Mark Rylance ready for another go at “Jerusalem” for Broadway!

It’s such a huge tragedy that I never got the chance to see “Jerusalem” either at Royal Court or at the Apollo in London. When “Jerusalem” transfers to Broadway, I’M BUYING A PLANE TICKET TO NEW YORK CITY AND SEE MY IDOL ONSTAGE!

from the Arts Beat (NYT):

Will the Tony Award-winning actor Mark Rylance (“Boeing-Boeing”) be competing against himself in the 2011 Tony competition for best actor in a play?

It’s increasingly possible. Mr. Rylance has earned rave reviews as the delightfully narcissistic street performer Valere in the play “La Bête,” which is scheduled to run at the Music Box through mid-February, and it now looks very likely that he will return to Broadway in the spring to reprise his widely acclaimed London performance as Rooster Byron in Jez Butterworth’s play “Jerusalem.”

Mr. Rylance won the 2010 Olivier Award (Britain’s equivalent to the Tony) for best actor for “Jerusalem,” a play of epic themes about the state of England, about fathers and sons and friendship — all humanity. The play centers on Byron, a drug-dealing foul-mouthed antihero and squatter deeply beloved by his friends and customers, who join him to pass the time in the middle of a wood that developers hungrily eye.

The three-hour-plus dark comedy also was named best play, and Mr. Rylance best actor, in The London Evening Standard Theater Awards in 2009. The Royal Court Theater production in 2009, and subsequent transfer to the West End in 2010, were the talk of London playgoers until the play closed and Mr. Rylance moved on to “La Bête.”

American and British theater producers have been eyeing a Broadway run for “Jerusalem” for some time, and Mr. Rylance said in an interview Thursday that it looked likely for this season. He said that the director of the London production, Ian Rickson, was on board, and that his co-star, the British actor Mackenzie Crook — who played Rooster’s buddy Ginger — had agreed to join the Broadway production assuming all necessary arrangements with Actors’ Equity can be made. (Mr. Rickson directed Mr. Crook as the forlorn playwright Konstantin in the Kristin Scott Thomas-led “Seagull” on Broadway in 2008.)

“It’s all moving ahead well for ‘Jerusalem,’ especially now that Mackenzie is coming over, because I wasn’t sure I could do it without him,” Mr. Rylance said. “Everyone seems on board for the spring, the final arrangements seem under way. The plan is to start rehearsals for Broadway three or four weeks after ‘La Bête’ finishes up.” The producers have been in talks with Equity about bringing over British actors like Mr. Rylance and Mr. Crook for the spring and making all the other necessary deals. A spokesman for the production said on Friday that there was nothing to announce at this point.

If “Jerusalem” does open on Broadway this spring, it would be before April 28, the cut-off date for plays and musicals to qualify for the Tony Awards. The best actor category will include five actors, and there are several high-profile performances on tap by men this season: from Al Pacino in “The Merchant of Venice,” James Earl Jones in “Driving Miss Daisy,” and Jeffrey Wright in “A Free Man of Color” in productions now under way, to Ben Stiller in “House of Blue Leaves,” Robin Williams in “Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo,” Joe Mantello in “The Normal Heart” (if that production comes together) and others in the spring.

So it’s possible, of course, that Mr. Rylance would not be nominated for both “La Bête” and “Jerusalem.” But two big performances in one season by Mr. Rylance, widely regarded as Britain’s leading stage actor today, could make for a very interesting Tony ballot.

 

Playbill interviews Mark Rylance, Mark Rylance to perform BENEFIT GIG, and other news.

An illustration of La Bete cast: David Hyde Pierce, Mark Rylance, and Joanna Lumley. Wonderfully illustrated by Ken Fallin.

From Playbill.com:

Mark Rylance is tearing up the stage, literally, with his tour-de-force comic performance in David Hirson’s La Bête on Broadway. We spoke to him on opening night.

