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True Story- THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT Celebrates Opening Night on Broadway!
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Nov 2, 2022
FACT: Studio 54 was the place to be last night as Daniel Radcliffe, Cherry Jones, and Bobby Cannavale took their first official Broadway bows in The Lifespan of a Fact. Written by Jeremy Karekenandamp; David Murrell and Gordon Farrell, the play is directed by Tony Award nominee Leigh Silverman.
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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Daniel Radcliffe, Cherry Jones, and Bobby Conavali have returned to Broadway in the new play
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the lifespan of a fact directed by Lee Silverman, and I caught up with them just minutes after the opening night curtain rang down
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Great play. What a different type of part you get to play, because I love the argument that goes back and forth between you and Bobby
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What is that like? Oh, it's fantastic to do it on, to perform
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It was really, I mean, it's fun in rehearsals, but when you're doing it with an audience and you're feeling them kind of
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of go from one side of the argument to the other. It's just great. It's a real thrill
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Like, there's, yeah, there's nothing. And also it's such a fast play
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It's such a, it's, we managed to kind of have our cake and eat it by being both kind
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of like light and bouncy and bouncy and dialogue heavy and zippy, but also like talking about
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big ideas and heavy moments. And, you know, and yeah, I think that as an actor, it's sort of, it's a lot of fun to do
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You were just there with your two co-stores. What is it like sharing the stage with by
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Bobby KonaVali and Cherry Jones. Really awesome. Like, I was just, I was just saying to Jerry, like, I look at, she starts the show on stage
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and I start the show in the wings, but I'm, like, watching her quite early on. And I just watch her every night
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And I am genuinely overcome by this, like, incredibly warm, excited, happy feeling that I get to do this play with her and with Bobby
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But, I mean, like, and especially there is something about being on stage with those two that you just feel utterly safe
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Like, there is no, and I hope they feel the safe, like, there is a real, sense of like we are all there for each other and like not that anyone's screwing up lines or anything
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but like there's a sense that like if the worst happened we would still be okay because we're all here
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like it's a it's lovely you know you are so generous to your fans there are many people who you've
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introduced live theater too because of your notoriety what does that mean to you it's awesome like
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it was very cool the other night actually there was recently there been a few people at stage door
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who've been saying like oh this is my first Broadway show or this is my you know I'm coming
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for the first time we picked you. And I always say, like, thank you for choosing us
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Like, it's such, you know, my, the first plays, or the big plays that I saw when I was growing up
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are hugely important And I feel to be giving to be able to be a part of that for someone else is just awesome what was tonight like for you something that you cannot wait to be over and they not an
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there not an actor out there who won't say the same thing I mean it it's uh it is nerve-racking and
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it's so bizarre because you know the critics of lorny come and gone you know all of that but it's
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it's just the hype and it's the you know the the the all the stuff that goes around
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and I left my beloved a note this morning by the coffee saying
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I cannot wait to be back in this home with you in our pajamas in about another 14 hours
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You know, this is such a wonderful play. You and I spoke about this the other night
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There must be nothing better than working on a new play, but it must be frightening at the same time when you're trying to hone it all
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Am I correct? Well, yeah, because. With this play, it was unusual because it had never been workshops
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and we had a three-week rehearsal, and the playwrights were very generous in listening to us
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and allowing the actors and Lee Silverman to have our input in it
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So it was a real, you know, obviously the bones and the sinew was there
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from our playwrights, but we had to figure out a way to make it work on stage
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So we all worked very, very hard, very... diligently to make it as strong as we could
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So it's new plays. I love doing new plays. I've done a lot of new plays
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And there is just something about it that bringing new play into the world and hoping it goes
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well, but you never know. The three of you, what is it like sharing the stage with Bobby Conavalli and Daniel Radcliffe
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Just the three of you up there. You know what? Making magic. In the first place, I can't wait to relax enough that I can't
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get to just really, because I'm taking it in all the time, but I can't wait to be relaxed
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enough to really take it in. I told Dan tonight that there's a moment that I have with him
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that I will never tell him about until it over where I am in so profoundly gratitude profoundly grateful to be there with him
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Yeah, well, I think the play is constructed really well. I think the play is, presents the
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arguments in a very sort of seamless way. And look, everybody in the play, there's three of us
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and we all want the same thing in different ways. And I think that we have, we've been in
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conversations like that. We argue about something that we don't really know the answer to. And I think
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that the play is constructed in such a way that, you know, it leads us down the path with a lot of
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laughter and a lot of funny situations. These characters are very different from each other to get
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thrown in this fishbowl together. And I think we get suckered into thinking we're in this comedy
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And then all of a sudden we get hit in the stomach with a very human story about this boy. And
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and I think that that's what theater, when it's done well, is I think we're a really beautiful thing
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to have a collective experience happen with a thousand people going through something collectively
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and yet in those 48 seconds, everyone's thinking something different, but they're sitting next to a thousand other people, and I think it's very special
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I love it. Every night is a different night. Your journey totally starts out fresh with a whole new group of 1,000 people
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and you take this journey together and set the tone, right? Yeah. Yeah, that's why people who don't really understand the theater
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and they say, why aren't you doing the same thing every night? and it's really a hard thing to explain until you've done it
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It's not the same thing every night by any means. Working with the three of you up there
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what's it like sharing the stage with Cherry Jones and Daniel Radcliffe? It's the best. I was the last one to join and the cast
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And, you know, I've known Cherry for 25 years or something. And I've been good friends with her
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but I've never worked with her. And it's a dream to work with Cherry Jones. She's our greatest stage actress we have a lot
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And Dan is so good. He's so honest. and so empathetic and he's so committed
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and I've loved working with him. And I think from day one, we all sort of silently acknowledged
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that we were very proud to be at each other's company. And with a three-person play
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you really can't slack off because then you have two people against you. It's two against one
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So everybody's pulling for each other and we play very nicely together I think you director Lee Silverman Brilliant You love rehearsals don you Yeah I love rehearsal I love putting something together when it feels hopeless and just no one ever going to see this
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And this is really hard. And then you hope that you have a great leader
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And, you know, Lee Silverman is pretty great, especially when it comes to new work
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She's truly a collaborative spirit, a collaborative person in the room. She hired this incredible design team
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And she's a great, great leader. What an incredible play that you are doing a brand new American play with three of the best actors in the world
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What is that feeling like? Well, you know, I feel quite honored and happy
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And I also think, yeah, like this is why we all do this, right
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Because you want nights like this. You want nights that move you, make you laugh, open you up, make you think about issues, reflect
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our current climate. I mean, this is what Broadway is all about when I think Broadway is at its best
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and I am so grateful and honored to just be a part of it. And talk about your three stars
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What was it like being in the rehearsal room with them first, and then putting them in front of a live audience
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These are three people who love the theater, and they don't have to
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They have enormous television and film careers. Every day they were like, I mean, literally every day
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Bobby said there's no place I'd rather be than in rehearsal. Every day, Dan said, this is the happiest I ever am when I'm in rehearsal
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Every day, Cherry says, theater is everything to me. So these are three people who care about theater more than anything else
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They are choosing to be here. They don't have to be here. And working with three people egosely, rigorously, where all they care about is making them a play as good as it can be
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making their performances as good as it can be. They wanted to rehearse until the very end
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They never wanted to hear that we were like freezing the show because they just wanted to keep working
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I mean, these are people who are in it. They are in it for the right reasons
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They are in it because they love it and because they understand the power
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And they want to be part of that. And that is an extraordinary room to walk into and be a part of
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