seats for three and a half hours. 

The Tony Award®-winning Best Play about parents, children,

Our correspondent Ben Pesner headed over to the Music Box on a Friday afternoon in early August to chat with two members of the cast. Sally Murphy is a Broadway veteran who created the role of Violet’s middle daughter, Ivy Weston; Jim True-Frost, who just completed a five-year run on TV’s “The Wire,” plays Ivy’s cousin Little Charles.  Here is an excerpt from their conversation.

Ben Pesner: Thank you for coming in early to meet with me. Do you guys do anything special to brace yourself for the marathon four-show weekends?

Jim True-Frost: It’s a pretty demanding schedule. You have to pace yourself, conserve your energy and stay focused on the show as much as you can.

This show is pretty intense.  Is it as extraordinary for you guys to perform as it is for us watching in the audience?

Jim: Every aspect has been really positive for me.  There’s the cast, which includes a lot of old friends and colleagues, some of whom

I’ve worked with for more than 20 years, including Sally. The material is a joy to work on every night. It’s very audience-friendly.  There’s a lot of response and a lot of laughter, but it’s also very deep and nuanced.

Jim: Sally and I did our first Steppenwolf play together about 20 years ago. It was Simon Gray’s The Common Pursuit, which was directed by Rondi Reed, who originated the role of Mattie Fae in this production.  So we go back a long way.

Sally: And two years before that, our very first show was A Christmas Carol at the Goodman Theatre.

Jim: Yeah, singing and dancing to Dickens! [laughter]

Working with a legend like Estelle Parsons must be fun.

Jim: It’s been a joy. She is a great source of inspiration. We’ve all known and admired her work for a long time. She’s done a couple of plays in Chicago which Steppenwolf did, but I don’t think anybody in this cast has worked with her before.  We look forward to being on stage with her every night. She brings out the best in you. She’s always alive, she’s always surprising, and she’s doing it for three and a half hours every night.

Sally: I concur completely.

You two have a great scene together at the piano, which is a beautiful, quiet moment among all the play’s fireworks.  Is that kind of scene as hard to do as the big, dramatic ones?

Jim: Sometimes the big, dramatic stuff leads you along, or has big hand-holds, like when you’re climbing a rock face.  You just listen to each other, like we always try to do, be in the moment, and honor the needs of the story.  Actually, that scene was one of the trickier aspects of my acting.  I’ve never played a note on the piano before.

You’re kidding.  I thought you did a fine job at the keyboard.

Jim: I’m playing by rote. I’ve taped colored tape on the keys and I know where to put my hands. But I couldn’t play any other song. I couldn’t tell you what key I’m playing in.  I’m just faking.

It’s ironic, given that you’re in the Music Box Theatre, which was built in 1921 by Irving Berlin to house his musical revues.

Jim: One of the very special aspects of this production for us is the Broadway mystique, the history in a house like this. In Chicago there’s a great history that Steppenwolf is a part of, but here there’s a century of theatre in Times Square, with tens of thousands of people going out every night to see plays. It’s a great thrill.

Do the different theatres have different personalities?  What changed when you moved from the Imperial to the Music Box?

Sally: The Imperial was great.  We were very fortunate with the reception for the play in that space. It is much larger than the Music Box—1,400 seats versus about 1,000 here.  The Imperial is basically a musical house.  The play tells such a large story, and you had to make sure those people way out there heard you and were engaged.  We moved here and we felt very relieved that we could relax a little bit.  It’s always good to play large house because you need to have the technical skills.  I think we achieved it, but coming here, we felt an intimacy that’s really, really lovely.

You’ve both worked in other media, and Jim just finished five seasons on "The Wire."  What made you come back to Broadway?

Jim: It was a no-brainer.  I’ve been doing TV and film for many years, although the part on “The Wire” was my first big, regular part on a series.  I’ve gone back and forth [from stage to screen] many times.  There’s something really thrilling about keeping both sets of muscles toned.  The craft has different demands in front of a camera from in front of a big audience, and they have different rewards.

Jim: Working with Sally and my other Steppenwolf brothers and sisters is totally unique.  In film or TV there isn’t much continuity in terms of personnel.  [Working with] an ensemble is one of the huge rewards of coming back to the theatre, especially a Steppenwolf production. And then there’s the nightly ritual of telling a story from beginning to end with a live audience.  August: Osage County really capitalizes on that.  It has so many moments where you feel the audience completely with you, going through this roller-coaster of a story with emotional highs and lows.  They laugh, there are big plot twists, and you feel the earth shaking when the audience is treated to some big surprises.