Tony and Oliver Award-winning actor Mark Rylance earned acclaim for his Broadway debut as the disheveled Robert in the 2008 revival of the sex comedy Boeing-Boeing under the direction of Matthew Warchus. Reuniting with Warchus for a revised revival of David Hirson’s 1991 verse comedy La Bête, first in London and currently on Broadway, Rylance again plays a clown — the earthy street actor Valere, who spews food, gas and an endless strain of self-aggrandizing iambic pentameter. The turn, which includes a 40-minute speech that dazzles audiences with quirky rhymes and sight gags, is being hailed as one of Broadway’s most exciting performances of the season — partly for the sheer stamina of it all. An hour after the curtain came down on opening night, Rylance shared thoughts about his work, his director and his wish list of roles.

What you do with the play is incredible, holding court for the first half an hour, in a rhyming-verse monologue that takes you all over the stage. As an audience member, it seems like it must be terrifying. What is it like for you?
Mark Rylance: It’s not terrifying at all, no. It’s like if I was a surfer, surfing in Hawaii or somewhere. There’s such great waves of laughter that come from the audience, and riding those, knowing when to get up on them and come down and when to move into the next one — each night’s very different. No, I don’t feel frightened about it at all. It just feels like a lot of fun, to go out and play like that.

Your co-star Joanna Lumley said you wring so much out of a few words and one couplet.
MR: I think it’s called “milking.” Is it called “milking” in America? “Milking the cow”? Yeah, I’m afraid that’s what I do.

But you’re clearly relishing the moment.
MR: Oh, I love making people laugh! It’s an amazing feeling, yeah. I’m not a very funny person in reality. I can never remember jokes and I don’t make people laugh very often. I’m a quite serious character, really. But I have a certain fool that I can play, and going out in front of people and having people laugh a lot — it’s a great job, huh? A great job.

There seems to be a great collaboration, a safety net between you and your fellow actors onstage.
MR: Oh, yeah. It’s like being in a jazz band. We’re able to expand phrases. Like James Brown would say to someone, “You play now! Play along! Go on, play that!” And then you can take it back and then you can hand it on. Even tonight, a couple of things happened that had never happened before, so inside, you have also a sense of humor and a sense of enjoying, “Oh, that’s incredible what someone does,” and passing the ball around it. It’s a wonderful cast, very good.

Had Valere been a role on a wish list for you?
MR: No, I don’t have a wish list of roles. I’d like to be able to play myself some day. I don’t have a list of roles, no. No, [Matthew Warchus] came to me with it and said, “Would you be interested?” and — yeah, certainly, I’d be interested in that role.

Your collaboration with Matthew Warchus has been so fruitful. Could you imagine having tackled this part without him at the helm?
MR: No. No. There are about three directors I work with primarily now, who I really like to work with. I like the theatre ’cause it’s live, you know, and so I do like quite a bit of freedom — not freedom to pervert the story or just draw attention to yourself, but freedom to respond to the moment, that each audience is new, and they don’t want to see last night’s performance. They want to have it tonight, and it’s live. It’s not recorded or set. So I anchor myself more in internal things rather than external things, and Matthew’s very understanding and appreciative of that, so that each night is a discovery and each night is a dance with the audience who are there. Sometimes, in matinees, they’re quieter, and then we go into other areas; and sometimes, like tonight, they’re very wild and laugh a lot, and then we go into other areas. But the main thing is to be present in the theatre, and I like working with directors [who have that] objective, too, that we’re “live and direct,” as Bob Marley would say, that we’re there and present. He’s terrific that way. We must have done about seven plays together now. Shakespeare and Sam Shepherd and Boeing-Boeing and this. Even my first play that I wrote, he directed.

There’s such a sense of magic in the play, with the language and also with what Matthew’s put into the staging itself.
MR: Yeah, he’s very, very good at the staging, and he’s very good at bringing something down to the essential ingredients. He’s a very thoughtful person. He’s a classical musician, you know. He’s a very good guitarist, and so he has a great sense of the music, of the rhythm of the piece and has a marvelous team who work with him always on the technical side, so his lighting and his sound and his conception of the design [are always honored]. He doesn’t say a lot. He’s a lovely director; he doesn’t come in with any plan, really. He sees what unfolds with the cast that he’s chosen and then shapes it very late on, so I’m able to be completely chaotic. And I must have thrown out just as many ideas as I use. … So that’s a very nice way to work. He’s a proper gardener, you know. He doesn’t just impose a scheme on the landscape. He really looks at the landscape and sees what’s there and then brings out and shapes it so that the audience can [appreciate it]. That’s what he does. He really keeps an innocence, which is what you need from a director. You need them to be really thinking about the audience — what do they need to understand the story or the joke or what’s moving about it here.

