Inside Opening of TRAVESTIES with Tom Hollander and More!

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Tom Hollander is back on Broadway in Roundabout Theatre Company's new production

of Tom Stoppard's Tony Award winning play, Travesties, directed by Patrick Marber

And we are here on opening night where we caught up with the company. How do you feel tonight

I feel delighted, to be honest. I love the new, this thing now

the opening night is like a friend's night. Whatever is going to be said about it

that's already happened. We don't know what it is. And there's always a wonderful feeling

of friends reuniting in the orchestra stalls. And I was very happy

It was a wonderful house. Really, really wonderful house. And we had fun. I had fun

What was today like for you? Because you know, opening nights here in New York are totally different

Tom Stoppard said all the critics come in England, they come opening night. Everything happens at once in London So you kind of get through it You just sort of it like a car crash But this is more fun This was a celebration We had on the other hand we had a whole week of being drawn out

nagging tension of who's in and who's. So I was, there was a feeling of release today

But the day was spent writing cards and I went swimming and sat in the sun and

watched a tree fall over in the West Village and tried to write a poem about it

and decided that I should stick to acting. Tom Stoppard's been one of my heroes since I was a kid

So I'm working with someone who I've written about as a student

and studied and admired. So I guess once I got over the fear of that

and the strangeness of working with one of my heroes, he just became just another guy who I had to work with

and it was kind of fun. We have a shared sense of humour

and we kind of like the same kind of stuff and it was a pleasure

What's it been like working on this for New York? Sort of life-changing

Not to be overdramatic, just because I'm an actress, but truly the depths we had to go to to try and work out what on earth it all means and then just let it go and have complete fun and joy with it

It's been a long but short nine weeks. The play asks you at all times, and Patrick, our director, was really great about this

He wanted us to bring our inventiveness to the play. Even when you're playing it on stage, you're constantly trying to keep the ball so beautifully in the air

It's very demanding on you as an actor, but really rewarding. And, you know, everything's required of you

When did it all come together for you where you were like, I have her? Oh, my gosh. I don't know if I'll ever feel like that

I have to be like so on the ball. You have to be paying attention. If you stop paying attention for one second, you're dead

But I think for me, the second Tom Hollander walks on that stage and stands in the doorway like an idiot

I just feel her heart jump and I know it's going to be a good evening

When I was in conservatory in the 70s in San Francisco, they did a production at ACT

but I have very vague memories of it, and it was not at all as funny and entertaining as this

As it is now. Yeah. In fact, it was sort of dark. I mean, it was funny, but it was dark

Tonight is a relief as this moment is in any production that we can kind of get over this hurdle and now we can just play and take ownership of the play for ourselves as actors and it a moment to celebrate I think it an incredible

piece of theater and I've had so much fun being a part of it with these great people so

I'm celebrating tonight. Oh gosh I couldn't ask for a sweeter Broadway debut. This has been a

fantastic experience. Everybody is so talented on that stage. Everybody is so precise with their humor

It's just a joy. It's a joy. I listen to it still backstage at night

I really do. I think it went really well tonight, so now I can just have a run

and just sort of like, you know, enjoy the run. It's like the

last hurdle. Last week we had critics, and tonight was the opening

and so, you know, I'm a little bit of a frady cat, so I'm glad we're open and done

But it went very well. It will all come out in the wash

That's the art of it. Thank you