Video: Brandon Uranowitz Has Been Waiting His Entire Life for LEOPOLDSTADT

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Brandon Uranowitz is captivating audiences eight times a week in Tom Stoppard's epic Leopoldstadt

and I caught up with him here at the Museum of Broadway. Well, first of all, I am thrilled to be sitting with you here at the Museum of Broadway

The thrill is mine. Well, no, the thrill is mine. You are so wonderful of what you do

Thank you. Just so you know, I've watched you do, I, watching your career

I was thinking about this the other day, did I fall in love with you with musicals first? Did I fall in love with you with plays

What a career you have. Thanks, Richie. That's really sweet. You know, it's interesting

I was actually talking about you with my dad last night because we were talking about how honored and grateful I am

of what a champion of mine you've been. I'm very grateful for that

I've been very lucky. Well, I will. tell you that something I do pride myself

on when I see people early on be like that person's going to be fabulous or that

person's going to, you know, step out and be something really big. Thanks for you. And that

is you, my friend. Thank you. How special is it being a part

of Tom Stoppers Leopoldstadt? It's beyond. The thing about Leopoldstadt that is so mind-blowing to me is it is

like beyond anything I ever really allowed myself to dream. Yeah. I never let my dream sort of expand that wide because I feel like, you know, again, you, you, as you said, you don't know if you fell in love with me during musicals or straight plays, but I feel like after so many years of this business sort of like telling you who you are, you start to believe it

And I was like, I guess something like Leopoldstadt is not in the realm of possibility for me

And then I met Patrick Marber and he, like, saw something in me in that audition

that I've forgotten I had. And it's just been the most precious sacred gift

I still like him pinching myself every day. I mean, all of this other stuff is just sort of icing on the cake

It's a Tom Stoppard play about my family, essentially. Like, there are just so many layers and facets of this experience

that are so personally meaningful to me. It's just, it's also like a very difficult thing to do

I have to go to some pretty dark places, but I feel this like immense responsibility to this story

I do on some level feel like I've kind of been like waiting

my entire life for this play. You take us on such an emotional journey

I can only imagine what that is like for you to do and leave the stage door

Was it hard early on when you started working on this to leave it at the theater

It has gotten easier the more we do it, because there's actually this incredible book

about how, called The Body Keeps the Score, about how your body sort of remembers traumatic events

And I feel like early on my body was sort of learning

what it was like to live through these traumas, and it was really difficult to shake

But because it's my job to do it every night, and I feel that sense of obligation and that responsibility

the body remembers. And so I don't necessarily have to live intellectually

within that pain so much the longer the run goes. So I'm grateful for that

But it is taxing and it is exhausting But it is so urgent and important especially right now I mean the thing that actually more difficult for me than living through the tragedy of the play

is just knowing that the threshold between the theater and the real world right now

the line between the story that we're telling and the world that we're living in is so blurred right now

That's a little bit more difficult for me to shape. that I feel like Leopoldstadt is such a clarion call to action

particularly with this rise in anti-Semitism and hate. So leaving the theater every night

and knowing that history could be potentially repeating itself and we're living through very similar phenomena is tough

That's hard. But again, it also fills me with like this deep sense of purpose

See, that's the great thing about Tom Stoppert and this piece, it's so relevant for right now. Yeah

You know, and people will at least leave the theater and have conversations. Yes

You know. And I know that they're having conversations. A neighbor of mine, I don't live in the city anymore

but a neighbor of mine out in the burbs, came to see the show the other day

and left me this beautiful note in my mailbox about how she didn't, she had never really known

that theater could have that kind of impact on a person's, like, mission

like day-to-day mission in life, and that she had, she realized in seeing the play that she was getting complacent and lazy

and how she felt like the play was speaking directly to her to actually lean forward and do something

And that's why I, that's why I do this, you know? Again, Tom Stoppard

He's a genius. He really is a genius. You know, and like the thing that I find so

so interesting about this is it's a semi-semi-autobiographical piece. Like, there's not, it's not directly about his family

but it is very much inspired by his family. And I think that writing Leopold Schott for him

was an exercise in sort of reckoning with his past that he had forgotten, that he denied

that he had sort of released along the, time ago. But in so doing, because he's a master of his craft and such a genius, he has, like, created

something completely universal and I think is now, like, can be considered canon in Jewish literature

I mean, it is, like, he asks questions about identity and the Jewish existence that I've

never seen portrayed theatrically on stage before. and I guess just like when you're a genius

that's what happens. You know, back to Patrick Marber you said he saw something in you during that audition

That's what a great director does. And there are directors who just direct

and then there are great directors who see something in somebody as opposed saying thank you very much, you know

and you wanted this really badly when you read this play. I mean, it knocked the wind out of me

I mean, when I read it the first time I just sat there for

in silence for, I don't know how long. I mean, it felt like an hour, but I'm sure it was just, I don't know. Yeah

But it gutted me. And I was like, if I can't do this, if I don't do this, then like, what am I doing