You’re doing this in iambic pentameter, so if anyone drops a line…how do you cover?
MR: Oh, you can’t, really. No, you can’t cover. I have had to make up Shakespeare. I used to forget my lines in Shakespeare, and all the other actors — after a while, they would turn to me and think, “Oh, now what’s he going to say?” and I’d have to make something up. But my memory’s got a bit better lately. I’ve been taking supplements … Memory’s an important thing for me. When that goes, then I’m done.

(Adam Hetrick is staff writer of Playbill.com. Write him at ahetrick@playbill.com.)

Mark Rylance to perform benefit gig for the Stella Adler Studio — GET YOUR TICKETS IF YOU’RE IN NEW YORK CITY!

Tony Award winner Mark Rylance will perform a special benefit show, entitled Off the Grid in Manhattan, on Monday, November 8, at 7pm.

The evening will include spontaneous improv theater with Rylance and friends in full support of the Stella Adler Studio.

Rylance is currently starring on Broadway in La Bête. He won a Tony for Boeing-Boeing, and recent credits also include the West End productions of Jerusalem and Endgame. He is widely recognized as one of the world’s most prominent Shakespearean actors, and is the former artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

Benefit tickets are $100 general admission or $250 VIP seats. To purchase, click here.

NOTE: If anyone is going to the benefit gig, please send me photos so I can post it on the Mark Rylance Fan Page. Thanks.

La Bete in photos (Broadway production, 2010)

Mark Rylance and David Hyde Pierce

Mark Rylance, Joanna Lumley, and David Hyde Pierce

Stephen Ouimette and Mark Rylance

Mark Rylance

Mark Rylance

Mark Rylance and Liza Sadovy

U.S reviews for the Broadway version of “La Bete” come pouring in for Mark Rylance’s performance!

For some reason, U.S critics are responding a lot more favorably to La Bete than the British did over the summer. To no one’s surprise, Mark Rylance’s performance is garnering a lot of critical acclaim and praise:

Mark Rylance is a fool’s fool. Belching, bragging, accompanying his own self-aggrandizing soliloquies with stunning four-part flatulence, he tears into the first half of La Bête, David Hirson’s 1991 meta-Molière oddity, with a 400-line megalogue. In rhymed couplets. Not a syllable of which, I’m happy to report, isn’t uproarious. With all due respect to his excellent co-stars, David Hyde Pierce and Joanna Lumley, and the fine ensemble that embroiders the show’s frilly edges, Rylance is clearly the show’s raison d’être. His performance as the irresistibly loathsome street clown Valere — a lowbrow bête noire visited upon the tidy playwright Elomire (Pierce) — is the grand prize at the bottom of a box of confetti. (New York Mag, 10/14/10)

La Bete is a beautiful piece of art about the existential traps built into making beautiful art.  (The Atlantic, 10/12/10)

In the revival that opened Thursday night at the Music Box, the rest of us get to judge whether the play deserved better. And on the basis of director Matthew Warchus’s stylish production, featuring a sensational turn by a clown from outer space, Mark Rylance, one can say categorically, unequivocally, that “La Bête” is one half of a surefire evening.

The good stuff begins the instant Rylance starts jabbering — an act he keeps up virtually nonstop for 40 riotous minutes — and ends with the marvelous entrance of Joanna Lumley as a French royal arriving in a tornado of glitter. Then, stack by stack, the meticulously amassed comic riches are subtracted, in a plot that shrivels up into limp satire and facile posturing. One comes to see why the play faded away quickly the first time around. (The Washington Post, 10/15/10)

But early in the work comes a jolt of Adrenalin: Mark Rylance (“Boeing-Boeing”) appears wearing a pair of terrible false teeth and delivers an astonishing, 20-minute soliloquy that leaves audiences in hysterics, stunned and cheering.

He almost steals the show, but there’s more: David Hyde Pierce (“Spamalot,” TV’s “Frasier”) is also onboard, at his subtle, arch best, and Joanna Lumley (TV’s “Absolutely Fabulous”) gives a spiky, haughty performance as the princess.

