Christopher Fitzgerald
In many ways, the life of Tony Award nominee—and newly minted Broadway.com Audience Award winner—Christopher Fitzgerald is like that of any other new father: His sleep schedule is erratic, his daily life punctuated by baby Charlie's milestones—first smile, first teeth, first words. Unlike most new dads, however, eight times a week Fitzgerald must hand off his bundle of joy, strap on a prosthetic hump and wield his sleeplessness like a weapon, bursting onstage as bug-eyed sidekick Igor in Broadway's monster-sized musical Young Frankenstein. Now almost a year into this schedule which he shares with his actress wife, Jessica Stone, recently seen in Roundabout's Crimes of the Heart, Fitzgerald takes it all in stride. A well-rounded actor best known for originating Boq in Broadway's other humongous musical, Wicked, Fitzgerald has made a career of combining a down-to-earth appeal and expert comedic timing, breaking onto the New York theater scene a decade ago in Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi. A year later, he was cast in the Encores! production of Babes in Arms, where co-star Stone caught his eye and later became his wife. His Broadway debut in 2002's Amour paved the way for Wicked and all that's come after, including a stint on the short-lived television series Twins and the off-Broadway hit Gutenberg! The Musical!. We sat down with Fitzgerald, who reflected on one wild year, the role that earned him a Tony nod and one of the sweetest wedding proposal stories you've ever read.
So you've got a Tony nomination! Have you been to the awards before?
I performed in an ensemble number for Wicked once. I ran out and screamed "Wiiiickeeeeed!" and that's all.
Do you have any awards show panic? What to wear, who to meet?
I'm a little panicked about the size of the room. It's so big, and there's going to be so many people…but no, I have no expectations and no idea what it's going to feel like. At the Drama Desk Awards, the thing that panicked me the most was the possibility of my name being called and having to speak in front of all those people. So thank god Boyd Gaines won [for Gypsy].
Your category is very well rounded. What do you think of the competition?
I know a couple of them, and I've heard that our category particularly is filled with the nicest people. I don't know how that happened. I hear Daniel Breaker [of Passing Strange] is a great guy; I hear everyone's a great guy. The other categories are unfortunately filled with nuts [laughs].
Well, I know that Young Frankenstein is not going to win Best Musical. That's one prediction. I haven't really been able to see anything! But, from what I've been told by people who have been able to see everything, they love Rent. I think Rent has a good shot this year.
Let me get this straight—you got the news about landing the role of Igor while you were in a gigantic Cabbage Patch doll costume?
Yes. That is true.
What is that about?!
[Laughing] I was the Geico Cabbage Patch doll. I don't know if you remember that commercial.
I do, actually. Random!
Yeah, that was me. It was a terrifying two or three days. I haven't done a lot of mascot work! I found myself getting very claustrophobic, and then they were like, "Get in this car!" It was just terrifying. We were on location shooting a bunch of stuff and it was a loooooong day. My legs ached—my big, puffy Cabbage Patch doll legs—and the only place I could find to sit down was a bathroom. So I was sitting in this bathroom with my Cabbage Patch head next to me, and my phone rang and [my agent] was like, "They want you to play Igor! What do you think?" And I said, "Um…what else you got?" And they said there was nothing else. [Pauses.] Ha, no, no, I was excited!
Is it hard to jump up and down with excitement in a Cabbage Patch doll costume?
Yes. They didn't want me to break it and they were very concerned. And, actually, Shuler [Hensley, who plays the Monster] was on the set with me. They were doing a bunch of different commercials at the same time, and he was shooting an interview segment for another commercial. We didn't talk about it because we didn't cross paths, but it was totally bizarre.
You were a big Mel Brooks fan growing up?
Huge. I could quote a lot of his movies and just loved him.
So what's it like to grow up as a fan and then get to work with him on a new musical?
I don't know how to describe it. So much of my humor was defined by watching his work, so to work with him kind of made some bizarre sense. And I found it really fun and liberating to bring all my experience watching his work to what I was doing in the room. He is exactly what you see him as—he's just this mad genius who's got incredible energy and is constantly firing off any number of ideas, fielding your ideas, taking your ideas and going with them. The main thing for me was that the room was open. I think that's the fun, also, for him—just seeing what people come up with, and laughing.
Did you have any nerves about playing an iconic Mel Brooks character that's so familiar to fans?
Totally! I was very nervous. I mean, this is like a new brand of acting, reinterpreting movie roles for the stage. I'm going to teach a class in the fall on how to move a film role to the stage; we'll have role-playing where you dress as that character. NO, I'm kidding! [Laughs.] The one good thing is I knew [Igor] very well. Marty Feldman [who originated the role on film] was always sort of a kindred spirit for me. He was my favorite character; his sensibility was something I really loved, and so I just tried to steal every ounce of that.
Is it true that Roger Bart was originally cast in your role?
Yes, he did some of the readings of it. I think eventually they just saw him as Dr. Frankenstein. And I originally read for Dr. Frankenstein.
So I guess the audition went well?
You know, I think it did! My wife, Jessie, had a kidney stone at the time. And she was pregnant. So I was literally in her hospital room going over my music as I was rubbing her head and trying to comfort her. And then there was a snowstorm! So I went in, and they had given us 10 songs to sing and four scenes and all this material. I think I did the first song and scene and they were like, "Would you maybe do one more song?" And I was tired, and grumpy and angry, so I sang "Life, Life," which is when [Dr. Frankenstein] goes completely mad. I think in the audition I actually went a little mad. And that's what Mel Brooks responds to. I guess he thought, "That was pretty interesting…".
There are some serious comedic chops on that stage. What it like working with that cast?
