John Lithgow

Sometimes the strain of birthing a big Broadway musical can be seen on the desperate faces of the actors, but John Lithgow, star of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, glides through his show looking like the cat who ate the canary. The role of a suave con artist seems tailor-made for the 6'4" actor, who proved he's game for anything during his five-year run as alien high commander Dick Solomon in 3rd Rock from the Sun, a role that brought him three Emmys. Lithgow spent a decade on the New York stage in the 1970s before breaking into the movies with Oscar-nominated performances in Terms of Endearment and The World According to Garp. He won Tonys in 1973 for his first Broadway show, The Changing Room, and in 2002 for the musical Sweet Smell of Success. Between rehearsals, he spoke with Broadway.com about his gift for juggling low comedy and high drama.

Are you having as much fun onstage as it looks?
Oh god, more! I think I'm having more fun than the audience, and that's saying a lot.

How is everything coming together?
Well, we were completely delighted with the show when we closed in San Diego, and it is improved from what it was then. [Director] Jack O'Brien is an amazing trouble-shooter, and he understands the shape of a piece of theater. He knows when a show-stopping number is falling just a little bit short. We've already made all sorts of changes since the start of previews. In many senses you wouldn't know what's different, but you'd know it's even better. The opening is tighter and clearer and hurls us into the show. At this point, it's a matter of cutting jokes that are only half good so that the really good jokes work even better.

You do some crazy things up there, from comparing your rear end to Michelangelo's David to letting Norbert Leo Butz lick your face. Is there anything you won't do?
I gave up shame a long time ago. [Laughs] Just think about everything I did on 3rd Rock! I keep looking for things I haven't done yet.

With so many outrageous lines and bits of business, how do you keep from laughing during a performance?
We don't always. There are incredible high spirits among us. Norbert and Sherie Rene Scott are fabulous comedy partners, and all the numbers are so different; it's a constant shifting of gears. I even have a love ballad! This is wonderful material for a romantic comedy because it's astringent. It's not sentimental.

Are you a con artist yourself?
Somewhat. I used to play April Fool's jokes on the cast of 3rd Rock. But mainly I'm a con artist in that I'm an actor. What I do is make people believe that something is real when they know perfectly well it isn't.

I understand that you first saw the show in a reading with Brian Stokes Mitchell. Did you have any idea you would eventually be doing it?
No. And I thought Brian was terrific. He took on a TV series that then didn't go forward, and Marty Bell, the producer, called and offered me the role. I had enough healthy self-doubt that I asked to spend some time with David Yazbek, the composer, and Ted Sperling, the music director, just to sing through the whole role and make sure the clothing fit. At the end of that hour, I was convinced that I was person to play this.

Jack O'Brien must be the ideal director for you because you both embrace broad comedy and yet have a background in the classics.
We waited so long to work together. And we both have the feeling of "What in the world were we waiting for?" Jack and I have a kind of genetic link: My dad produced Shakespeare festivals in Ohio in the 1950s; one of them, the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, is still going. One of his main protégés was a then-young actor, Ellis Rabb, who went on to create the APA Theater. And Jack O'Brien was his protégé. Jack and I know all the same people from 50 years ago, which is really quite extraordinary. I was a little boy and he was a teenager.

This is your fourth New York show in three years. Did you make a conscious decision to concentrate on stage work again?
There were a lot of contributing factors. When you end a successful sitcom, I think the most sensible thing to do is go back to the theater. When you're so well known in one mode, it's best to let the larger public forget about you for a while. But I wanted to stay active, and I missed the theater desperately; I hadn't been back to Broadway in 14 years when I did Sweet Smell of Success. The other thing was that my two younger kids finally went off to college and I didn't have quite the same demands. My wife took a couple of years off from teaching at UCLA and came to New York with me. She's going back now; I just put her on the plane to L.A, and she'll be coming and going all spring. What's been interesting is that when you come back to New York after a long period of time, not one but two generations of actors have come and gone. When I came back for Sweet Smell, I did not know anybody in town. It shows you how quickly things change.

So Sweet Smell didn't sour you on working on new musicals?
Oh no. I had a wonderful time, and I thought it was a great show. I understand why it wasn't a Broadway hit.

Why?
It was deeply dark and cynical. You look at the darkest hit musicals—Cabaret, West Side Story, Carousel—and they are exuberant experiences. They send you out of the theater filled with music. Sweet Smell was true noir theater; it would have played better as a drama than as a musical. I think people who pay $100 to see a Broadway musical want that uplift. This was a play in which one of the main characters had the other one murdered in the last two minutes of the evening. [Laughs] You get people to care about these characters and then one kills the other! It was so dark, and some critics turned on it for that reason. Others embraced it as a courageous piece of theater, but it was not the stuff of a long-running Broadway hit.

Did you expect The Retreat from Moscow, in which you played an adulterous husband, to be a success on Broadway?
You know, I don't approach it that way. It's not my problem. I loved the play and loved the notion of acting with Eileen Atkins.

You had such a thankless part.
I didn't think of it that way. Not at all! I loved playing that part. For me, it's all about changing gears. I'd always wanted to work with Eileen and [director] Dan Sullivan.

He is an impeccable director.
He's superb, and a great actors' director. I just ran into him in Times Square rushing off to his Julius Caesar rehearsals. Every one of these experiences gives you the chance to explore something new. Mrs. Farnsworth [by A.R. Gurney, a Flea Theater production co-starring Sigourney Weaver] was a little gem. I had fun last year. But nothing compares with Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: It's just runaway hilarity, and you send an audience over the moon. It's a great feeling.

Are there any classic roles you'd like to do?
I don't ever set my cap for a certain role; I just let things happen. If anything, after this, I expect to do nothing for a while. I've been working at a furious rate and doing lots of other things too, writing children's books and music. I have a long contract on this show and I want to enjoy every minute. Then I want to take a sabbatical.