….Much will be made of Rylance’s initial monologue, an exhausting piece of acrobatic wordplay that threatens to destabilize the rest of the play. He emerges spitting melon, burps, scratches himself and even defecates in a chamber pot — all while delivering a torrent of words in a slightly crazed, California surfer-dude accent.

He is boastful and pompous, falsely modest and offensive. He rudely complains about the lavish dinner that was served in his honor (especially the “acidic vinaigrette”), he lectures without knowing what he’s talking about, makes up his own terms (he likes “verbobos” instead of “words” because it’s more cheery) and never lets anyone else get in a word — sorry “verbobos.” (NOLA, 10/14/10)

But the show belongs to British star Rylance, who won a Tony for “Boeing-Boeing.” As Valere, he makes his entrance spitting out slices of melon, burping, farting and even worse. It’s no fluke that the show curtain is illustrated with what looks like a stomach-shaped caption balloon filled with words.

By far, Valere’s worst characteristic is that he jibber-jabbers nonstop and nonsensically about his art, especially in a brain-dizzying speech that lasts close to half an hour. Rylance, hair scraggly, teeth protruding, delivers it with so much finesse you shake with laughter. Days later, it still cracks me up when I think about his performance. (NY Daily News, 10/15/10)

I can’t really tell from Ben Brantley‘s review in the New York Times whether he liked “La Bete” or not. But the sizzling play opened on Broadway last night and Mark Rylance gave a tour de force performance. He is just sensational as Valere, and audiences will love David Hyde Pierce and Joanna Lumley (famous from “Absolutely Fabulous”).

Early on in David Hirson‘s 1991 play, Rylance makes his appearance and gives what amounts to a 30 minute comic monologue. It only seems like a dialogue because Hyde Pierce, who is with him on the scene, manages to take his character’s stunned silence and turn it into conversation. By the time Lumley enters–and she has some spectacular entry–the audience is mesmerized and exhausted. (Showbiz 411, 10/15/10)

He’s been described as the new Olivier, but I don’t recall Olivier ever taking on the Jerry Lewis role in Boeing Boeing or playing a street clown who spits, farts, and spews rhymed couplets of narcissistic nonsense in La Bete.Mark Rylance has done that–and more–throwing himself fearlessly into anything that lets him show his healthy love of theatrical playfulness.

In La Bete–the revival of a play that failed almost 20 years ago on Broadway–he’s a 17th Century French buffoon who speaks in 20-minute or so monologues that he makes riveting, hilarious, and likable, even though his character uses works of literature for toilet paper. (The Village Voice, 10/15/10)

and there’s many more reviews online. There is one article about Mark Rylance at Newsday, but unfortunately I am not a subscriber. If anyone of you are subscribed to Newsday, please copy and paste the article to me so I can post it on the Mark Rylance Fan Page. Thanks.

La Bete Videos!

La Bete is opening on Broadway on October 14. If you will be in New York City, go see this.

a VERY funny trailer with Mark Rylance, David Hyde Pierce, and Joanna Lumley!

a SNEAK PEEK of La Bete

GO SEE IT! I wish I could go…

“La Bête” Previews begin June 26 in London!

who is going?!?! (note: October 14 is actually my birthday. I’m gonna buy a plane ticket to NYC and see this play just to see my idol onstage!)

promo poster for “La Bête”

According to Playbill:

The revival of David Hirson’s 1991 Molière-inspired verse satire La Bête, starring Tony Award winners David Hyde Pierce and Mark Rylance and BAFTA winner Joanna Lumley, begins previews June 26 at London’s Comedy Theatre.

Tony and Olivier Award-winning director Matthew Warchus (God of Carnage, Boeing-Boeing, The Norman Conquests) helms the 17th century-set production that will first open at the Comedy July 7 and run through Sept. 4, prior to arriving on Broadway Sept. 23 at the Music Box Theatre. An official opening has been set for Oct. 14.

