J.J. Abrams takes on Broadway
NEW YORK — Seeking a break from green screens and lightsabres while shooting The Force Awakens outside London, J.J. Abrams decided to catch a play.
“I had a free night and looked to see what was playing,” Abrams recalled in a recent interview over a plate of pasta in Manhattan. “I saw something that was called The Play That Goes Wrong that sounded amusing. I bought a ticket and went knowing nothing. I’d never laughed that hard. I’d never seen an audience laugh that hard.”
That Abrams accidentally stumbled upon The Play That Goes Wrong is fitting. It’s a work stuffed with stumbling and a 100-car pileup’s worth of accidents.
And now, with Abrams as a producer, The Play That Goes Wrong has careened all the way to Broadway. Currently in previews, it will officially open April 2 at the Lyceum Theatre.
Though its name could double as a nickname for Julie Taymor’s ill-fated, mistake-prone SpiderMan, The Play That Goes Wrong is a madcap farce — ostensibly a 1920s murder mystery — in which lines are flubbed, entrances are poorly timed, actors have a penchant for being knocked unconscious and not a single prop is ever where it ought to be. Some will certainly recall the backstage comedy Noises Off, but The Play That Goes Wrong, with the slapstick of Monty Python in its blood, cranks the chaos up to 11.
It marks the Broadway debut of an unusual pair. It’s the first professional step into theatre for Abrams, the pre-eminent crafter of blockbuster science fiction and small-screen puzzles. And it’s also the Broadway entre for London’s Mischief Theatre. Kevin McCollum, the play’s other producer, calls the troupe — including artistic director Henry Lewis and company director Jonathan Sayer — “the comic Steppenwolf.”
Though the play ran for two years in the West End and won an Olivier Award, it comes from humble beginnings. It was first put on (with less spectacular disasters) above a pub in North London. The irony that a little British comedy without big names has attracted a benefactor in Abrams, maker of globe-spanning billiondollar movies, is not lost on the group. The play disbelievingly advertises Abrams as “who we can only assume lost a bet.”
But Abrams’ involvement is genuine. Says McCollum, the veteran producer of Avenue Q and In the Heights: “He came to this without a cynical ounce. He didn’t do it because we needed him to sell tickets or anything. It was like: ‘I love this show. You love this show. I love theatre. I’d love to work in theatre a little bit more.’ I’m like, ‘Great, come. Let’s do this.’ ”
And though Abrams has long seemed a natural-born movie director, he directed and acted in plays in high school and college. He’s a lifelong collector of playbills. His love of Hamilton led to Lin-Manuel Miranda composing the Cantina Band music in The Force Awakens.
Abrams might have also been looking for an antidote to largescale movie production.
“I so love the community of putting on a show, not relying on editors, not relying on special effects or spectacle,” says Abrams. “There’s something so pure about it. It is a remarkable thing, being so accustomed to all the crutches that film allows, to see how an audience can be so moved by a handful of people on the stage with make-up and costumes and lighting. It’s always a wonder to me.”
He’s also, in manner and moviemaking, unflappable and precise — quite unlike the madcap mania of The Play That Goes Wrong.
Abrams hasn’t directed since The Force Awakens, and still looks happily unburdened, no longer having the weight of remaking a beloved franchise on his shoulders. He says he’s writing something “that I’m playing with” but he’s largely been producing: HBO’s Westworld, the next Star Wars movie and another planned sci-fi series called Glare.
“But I’m very much enjoying taking a moment. Since I’ve done the show Felicity, I’ve gone from project to project. So it’s been 20 years since I haven’t been prepping, casting, shooting, editing something,” says Abrams. He pauses to appreciate his surroundings — a restaurant a few steps away from the Lyceum. “I’m enjoying it more than I ever thought I would.”