Speaking of rituals: Most rituals work best when there’s food involved. In Act II the cast consumes a full meal on stage.

Sally: We eat an entire dinner every night, even though those of us who have been in the show for a long time are desperately sick of chicken and vegetables and potatoes. We eat it every single night just because it is a three-and-a-half hour play and there’s nothing better than sitting there and at that point eating an entire meal. So I get that butter and put it on my cornbread.  A couple weeks ago, we came back on a Tuesday after our day off, and Jim said, “I just ate dinner at home…chicken kabobs.” I looked at him like he was insane. I said, “How can you eat any more chicken?” He had only been in the show for two weeks, but I thought, “Are you out of your mind?”

Jim: About two days later I hit the chicken threshold.  I’ve been in plays where they serve you applesauce instead of mashed potatoes or whatever, but in this production the design is very naturalistic, and we’re eating exactly what the [characters] say we’re having.

Sally: Except, toward the end of the run at the Imperial, they added meatloaf.  We were so excited.  But then we all got sick of that, and now we’re back to all-chicken.

Get tickets to August: Osage County

Broadway stars and their pets turned out in July for a good cause: the 10th annual Broadway Barks!, a dog and cat adopt-a-thon benefiting NYC animal shelters and adoption agencies.  Here are some of the VIP (Very Important Pets) in attendance.

Michael Cerveris with his dog,Gibson (adopted from a previous Broadway Barks), and friend. Photo: The Broadway League

New Sound for the Phantom – In late August, The Phantom of the Opera will install a new Digital Sound System to bring the sound design technology of the longest running show in Broadway’s history into the 21st century. Longtime leading man Howard McGillin has once again donned the mask after a leave of absence spent doing film work. McGillin has played the title role more than 2000 times, more than any other actor on Broadway. 

New Owners for the Helen Hayes Theatre - Second Stage Theatre has announced that it will be purchasing Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre, which currently houses Xanadu. The venerable Off Broadway company will begin producing at the Hayes in 2010, joining Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center Theater, and Roundabout Theatre Company as not-for-profit theatres that own or operate Broadway playhouses.

An Emmy Nomination for the Tonys – The 61st annual Tony Awards® telecast (June 2007) has received a primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Special Class--Awards Programs category.  White Cherry Entertainment, in association with Tony Award Productions, received the nomination, marking their third nomination.  The Tony Awards are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.

Captured on Film – Before it closed last month, Passing Strange was recorded for another medium.  Spike Lee filmed two of the final three performances of this rock-infused musical created by Stew and Heidi Rodewald.  Lee has not yet announced whether the film will be released theatrically or shown on cable.

Christmas on Broadway - Following acclaimed engagements in San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Toronto, Los Angeles and St. Paul, Irving Berlin's White Christmas, a new stage adaptation of the beloved classic film, will arrive at the Marquis Theatre on Broadway this holiday season - guaranteeing that New York will have a white Christmas!  Previews will begin Friday, November 14 for a limited engagement through Sunday, January 4.

• Rent original cast member Gwen Stewart has returned to the Broadway production.  Tracie Thoms, who played Joanne in the film version of Rent, has also joined the Broadway cast.  Both will perform with the show through the end of its 12+ year run on September 7.
• Whoopi Goldberg joined Broadway’s production of Xanadu on July 29 for a six-week limited engagement. She is playing one of the scheming muses while Jackie Hoffman is out of the show.
• “Weeds” star Hunter Parrish will star as Melchior Gabor in Spring Awakening in his Broadway debut beginning August 18.

• The long-running hit Chicago now stars Tom Wopat as Billy Flynn and Kevin Chamberlin as Amos Hart.

Tom Wopat

• Derek Keeling and Ashley Spencer replaced Max Crumm and Laura Osnes as Danny and Sandy in Grease on July 22. Keeling placed third and Spencer placed second in the reality series “You’re the One That I Want.”

• Legally Blonde The Musical has a new Elle Woods.  Bailey Hanks, the winner of MTV’s “Legally Blonde The Musical: The Search for Elle Woods,” made her Broadway debut as Elle on July 23. The reality show’s first, second and third runners-up also received roles in the musical production on Broadway or the national tour.

• Danity Kane’s Aubrey O’Day is the new Amber in Hairspray.