twi-ny: As a listener, I felt it Shipwreck was one of the audio plays that worked the best during the lockdown. He holds an MFA in Acting from NYU's Graduate Acting Program and a BA in Political Science from Brown University. rt: Oh, less upsetting because I know Im not a professional. He had a really interesting life and a really challenging death. The Pianist features an original score by acclaimed Dutch concert pianist Iris Hond. Im always curious about what my non-Jewish friends who come and see the show think of it. 59E59 Theaters and The Civiliansis presentingThe Unbelieving by Marin Gazzaniga (So Close) and directed by Steve Cosson (Whisper House). Because its a great joy to do this play. Hes really, really, really kind to all his characters. Featuring Broadway Star Richard Topol At the moment of his daughter's birth, Rich Topol searches for a father to replace the one he lost and finds two - his famous father-in-law Lukas Foss and himself. And without, I think, insulting anyone and without becoming didactic and preachy. In the video below, Patrick Healy visited the Tony Award-winning revival of 'The Normal Heart' to see if its relevant to younger gay people today. And so I was so excited to be part of the beginning of it. It felt to me that it was really important that this play be put up during the election. Rich Topol meets Yogi Berra on opening night of Bronx Bombers (photo David Gordon). (l-r backrow) " David Cromer, Pierre Epstein, Jeff Seymour, Molly Ranson, Betsy Aidem, Its a symbol, a metaphor for the journey of our family. We thought, Okay, thats an interesting idea for a play. He was beautiful. For the last six and a half weeks, we have been safe and weve been able to do it. He came in with his finished draft and we did a reading of it, prepandemic and in-person. Tony Award winner Santino Fontana (Tootsie) will star in the new play The Pianist as Szpilman in a by-invitation only development reading Thursday June 23 in NYC. I think a lot of people forget that. twi-ny: And they all want you to keep doing it. twi-ny: As a listener, I felt it Shipwreck was one of the audio plays that worked the best during the lockdown. Rich Topol poses with a hot car on set of EPIX series Godfather of Harlem. Behind him in his living room is a landscape by his mother-in-law, the painter and teacher Cornelia (Brendel) Foss. I did go see Hot Tuna and David Bromberg. We did a developmental workshop in June up in Maine. rt: The short answer is it was great. rt: It was miserable. Followed by. While speaking about his son, he mentioned that his mini-me is "the joy of my life. 212-581-1212 The ones who are not Jews often say how the Jews in the play are just a specific example of the larger issue of otherness. Even if you dont recognize his name, youre likely to know his face; he has approximately fifty television and film credits, including portraying lawyer and politician James Speed in Steven Spielbergs Lincoln, a recurring role on The Practice, and multiple parts on several Law & Order iterations. rt: The short answer is it was great. He is married to actress Eliza Foss; they have one daughter, and Richard was close with his father-in-law, the late German-American composer, pianist, and conductor Lukas Foss. MTC at New York City Center Stage I And then we did a couple of Zoom workshops. They hand delivered the scripts to everybodys homes. Here we have been waiting for so long to do it. He was even more thankful when I told him that I had included him in my review. He is married to actress Eliza Foss; they have one daughter, and Richard was close with his father-in-law, the late German-American composer, pianist, and conductor Lukas Foss. And then Josh tested positive right before tech. He had Parkinsons disease. Did you enjoy working on Zoom? I had symptoms on the ides of March, on the 15th of March, and I was in bed for nineteen days with Covid-19. He covered everything. I mean, I enjoyed working as opposed to not working. Rich Topol is third guy from the right in cast and crew photo from Prayer for the French Republic opening night (photo 2022 by Daniel Rader). [6] Shipwreck was the closest we got to working on a play because we rehearsed for a couple of weeks and it felt like, Okay, Im going to rehearsal today. Im not going to risk that. And so the guy lost his physical abilities and his mental abilities. And then another few months later we did the third. So weve been careful and thoughtful and fortunate, and I hope we continue to be so. It was really satisfying to do. It was so satisfying. That theater had stayed open through the pandemic because Maine had so few cases, because of the regulations, and because of their skill at keeping people safe. rt: I have asked that of my non-Jewish friends. And I survived. twi-ny: Jon Stewart would ask, is it too Jewy? Just last night, Manhattan Theatre Club celebrated opening night of the Broadway premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning How I Learned to Drive, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Richard Topol is the author of Naked City (3.75 avg rating, 5387 ratings, 446 reviews, published 2011), The Maze at Windermere (3.50 avg rating, 2855 rat. twi-ny: So you played Yogi, and then you met him on opening night of the show. Thats the way I connect to religion. I love the progression of the piano in the play. Here we have been waiting for so long to do it. And then a month later, its, Yeah, were not going to do the play in September. Manhattan Theatre Club is presenting the world premiere of Prayer for the French Republic, written by Drama Desk Award winner Joshua Harmon and directed by Tony Award winner David Cromer. And Im not going to any of that stuff. You dont develop a through-line, you dont understand the arc of things. Willy did most of the writing. He is currently starring in Joshua Harmons Prayer for the French Republic, a scintillating three-hour exploration of anti-Semitism that travels between 1944 and 2016; Topol plays Patrick Salomon, a nonreligious Jew who has decided not to go into the family piano business. I think of myself as Jew-ish. richard topol: Oh my God! Rich Topol is third guy from the right in cast and crew photo from Prayer for the French Republic opening night (photo 2022 by Daniel Rader). Photo Coverage: THE WINTER'S TALE Opens at the Delacorte, Photo Coverage: 'MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA' Opening Night Party, Photo Coverage: A BODY OF WATER Curtain Call and After Party, From 'Mamma Mia!' At least in that experience I can cut myself some slack. They produced a lot of one-person shows. And I survived. Click below to watch a montage of Alexander in the show! The limited engagement run of the production, originally scheduled through June 7, is extended for six weeks through Sunday, July 19. Check out the performance highlights below! theactingcompany.org I dont think Im as extreme as Patrick; Patrick is a Jew who doesnt know anything about his Judaism and is happy to not know anything about his Judaism and is somebody who thinks of organized religion as what he says in the play, which is bullshit.. Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of REGRETS, the new play by Matt Charman, directed by Carolyn Cantor will open tonight, Tuesday, March 27 at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street). Christmas in Conway. twi-ny: Yes they had, with Yogi Berra as manager. Willy and I had been talking about this play for a number of years. Frances Benhamou, Kenneth Tigar, Richard Topol, Nancy Robinette, Joshua Harmon What was that like? - IMDb Mini Biography By: Richard Topol Family (1) Spouse Eliza Foss (I) (? They want to do a workshop in July and then well go into rehearsal in September and run till Christmas. Were already verklempt about it. . And so what to do about that? And so, kicking and screaming, it became more and more about my relationship to Lukas and then my relationship to fatherhood. I was really glad to do it at Portland Stage, where most of the people who were watching knew nothing about me and I didnt have to feel so exposed. Father of Omer and actress Ady Topol and Anat Topol. Photo Coverage: THE MERCHANT OF VENICE After Party. That was so much fun. This is your first one-man show, which you wrote with Willy Holtzman, a two-time Pulitzer nominee. Youre not invested in a team, the whole idea of a team creating a thing and living together and becoming a version of a theater family, or whatever it is. The truth is, most of the play, I play other people. Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (Outer Critics Circle Awards) for Indecent . And then Willys like, Come on, come on. MTC at New York City Center Stage I Check out Richard Topol's Bio Now Because when I became a Yankees fan, the Yankee sucked. And so actually the last few days of rehearsal and through tech, he watched the play like this. And then when we started up on our feet, we were unmasked, for those who were comfortable with that. I think of myself as spiritual and, not to be too woo-woo, I believe in the earth. I feel like the Jews, the Jews get it, the New York Jews get it, or they have really strong opinions about it. He covered everything. My wife came and saw the show. And the play started to be about that. twi-ny: Jon Stewart would ask, is it too Jewy? Bronx Bombers runs through October 19 at Primary Stages at The Duke on 42nd Street. Richard Topol has not appeared in the West End. I was like, No, no, no. He was by himself and I went over to him and said, Im going to ask you something that no one probably ever asks you about. And so, kicking and screaming, it became more and more about my relationship to Lukas and then my relationship to fatherhood. It is a really challenging piece of theater and really satisfying to act in. It felt to me that it was really important that this play be put up during the election. People who know me and my life saw it. Thats the exterminator, not exterminating Jews but exterminating bugs that Nazis would think are like Jews. Since these are your lines and theyre about you, if a joke didnt quite take or something emotional didnt register with the audience, is it more or less upsetting than when youre reciting somebody elses words and something might not go as expected? And she said, You just got an offer from Manhattan Theatre Club for Prayer for the French Republic. It is unbelievable. I mean, I also shot some TV shows over the course of the pandemic, so all of the Zoom stuff felt more like the way an actor like me connects to short-term work. I am pleasantly surprised at how many hundreds of people are coming to see the show every day. It went really well and theyre, like, We want to produce this and we have a slot. twi-ny: During the pandemic, you appeared in several virtual and audio productions: You were in Melisa Anniss Beginnings, Anne Washburns Shipwreck, Craig Lucass More Beautiful and you played a chicken in Jimonn Coles Chickens. play by Clifford Odets (Belasco Theatre, New York City, New York, USA). There was a sense of having more in the heads of the director and the producers, what we could imagine this great thing being, that infused the development and the rehearsal and experience of doing it. Maybe Im fooling myself. Then we got into the rehearsal space in December. So then the pandemic hit and immediately I got the virus. ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT SERIES Shifting in flashback between (2016-2017) and (1944-1946) set in two different Parisian apartments, Prayer for the French Republic (currently at Manhattan Theatre Club) by Joshua Harmon (Bad Jews), directed by David Cromer (The Band . Simple Persistence: Are Hysteresis and Unit-Root Processes Observationally Equivalent? Like in Joshs play, he was one of those people, a German Jew in Berlin who got out. I love acting with other people, and it cant be about me because Im not interesting. I got bar mitzvahed. I was doing Anatomy of a Suicide at the Atlantic Theater Company. He thanked me, saying that he was actually the understudy and that was the only time he had gone on. Its interesting because it connects to the father thing. He was really amazing. And on the other hand, it was incredibly scary because it was the first play that Id ever cowritten with anybody, and it was about my life. They hand delivered the scripts to everybodys homes. Resides in Tallahassee, FL. And then the testing protocols, were getting tested every day, and you cant come into the room until youve tested negative, and, knock wood, thats been it. And so from March 12 of 2020 to November 3, 2021, was the longest period of time I hadnt been onstage in my adult life. Each short play will also include a Q&A with Tatiana Wechsler. Lets take that idea of writing and switch over to Prayer for the French Republic, which is exquisitely written. And Josh had done some incredible things. And Im slightly disappointed myself too, because I knew I was going to do this part for a long time and I knew that these songs were in the piece. And then Anita gave us a shot. Get the fuck out of here. Hes an extremely amiable mensch who clearly loves his chosen profession. And so initially we decided it would be about Lukas Foss, who was my father-in-law, a really interesting man who had a really interesting life. Im no Josh Harmon. It was so satisfying. And then the symptoms were gone. I love Charles. We did the kind of work that you do in a play before you get up on your feet. 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