I mean, like, I have to do this. And, you know, I think what's interesting, and I don't know if this is something I'm allowed to say

I don mean this to be against anyone that I worked with before or being in this city but I think there something about the fact that he from another country he British he didn know my work

So we both came in like clean slate. He didn't have any sort of filter through which to see me

He didn't have any sort of like, and again, I think that goes back to how I felt, you know

this business tells you who you are on some level. And he didn't know who I was

So he could see things that I think others, maybe in this city, had blinders to, you know, because of my past work

But, like, you know, we all contain multitudes. No, but I love that, but I looked at your body of work again

You've done so many great plays, too. Burn this, all this great stuff you've done with musicals in between there

Was Baby It's You your debut? It was. Okay, I love that show with Beth Level

Yeah, I think, yes, was I the only one? I love that. No, I couldn't have been. No, no, I mean, people like really

Yeah, totally. You know, I mean, it's a jukebox musical, and I think people feel one way or the other about it, but Beth Level was extraordinary

The women who played the Churals were extraordinary. And so were you. Thanks

Everybody sat and took notice. Thank you. Do you read reviews at all or no

I try not to, but like, uh, Julie Harris told me a long time ago

the great Julie Harris said I read the good, I read the bad, just to see what's going on. Yeah

You know, and just like put it all into perspective. I mean, it's tough. You know, I think it is true what they say

that if you believe the good, then you will believe the bad. And I do have to remember that any time I read something

it is one person's opinion. Yeah. But that was a big... But again, I like to know what's going on

But I just love that was a stand, you got a huge standout review or reviews for Baby a Two

Yeah, it was, I mean, it was a fun thing. I mean, I was very lucky in that my debut was a good showcase for me

I got to do a lot of stuff. I got to, I think, show some range

You know, it wasn't a Tom Stoppard play, obviously. But look at the journey you've taken from that to this and all the great work you've done in between

I'm extraordinarily grateful. I can't believe it. What do you love the most about working on stage

Because you always come back? It's just, I think the thing that I love the most

is that whether you're in rehearsal, in a rehearsal studio, you're on stage, it is just, everything about it

is ephemeral. Yeah. It appears and then it disappears. So you can constantly keep

keep doing the work to make it better, to finesse it, to, and on top of that, once you're in

front of an audience, it is just inherently different every single night because there is a

new character there every night. And that, to me, is exhilarating and exciting. And when you're

doing a play, you have, it is a, just intrinsically, it is a wide shot constantly. There's no

extreme close-ups, it is a wide shot. So you are allowed to live as fully and as deeply as you

need to. And that, I think it's also, I mean, like, you'll notice, like, I talk with my hands

all the time. I come from, like, a neurotic Jewish family. We are emotive people. So I think

the stage is just sort of where I thrive Not that I can do the other thing But I do feel the most liberated and free when I am allowed to do that Yeah And it just you know I grew up outside of the city

And when my parents could afford it, we would go to see theater

And it started at a very young age. It's like in my DNA. I cannot live without it

Yeah. Sharing the stage with this incredible company of actors what that means to you

Oh. I mean, it's like, it's, it's, it's a family. I mean, a family of artists, which I think is the most extraordinary thing

a family of, like, astonishing artists. Yeah. And our understudies and covers are also absolutely astonishing

It's just kind of, I mean, and they're like 38 of us. So, like, it's an embarrassment of riches, really

It's, they make me, I mean, I feel like this is sort of a trite thing that people say

that it really is true, and I think it's a cliche because it's so true

they make me better. I can't do any of this alone. I mean, I'm in a very much an ensemble show

and, like, my story cannot exist without their stories. And, like, they live so fully in their stories

that I think my story comes to its fullest life because of them

They're just incredible people, on and offstage. They're just outrageous. What this Tony nomination means to you

I mean, it's just sort of like the, again, it's the culmination of everything that we've been talking about

This thing means so much to me. And I'm a sensitive person

So I think knowing that something that is so deeply meaningful to me is also moving others

enough to recognize my work, enough to be like, I mean, it just feels like this mutual sense of gratitude

that we have for each other, that like I'm so grateful to be able to share this

and this nomination feels like on some level, the community is grateful to me, to us, to this play

for moving them in this way. And again, it's just this like culmination

of deep meaning from my peers. You know? From also, and I think the other thing

that I find so beautiful about this moment is that, you know, the nominations come from all sorts

It's not just actors, it's not just, you know, directors or producers or writers, it's everybody

So it feels like a full acknowledgement. acknowledgement of this work that is so deeply meaningful to me

It's so funny that you felt that you were pigeonholed at some point, but when you look

at your career, boy, you've done the best of everything. Musicals, plays, some of the best work, and you continue to work with the best artists there are

I mean, I think there's intention behind that. My goal is to be able to express every side of me that there is

And I have to work against that pigeonholing. I think that there is, that my, my, I do feel like on some level the body of work, my body of work is in some way an act of resistance against that

Well, you've done a beautiful job. And like I said, watching you in this show, just brilliant

Thanks, Richie. Always a pleasure. Thank you