Nathan Lane

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His favo Nat an Lane involves Sondheim, London's est End, injuries, Terrence McNal ly, Broadway's movie calle e Producers By Michael Giltzike Superman, actor Nathan Lane hirs been coming to the rescue throughout 2005. First he rewrote the book on Stephen Sondheim's long-neglected mrsical The Frogs. Then he dashed off to London's West End at a moment's notice to open The Producers-to massive acclaim, of course. A bum knee led to a bad back and a brief respite back in the United States. Then he filmed the mone ver- sion of The Producers and tried to rest again But a longtime friend, playwright Terrence McNally, needed a last-minute lead actor for his new play, and Lane responded heroically. Again. That led right into a revival of The Odd Couple on Broadway 60 I January 17, 2006 www.advocate com THE ADVOCATEthat's the biggest hit since. . .The Produc- ers When you're hot, you're hot Obviously it's been a very good year. And exhausting. The Terrence McNally play, filmingThe Producers, and now The Odd Couple. Every year has its ups and downs. Does 2005 seem like a particularly good year for you? I don't know I just keep going. I don't turn around and look at it and say lin a slightly plummy tonel,'qlVell, this was a good year." It has certainly been busy. I finished [my revival of the Sondheim mu- sicall The -F'rogg and I got this phone call from [director Susan] Stroman ro go ro London because things weren't going >PERFORMANCE well to open lThe Producersl there. And I had a torn meniscus in the left knee, which required surgery, but they said I could get through on just physical therapy while I was doing the show. Then my back went out because I was compensating for the knee. And I was in enormous pain. So I le{t a couple of weeks early, and I came back and had the surgery. Six weeks later I was frlming "Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop." So it was a whirlwind. That was three months or four months or whatever it was. I went out to Long Is- land to finally lie down. And then Terrence lost the actor who was going to play the lead in Dedication. He was so depressed-and again it was moments before they were about to open. And I said llaughingl, "Well...I'll do it." And then I said, 'lMho said that?" Anyway, it tumed out to be a really good thing for the both of us, and it was great to work together again. And it certainly helped hirn out. It was a really great experience that I was back in a re- hearsal room with him again. From the outside, the impression was that you and Terrence had had a falling-out and had been estranged for years. Obviously, his work is always good, so it wasn't the work that brought you two back together. What was it? That was long past. We certainly had been friends. It wasdt like we weren't friends, and then we did this, and now we were. We were having dinner together when this all came up. The other stuff has been overblown. That was a long time ago. When I said, "I1l doou as an i] -Nathan Lane it," it meant a great deal to him. Yes, I think it did heal some- thtng...|nuShsl that I thoughtwas healed. But it's even more healed. It s even more healed. It did do something. It rneant a great deal to hirn, so I'm doubly glad I did it. l've no doubt you and Matthew Broderick are delighted by the attention and the sales, but I get the impression from the outside that it's got to be exhausting. People are expecting sliced bread. You two have done two shows together, and I think it was The New York Times that 62 | January 17, 2006 www advocate.com TH E ADVOCATEI Ireferred to your legendary rapport. I thought surely you should have to do at least l0 shows together before you can be burdened with having a legendary rapport. Exactly. What can you do? You don't have any control over expectations. We were as shocked as anyone-the fact that it sold out before we went into rehearsals was rather extraordinary and unprecedented. It's exciting, but you get a little nauseous thinking about how there will be a lot of expectations. Next year you'll do The Gin Game together. lLauehsl Oh, Jesus. No, I think we'll take a vacation for a while. In the mainstream media profiles there were a few that made you seem very...solitary, melancholy, sad on the outside because you cry on the inside. Oh, that s all a lot ofhorseshit. I wondered if you recognized that or thought, Who are they talking about? That's what they decided I had no vote. Look, a lot of that stems from this article in The New Yorh Times Magazine that Alex Witchel did. I've known her for years, and I like Alex, and she's a good writer, and it's a well-written article. The one thing we'd joke about is that I'd say, "Whatever you do, don't turn this into the sad-clown article." But you have to live with that. People take their cues from that. Many articles have decided she must have gotten it right It gets to be a little much. I'm not saying I'm not a complicat- ed person. But I'm not clinically de- pressed. Time magazine had an article onThe Odd Couple, and one passage was so awkwardly worded that they made it sound like you were currently dating Victor Garber. Oh, I know. And Victor's one of my best friends. Hilarious. That whole piece- again, you're sometimes a victim of these things. There's a guy [the reporter] who showed up in our dressing room-my dressing room-and Matthew and I are sitting there, and talk about clinically de- pressed, he came in and sat down like this was the last place he wanted to be. He said, 'You know, I'm the book guy. I don't usually do entertainment." I said, "Oh, OK." He said, "The last piece I did was Joan Didion." I said, "Well, we're a little funnier than Joan Didion." So he said, "So tell me something: What is this 'previews' thine?"lLaughingl No, no, no. I'm not lying. I'm not making this up. 'lVhat is this'previews' thing?' I said,'TVelI, before we open, we're getting warmed up." And then he said, '1 guess this Joe Mantello, he's done a lot. I should have heard ofhim, huh?" I said, 'Where have you been?" So anyhow, in the middle of this conversation-because we're doing Thp Odd Couple, and its about divorce-he said, 'Well, to tell you the truth, ifs a little sad because I just got divorced." And I thought, She mo.de the right decision. And then the article comes out. There's been this whole Lhing, "Time magazine wants to write an article on you!" I spent an hour with this gentleman, and the article he writes- he decided that yes, again, emotionally I was Zelda Fitzgerald. And he referred to Matthew and me as B-list performers who'd had no success beforc The Producers. And you think, WeIl, why did they want us to star in it? llawhsl Anway, you have to live with it until it winds up in some dentists office. And during the run you'll turn 50. Oh, yes, that's right. Does that matter to you? ls it exciting? Sure Now there's a time to look back and say, Well? It's been pretty good. I'm plan- ning a big party. I've rented the Rainbow Room. It'll be a nice celebration. I think You came allthe way out officially in The Advocate, which we certainly appreciated. I wondered if I could compare it to getting mar- ried for people who've been living together. They're already basically married, but then they say the words, and it means something. How have things been since that final step? Initially, it didn't have a huge impact- Everyone in your life knew. It didn't feel like I'd been hiding anything. Once you say, "I don't want to talk about my private life," that means you're gay. Yes, sometimes it has an impact that I don't feel. Maybe some young person looking at some- one successful-if it helps someone, you'd like to think you did. But honestly, it didn't change anything for me other than that it was in a magazine and it was official And then you have to live with "openly gay actor Nathan Lane." It's better than "the private Nathan Lane." Or "the sad clown." I Giltz is a regular contributor to seueral periodicals, including /he New York Post. THE ADVOCATE www aovocare com

📄 Nathan Lane

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