38 replies to this topic

[quartermainefan]

http://www.nypost.co...MgNdLKqAK3nlAWO

 

Buff, blond Billy Magnussen says he has the best job in town: “They’re paying me to make out with Sigourney Weaver and pinch David Hyde Pierce’s nipples!”

He does both in “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” Christopher Durang’s Chekhovian mash-up of a play. In it, within the cozy confines of Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater, he even strips to his briefs and shakes his booty in the faces of the folks in the front row.

So far no one’s complained.

“I’ve had people, like, bongo-drumming on my butt,” he says happily. “Sometimes I do two people at once!”

 

 

 

more at link

[Nothin'ButAttitude]

Congrats to Billy! I loved him as Casey, and IMO, he was one of the bright spots in a dark (and final) period of ATWT.

[Khan]

BM, Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce.  All together in a Christopher Durang play.  I'm in heaven.

[EricMontreal22]

I've managed to read the play--well a previous version-- (I'm a huge fan of Durang's writing) and it's *great*.  I'm shocked it hasn't transfered to Broadway yet (it's still Off-Broadway) because by all reports it's the best new play of the New York season but maybe it has to do with the fairly high profile cast.  But while his role is essentially a dumb stud, by all reports he makes a strong impression--and not just because of his body.

 

There are only a few glimpses of him in the clips from the show that have come out here:

 

[Bright Eyes]

He was great on Boardwalk Empire and not just because of the obvious reasons.

[Ann_SS]

I was not a huge fan, but good for him.

[SFK]

BM, Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce.  All together in a Christopher Durang play.  I'm in heaven.

 

SW and DHP were both in the original production of Durang's Beyond Therapy.  I played DHP's role of the waiter Andrew in an off-off-B'way prod.

(Actually, you could probably add a few more off's to that.)

[Khan]

Everything is "off" in a Durang play.  

[SFK]

Everything is "off" in a Durang play.  

 

Indeed.

[EricMontreal22]

SW and DHP were both in the original production of Durang's Beyond Therapy.  I played DHP's role of the waiter Andrew in an off-off-B'way prod.

(Actually, you could probably add a few more off's to that.)

SW is a huge friend of Durang's and went to drama school (Harvard?) with him, she's been in a ton of his plays.  I want to say Meryl was in their class too, but...

 

Love Beyond Therapy.  Robert Altman's film version is one of the worst stage to screen adaptations of all time (and that says a lot--but in hindsight Altman's style really doesn't suit a play where hearing clearly all the brilliant dialogue is of utmost importance).  How long back did you do it SFK?  (I'm always curious about your acting...)

 

Just to be anal, they weren't in the play together.  SW was in the Off-Broadway original , DHP wasn't.  Diane Weist took her role when it went to Broadway a year later (and inexplicably flopped--maybe because John Madden, who seems all wrong for the material, directed it and not Jerry Zacks who did the Off Broadway) and DHP *was* in that version as Andrew.  He's also on the very good CD recording of the play done in 2000 or so--as Bruce which John Lithgow played on Broadway, no idea who played it Off--Catherine O'Hara plays SW's role, Prudence.. 

Edited by EricMontreal22, 10 January 2013 - 07:09 PM.

[All My Shadows]

I loved me some Billy and thought he was a massive improvement over surfer dude Casey (though I was a ZR fan and still am). So glad to see he's making his way in the industry!

 

And yes, dat ass.

[Khan]

(Harvard?)

 

No, Yale.  Same year as Albert Innaurato and Wendy Wasserstein.  (Meryl Streep was the year behind theirs, I think.)

[EricMontreal22]

You're right, because all of them were in the bizarre mid 70s musical version of The Frogs that Burt Sheveloe and Stephen Sondheim wrote for Yale that was staged in their swimming pool--although all were in the chorus (I think cuz they were young students).  I have a bootleg audio but it's pretty worthless as the reverberations from being in an indoor pool make it impossible to listen to.

[SFK]

SW is a huge friend of Durang's and went to drama school (Harvard?) with him, she's been in a ton of his plays.  I want to say Meryl was in their class too, but...

 

Yale School of Drama.

ETA: My bad Khan, didn't mean to step on your toes.

[EricMontreal22]

Yes, we established that.  Keep up! 

[Cheap21]

Wow, for some reason I thought this thread was going to be about him coming out

[SFK]

And yes Eric, I knew that about Wiest and them not being in it at the same time, I was just speaking in shorthand (I did read the production notes in the beginning of the script, ya know! ).  I did it maybe five years ago, and yes, a couple of us bought dvds of the Altman movie.  Haven't watched it since.  Chris Guest is like Corky's bitchy twin here.  And we are inexplicably in Paris instead of New York, iirc.  The coolest thing about the movie is their neat apartment.

 

I remember reading something about the awkward time in which the film was made, i.e., audiences being uncomfortable with a comedy about promiscuous gay men at the height of the AIDS boom.

Edited by SFK, 10 January 2013 - 07:41 PM.

[EricMontreal22]

Ha, sorry, you know I was just buggin' ya

 

That (the AIDS element) makes some sense.  It did seem like one of several flop attempts by Altman to make a more mainstream movie while still maintaining his style.  I know Durang wrote the screenplay but said it was changed/"improvised" without his approval, as Altman does, and has disowned it.  Of course Durang is hard to film--I think the Sister Mary Ignatius TV movie is pretty good, but in that case the satire comes off very differently, and more mean spirited, as done on film.

 

For a class years back I did a screenplay treatment of Betty's Summer Vacation which I did well with, and was pretty proud about, but in hindsight I don't think its surreal elements would work at all on film.

Edited by EricMontreal22, 10 January 2013 - 08:15 PM.

[Eric83]

I loved me some Billy and thought he was a massive improvement over surfer dude Casey (though I was a ZR fan and still am). So glad to see he's making his way in the industry!
 
And yes, dat ass.

[Vee]

I have already seen every inch of Billy Magnussen's luscious body and perky genitals in various other productions, so his name was long ago made for me.