It's pretty cool. The good news is I knew most of these people before we started working. Andrea [Martin, a Tony nominee for her performance as Frau Blucher] is actually an old friend of mine. We worked together many, many years ago at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in The Matchmaker. And we've traveled together as a family, Andrea and my wife and I. She's literally the funniest person I've maybe ever known. I think we all share a weird funny bone. The rehearsals were fun because everyone was on the same page and just going for it. I'm totally in awe of all these crazy people. They are all crazy. You know that, right? But so am I.
DON'T HAVE A BABY WHEN YOU'RE ABOUT TO DO A BIG BROADWAY SHOW!! Don't do that at the same time! [Baby Charlie] was born two weeks into rehearsal. So…um…that was a mistake! But nature doesn't really follow the rules of show business. That's been one of the more challenging and totally thrilling parts of this whole experience. It's been a crazy, vibrant, exhausting, unforgettable year, to have a baby and play this kind of part in this size of a show. Two weeks after he was born, we all flew to Seattle for seven weeks.
How did you manage to juggle two major events like that?
I don't know! I don't remember any of it! I think you lose any sense of judging the moment and you're just sort of in it. You don't have any time to dwell; you just keep going and try to be as present as you can in every moment. Luckily I had a super woman as a partner, and [Charlie] was pretty cool too.
Do you have any advice for young show biz couples going through the same thing?
Get your SAG insurance! You can add dependents!
I heard that you and your wife have a very cute proposal story.
It's pretty saccharine, so get ready. It's really sugary. We met doing an Encores! show, Babes in Arms. We were playing opposite each other, and on our first day of rehearsal we didn't have much to do, so we had lunch and got to know each other a bit. Then, back at rehearsal, [director] Kathleen Marshall was like, "Okay, I need you to kiss for eight counts of eight. And make out! It has to be really hardcore making out!" So that was our "getting to know you." We had to be like "Hi, I'm from Maine." "Hi, I'm from Rochester." Now suck face! And then our first real date was closing night of the show. We were singing "My Funny Valentine," which is the last song; it was a very sweet moment. Four years later, I arranged it so [Encores! musical director] Rob Fisher would call us saying, "Hey, meet me onstage at City Center and we'll hang out." And we got to City Center and walked onstage, and Jessie goes, "Where's Rob?" Actually, I think I was the one who said, "Where's Rob?" I was so nervous and freaked out, and she was like, What's wrong with you? But I asked her to marry me and it was very sweet.
That's impressive! How do you juggle two acting careers, a marriage and now a family?
Ha! I don't know. There are definitely advantages to both being actors. There are sacrifices and strange things that go on that no one else would really understand. But we also have a life outside of the business, and that's very valuable. We travel a lot together, and our families are important to us. I don't really know how we do it! I always loved working with her and we've worked together a lot over the years. She's up in Boston now doing She Loves Me with Brooks Ashmanskas, which is then moving to Williamstown—that's where we got married, in Williamstown. Everything is perfect. We never fight. Rainbows fly out of our butts when we wake up in the morning [laughs]. And we're also very feisty with each other.
Getting back to your career, comedy has been one obvious constant. Did you always see that as a strength?
[Comedy] is probably all where it started. My mom put me in a clown class at age five in Maine, and I kind of took to it. So I've always been a weird dude, I guess. I've been lucky enough to do all sorts of stuff. I went to grad school [at the American Conservatory Theatre] to try and "get serious"—you know, study all different forms of acting and read a billion different plays.
I have a philosophy about grad schools now. I feel like they [propel] a lot of students into this business and don't quite prepare people in the way that they could. You're going to school to train to be an actor or an artist, and that's your main focus—to figure out who you are, what motivates you, what sparks your imagination; that's the core of what we do. But there's a whole other side of it that is very challenging. There are a lot of decisions you have to make as you go along, a lot of sacrifices, and I wish they prepared you more for the business part of it. It's nuts! Going to grad school beats you up. You spend a lot of time with yourself—studying your voice, your emotional world, your body, the way you speak, your breath—and by the end of, it I was like, "I HATE myself. I'm so sick of you!" But you come out ready to tap into all this stuff. And then your first thing is a Cabbage Patch doll audition.
Having survived grad school, TV, small shows like Gutenberg! and huge shows like Wicked and Young Frankenstein, have you developed a preference for the kind of projects you do?
I really love it all. You're always making decisions about taking a job for a little bit of money and a lot of love, or paying your bills. You forge through, like any business. [Actors] just happen to have a lot more job applications and are constantly being turned down! But I love them for very different reasons. Gutenberg was such an amazing experience because I did it with my best friend and the material tickled me so much. There's something so pure about being on a small stage and telling a story to a smaller group of people. It's not on the scale of Young Frankenstein, where the resources are amazing—it's amazing to play to a house of 2,000 people and sing songs with a 25-piece orchestra. It's dynamic and exciting, to be sure. But it's great to have as many experiences as possible.
Did working on a production as large as Wicked prepare you for Young Frankenstein?
I'd done a lot of off-Broadway at that point. That was my first time seeing something done on so grand a scale. I think it's all really the same stuff, trying to tell a story of some kind. But maybe it made Young Frankenstein not seem as overwhelming? It's crazy how people [reacted to] Wicked, when none of us really understood what was happening! All I knew was, when the music started, about 10,000 teenage girls screamed, and the building shook! And just thought, "Wow!" Wow.
So I have to ask—if you could star in another Mel Brooks screen-to-stage transfer, what would you pick?
One of my favorites is The Twelve Chairs. But I don't know if it could be a musical. I'd do any of them! I think I've said before I'd play Yoghurt from Spaceballs [a role originated by Brooks]. So yeah. Yoghurt.
See Christopher Fitzgerald in Young Frankenstein at the Hilton Theatre.
