Inside Opening Night of LOBBY HERO with Michael Cera, Chris Evans & More!

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Second stage kicks off their glorious new Broadway home, The Hayes Theatre on West 44th Street

with a riveting new production of Kenneth Lonergan's beloved play, Lobby Hero

Under the direction of Tripp Coleman, it features a star-studded cast, and we caught up with all of them here on opening night

What's it like sharing the stage with these actors? I think it'd be a lot harder doing this without them

You know, they're so wonderful, and it's such an intimate show, and there's not a lot of bells and whistles to the production

to the words on the page. It's just human exchange. And if I didn't have those three guys, those three actors

it might be a far more challenging experience. When you took your bow tonight, making your Broadway debut

do you remember what you were thinking? Thank God it's over. I mean, now we have like 60 more shows

but at least now we're into it. And, you know, I don't know

There's a shift that happens. Once it opens you get a little bit of your life back and it starts to become a little more free It a privilege to get to do a play written by Kenny because it really all you hope for as an actor

is something that has the depth and the pathos and the humanity and the layers to it that his writing does

Especially in doing a play where you're doing the same words and the same blocking every night, obviously

But you're able to keep discovering things in the writing because it's so rich that it keeps giving to you

There's a lot of presence in his writing that keep revealing themselves to you as you spend this time working on it

So it's a great opportunity to get to do a run of one of his plays

This is such a stunning production you have put together. Talk about your cast

I'm literally obsessed with them. I call them my four unicorns because they are perfect in every way

And I watched tonight and I was like, they're still learning, they're still growing

It's totally fresh and alive for them every single time and I'm so proud of them

Best part of the experience for you with working on this has been what Being able to work with one of my heroes of writing Kenny Lonergan I think he is a true genius and a living American writer who has

greatness is a wonderful thing, and I am the luckiest director in the world that I get to work with him

So what has it been like for you revisiting this? Being in the rehearsal room with a trip

in this company, what memories did it bring back to you when you wrote it, and what it means to you now

Well, you know, it's always about the actors, so you want to

let the show be taken over by the actors and by the director

And if they're as good as the director and actors in this production

then, you know, you might have this or that little comment or quibble

but you're basically there to support them and to make sure that the best of them can come out as a playwright

And this cast is so special, and Tripp is such a wonderful director

that there's, you know, there's just not a lot to worry about. Just kind of watch them go

Tell me what you love about the play. It's just so timely. Everything that my character goes through, it's amazing that this play has been made in conjunction with the Me Too movement and me so much

Because everything that she goes through is what women are going through right now in the world

Just coming back to the theater what it means to you We lost you for a little while I know I know It makes me much more grounded It more organic I love the immediacy of it

I'll never leave theater. It's just been great. Like, Chris Bell and Michael, I couldn't have asked for a better cast

Kenny is amazing. Trip is one of the most brilliant minds I've ever seen. And the second stage is, like, the theater

I feel like this is the last theater that I was trying to, like, get into. And I feel like I literally, like, crossed

I feel like I'm finally part of the fraternal, you know, order of New York theater

because they only do great things, and Living Playwrights can come and have their things workshopped

and we got to open it with this. So I'm very happy about it. I can't even tell you how elated I am

Oh, it's a really exciting night for Second Stage. I'm on the Board of Trustees, and I did my first play at Second Stage in 1992

when it was a small theater on 76th Street. And Carol Rothman, our brilliant artistic director

this has always been her dream, to have a Broadway house as part of Second Stage

And tonight it happened, And then, you know, to see David Rockwell's beautiful redesign of the theater, filled with people, and this incredible production of Kenny Lonergan's Lobby Hero with an absolutely superb cast

It was just, it all came together. It was a really, really great night for second stage