Many of your fans may not realize what a rich history you have in the theater, especially the fact that you won a Tony for your first role more than 30 years ago.
This is my 19th Broadway show. But as I say, generations change. "We write on water," as John Keats said. Memories disappear. I'm always amazed when people come up and say they saw me in Spokesong or Beyond Therapy, or Anna Christie, at this very theater, the Imperial. Even going way back to The Changing Room. That's a long time ago. I consider myself a very lucky actor that approaching 60, I'm still employed and employable.

How has New York theater changed since the early 70s?
Legitimate theater has a much tougher time on Broadway now, mainly because of the economics. There was an appalling moment last summer when there were only two straight plays on Broadway, each of them performed by a single actor—Golda's Balcony and I Am My Own Wife. That just shows how dire it's gotten. It's a very tough time for the playwright. Broadway has become almost a musical comedy theme park with all these long-running shows like Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just hard to get great legitimate theater going and cooking because a Broadway show is such a big financial endeavor. Thank god for the Manhattan Theater Club and Playwrights Horizons and Lincoln Center, but those are not-for-profits, and actors certainly don't make much money working there. I also think the Broadway audience is made up of a greater percentage of tourists now. Again, there's nothing wrong with that, it's just that there's not nearly as much variety and danger and challenge in what's being offered. The aftermath of 9/11 probably had a lot to do with it. That's one reason Sweet Smell of Success didn't have a chance.

Your show seems to be attracting a young audience.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Spamalot are daring shows in that they're brand new, with fabulous talent. Jeffrey Lane, our book writer, is a Hollywood television writer who doesn't really care to go back to Hollywood. This is very good news. David Yazbek is showing himself to be an absolutely top composer lyricist, and this role is going to turn Norbert Leo Butz into a star. Sherie is wonderful, Joanna Gleason is back—there are all sorts of great things in this show.

We must talk about how terrific you were as Liam Neeson's strait-laced father in Kinsey!
That was a joy. It was very quick; I did the part in three shooting days with only one day of rehearsal. I owe it to Bill Condon—he wrote the part so wonderfully and directed it so well. One of my real upsets of the year is that Liam was not nominated for an Oscar. I can't believe that. Liam is the real goods; he was so strong, and the role was so different from Liam himself.

What's more challenging, a comedy or a serious film like Kinsey?
The only thing that's challenging is bad writing. [Laughs] If it's well written and well directed and you've got good actors to work with, acting is easy. But making sure all the ducks are in a row is the hard part. It's very rare.

Kevin Bacon has teasingly complained about still being recognized for Footloose. Do people mention that iconic 80s film to you?
Sometimes, but it's mostly 3rd Rock, and also The World According to Garp, Buckaroo Banzai, Richochet… The wildest combination of things. I don't mind as long as they're talking about me.

Do you have a favorite movie role?
I think the best movie I was ever in was Terms of Endearment. My most unusual role was in Garp. But I think the best acting I ever did on film was, of all things, the little mini movie in The Twilight Zone. That was really good. I was unleashed like a wild dog! It was the first time I was allowed to bring all my theater chops into a movie role. I just loved it.

Would you like to do another TV series eventually?
I don't know. It's hard to top 3rd Rock and I can't imagine doing an hour-long dramatic series because it's so much work. A sitcom is a wonderful gig. You work from 10 to 4 every day, it's fun, and you get to live at home. I don't want to do anything that's not as good as 3rd Rock.

I remember one of your Emmy acceptance speeches in which you said something like "You must all hate me."
I said, "I have no idea why I won this award. As far as I can see, every actor in Hollywood thinks what I do on 3rd Rock from the Sun is completely disgraceful!" [Laughs] They had just shown a wild clip, and I said, "You saw me up there—I'm embarrassed myself!"

But you were kidding, of course.
Of course. I was as proud as I could be of 3rd Rock.

How do you and your wife deal with separations?
We talk on the phone three times a day and she gets here whenever she can. And I'll take a couple of insane 36-hour trips to Los Angeles this spring, because my oldest son is expecting my first grandchild.

Is he still an actor?
Yes, but he's also studying psychotherapy. He's a great kid.

Are your two younger ones interested in the business?
They've had the good sense to steer clear of acting. My younger son is at NYU studying music and my daughter, who graduated from Harvard, has just moved to New York.

I read an interview in which you said, "I'm a fun father but not a good father." What did you mean?
I've never been a tough parent or set good limits, and I was away working a lot. Heavens, I'm a good father, but structure and discipline never came easy. I turned everything into a game. Too often, I put my wife in the position of being the bad guy and that's not fair.

What do you enjoy most about writing books for children?
I feel like I'm able to do something good and have fun while I'm doing it. Most of my writing for kids has been stuff that I've already performed: Carnival of the Animals was a narration for a ballet, and The Remarkable Farkle McBride was the narration of an orchestral suite. Marsupial Sue and I'm a Manatee began as songs that I sing in concert. What I love most about my books is performing them, because kids are a fabulous audience. I'm giving them an experience of music and performance for the first time. I try to educate them in little ways. I use big words. I don't talk directly about the arts, but my book Micawber is about learning to paint.

Would you like to write a musical or play?
Oh, it's all too much for me! Putting together a musical is like the Manhattan Project. It is huge and it is draining, and we actors get all the fun.

How do you keep your stamina up?
The play is the best exercise, and an audience's laughter is like rocket fuel. I'm never tired at the end of this exhausting show. The Retreat from Moscow was harder work than this, and I did nothing but sit on my ass!

You're turning 60 this year. Are you dreading it?
Not in the least. I don't have to be "promising" anymore. [Laughs] This is it, babe!