Conleth Hill: Twice in a Lifetime
Conor McPherson's The Seafarer, now playing at Broadway's Booth Theatre, is a decidedly black comedy the Devil, no less, is on the premises, but Conleth Hill is a delightful presence from start to finish. As Ivan Curry, drinking buddy and hanger-on to brothers played by Jim Norton and David Morse, Hill gives a sweetly comic performance that helps ground McPherson's portrait of an unsettling Christmas Eve in a rundown Dublin suburb. A Tony nominee for his Broadway debut in Marie Jones' comedy Stones in His Pockets, the Irish actor showed off his versatility in an Olivier Award-winning performance as Roger DeBris in the London production of The Producers. Though he praises the musical in his Broadway.com essay, he modestly refrains from mentioning his own award-winning performance in the show! Hill and Norton are now reprising their roles from The Seafarer's acclaimed National Theatre production. Before the stagehands strike interrupted previews, Hill shared his thoughts on what's special about acting on stage in New York.
From March to September 2001 a little Irish play called Stones in His Pockets ran in the Golden Theatre on West 45th Street. Sean Campion and myself were the entire cast. We arrived in New York on the 19th of March. Neither of us had been to the States before. Our company stage manager, David O'Brien, took us on the subway from the West Village to 42nd Street. He told us to close our eyes, guided us to Times Square and then told us to open our eyes again.
I was totally overwhelmed.
My small-town upbringing had not equipped me for what I saw that March day. Sure, we had a naked singing cowboy at home, but everything else—the skyscrapers, the lights, the screens and the multitudes… I was still shaking when we were brought to the theater and met Rita at the front of house and John at the stage door.
The surreal nature of that day continued for the next six months. The Broadway experience included playing softball in Central Park with Len Cariou, John Ritter and Henry Winkler. Because there were only two of us in our show, we joined forces with Neil Simon's The Dinner Party in the Broadway Softball League and played against Riverdance and The Producers among others. We also played in the Broadway Bowling League. Hey, Thursday was sports day.
We won nominations and awards, we met so many stars and saw so many great shows. The thrill of watching Mel Brooks' The Producers was hard to beat.
And yet here I am again.
I hold Jim Norton responsible. I mean Jim Norton the brilliant Irish actor, not Jim Norton the stand-up comedian. Jim and I were doing a show together in the West End a couple of years ago. He has a successful collaborative relationship with playwright Conor McPherson. They have worked together many times, and at the time Jim and I were doing the show in London, Jim was reading Conor's new play The Seafarer. He told me about it, and I vainly thought that I was too young for any of the five brilliant parts.
Conor did not think so, and Jim and I began the first leg of this fantastic journey with a run of the play at the National Theatre in London and an English tour. And now I'm back on Broadway at the Booth. It is a couple of doors up from the Golden. John and Rita are still there. David is a couple of streets up doing Grease. Barclay Stiff is the company stage manager for The Seafarer. Mel Brooks has a new musical. Saw it. Another thrill. And the people at the Booth are just as welcoming as their counterparts at the Golden.
Even though I am not as overwhelmed as I was six years ago, things are just as brilliantly surreal.
What other job can you do where you work with people all day, then go home and watch them in movies? Ciarán Hinds in Munich, David Morse in Sixteen Blocks, Sean Mahon in Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Jim in Driving Lessons. All in the space of a week. Surreal.
Just like The Seafarer. Thank you, Broadway, for this second once-in-a-lifetime experience.