In search of a star
Wanted: big names to play Monroe’s ex-lovers
WITHOUT a star above the title, it’s hard for a new American play to get to Broadway.
That’s the No. 1 gripe producers, agents and actors have about the business.
Yes, the nonprofits will do a show with a non-starry cast. But even they’d prefer to have someone like Armie
Hammer (“Straight White Men,” Second Stage) or
Ethan Hawke (in the upcoming “True West” at the Roundabout) in the Playbill.
Line up Bryan Cranston, Daniel Radcliffe or Jim Parsons, and theater owners will give you a tour of their best houses.
But show them an exciting new script, and the first thing they want to know is: Who’s the star?
“It’s incredibly frustrating,” says a veteran producer. “The mania for star power is intense. If you don’t have one, you’re waitlisted.”
This issue is bedeviling a compelling new play that, if it could get a Broadway theater, would be a strong contender for the Tony.
Jack Canfora’s “Fellow Travelers” — about the reallife combustible triangle of Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and Marilyn Monroe during the McCarthy era — opened in June to rave reviews at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater.
Local critics called director Michael Wilson’s production “phenomenal,” “sharp,” “witty” and “gripping.”
New York’s major papers, alas, didn’t review the show. Had their reviews been good, the play would have stood a much greater chance of getting to Broadway.
Somebody slipped me a copy of the play, and it’s terrific.
Miller and Kazan were great collaborators and friends in the ’40s. Kazan staged the playwright’s “All My Sons” and “Death of a Salesman” on Broadway. “Fellow Travelers” finds them in Hollywood, working on a script about union corruption on the Brooklyn waterfront. Sen. Joseph McCarthy steals the spotlight with his investigations into communism in the entertainment industry. Kazan had been in the Communist Party in the ’30s but left in disgust when Stalin’s crimes became apparent. Now, he’s called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and must decide whether to name names of other former (and a few current) Communists.
Miller tries to dissuade him, but Kazan, ambitious and terrified of losing his career, cooperates with HUAC. Their friendship never recovered. “Fellow Travelers” takes a few liberties here and there with the facts, but it digs deep into the complicated friendship — and falling out — between Kazan and Miller.
And it spices things up by adding Monroe to the stew.
Kazan had an affair with her and then she moved on to Miller, who became obsessed with her. Their affair ruined Miller’s first marriage. Miller and Monroe then married and later divorced.
Gripping as it is, “Fellow Travelers” has yet to find its way onto Broadway.
“We don’t have a star,” a production source says.
Celeb duos are being floated — Andrew Garfield and Jake Gyllenhaal and Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy among them. If they read the script, they would leap at the chance to play such juicy characters.
Until then, “Fellow Travelers” languishes on Broadway’s waitlist.
That’s a pity.