In addition to Hyde Pierce (Curtains, Spamalot), Rylance (Boeing-Boeing, Jerusalem) and Lumley (“Absolutely Fabulous”), the transatlantic cast includes Stephen Ouimette, Lisa Joyce, Greta Lee, Robert Lonsdale, Michael Milligan, Liza Sadovy, Sally Wingert, Deanne Lorette and Steve Routman.

For the new staging, the role of Prince Conti (originated on Broadway by Dylan Baker) has been changed to Princess Conti, with Lumley in the part.

According to producers, “La Bête is a comic tour de force about Elomire (Pierce), a high-minded classical dramatist who loves only the theater, and Valere (Rylance), a low-brow street clown who loves only himself. When the fickle princess (Lumley) decides she’s grown weary of Elomire’s royal theatre troupe, he and Valere are left fighting for survival as art squares off with ego in a literary showdown for the ages.”

La Bête is produced in London and New York by Scott Landis and Sonia Friedman Productions, Roger Berlind, Robert G. Bartner/Norman Tulchin, Bob Boyett/Tim Levy, Roy Furman, Max Cooper, Philip Morgaman/Frankie J. Grande and Bud Martin.

The production has set design by Mark Thompson, lighting design by Hugh Vanstone, music by Claire van Kampen and sound design by Simon Baker.

La Bête made its short-lived Broadway premiere in 1991, playing 25 performances at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre. The original cast featured Dylan Baker, Micheal Cumpsty and Tom McGowan. The play received acclaim when it arrived in London in 1992, earning the Olivier Award for Best Comedy.

For tickets to the London run phone 0844 871 7627 or visit LaBetethePlay.
Tickets for the Broadway run are available by phoning (212) 239-6200 or by visiting Telecharge.

A Touch of the Poet: Mark Rylance’s Bizzare Approach to the Tony Acceptance Speech 2008

Great post from Broadway.com:

Over the years we’ve heard every kind of acceptance speech under the sun: impassioned (paging Ms. Alice Ripley), multiplied (original Billy Elliots Trent Kowalik, David Alvarez and Kiril Kulish, in stereo), teary (Karen Olivo), sardonic (Tracy Letts) and even rapped (thank you, Lin-Manuel Miranda).

However, nothing could prepare us for the understated absurdity presented by 2008 Best Actor in a Play winner Mark Rylance, whose comedic turn in the acclaimed revival of Boeing-Boeing gave him the opportunity to step to the Tony Awards mic and recite what seemed like, at the time, the most artful stream of gibberish spouted onstage since the original run of Waiting for Godot. “If you’re in the woods, the back country, someplace far from any human habitation, it is a good idea to wear orange and carry a gun,” he advised in place of thanking mom…or God…or his agent…or anyone. Viewers weren’t bearing witness to an epic temporal lobe breakdown, however—Rylance simply chose to recite poet Louis Jenkins’ obscure prose piece “Back Country” in place of a traditional speech. Later, he explained, simply, “I tried one of [Jenkins’ poems] out at the Drama Desk Awards, and it went down well.” When watching this clip, keep your eyes peeled for Rylance’s co-star, fellow nominee Mary McCormack, whose expression watching her leading man turn the Tonys into a hipster coffee shop poetry reading is priceless.

LA BETE starring Mark Rylance, will open on Broadway on October 2010

ATTENTION, RYLANCE FANS!!! According to Broadway World and New York Theatre Guide, the first major revival of La Bete (written by David Hirse) will open on October 14, 2010, but the previews start as early on September 23. Let’s book a flight to New York City and see him onstage!!!

Mark Rylance announced as part of the cast for “La Bete”

According to Variety and Playbill, Mark Rylance will be starring in a West End revival of David Hirson’s comedy play, “La Bete,” alongside Joanna Lumley (“Absolutely Fabulous”) and David Hyde Pierce (“Frasier”). “La Bete” will be transferred to Broadway if the West End revival is a success. The production is slated to open in spring 2011.

Rylance in HENRY V (Off-Broadway)

Mark Rylance in HENRY V, named as one of the 10 Best Off-Broadway productions of the year in 1993.

source

From Theatre for a New Audience’s website:

Barry Kyle directs Henry V with Mark Rylance in the title role. The production receives a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Revival, and Clive Barnes names it one of the Ten Best Off-Broadway Productions of the Year.