Interview: Christopher Lowell Wants to 'Meet the Moment' of MARJORIE PRIME

Just last fall, film and television star Christopher Lowell was gearing up for a major career milestone... his Broadway debut. He went on to take his first official Broadway bow at the Hayes Theatre in the acclaimed Second Stage production of Leslye Headland's Cult of Love, on December 12, 2024. Exactly one year later, Lowell will be back on Broadway, at the Hayes Theatre, starring in yet another Second Stage production- Marjorie Prime.

Anne Kauffman will direct Jordan Harrison's heart-achingly beautiful rumination on aging and artificial intelligence, memory and mortality, love and legacy. Lowell plays 'Walter', a holographic projection created to comfort and help preserve memories of the Marjorie, played by June Squibb.

Rehearsals for the play have not yet begun, but Lowell checked in with BroadwayWorld to tell us how he is preparing for his big return to the stage. 

How excited are you excited to get rehearsing and get started on this play? 

I am both extremely excited and wildly intimidated. The only reason I feel like I can even show up the first day of rehearsal is because I feel like I've got a little bit of a connection to both Cynthia [Nixon] and Danny [Burstein] and Evan [Cabnet]... and even Jordan [Harrison].

I did a play with Cynthia a decade ago called Kinship and I just fell in love with her then. She's just so unbelievably talented and disarming and we had a great time together. And Danny, I first met in 2014 when he was doing Cabaret with Alan Cumming and Emma Stone. I went and took portraits of everybody and he just found out he was going to be playing Tevye in Fiddler and he had his copy of the book there. So, I took a couple portraits of him in his dressing room. He's just the best. And again, I have heard so many wonderful things about him from Audra MacDonald, from Betty Gilpin, from anybody who's ever met him frankly. 

Then, my friend, Jeff Ward actually originated the part when they did it in Los Angeles 11 years ago. I'm excited that I kind of know some people, loosely. I'm so excited to be in a room with such insane talent and I hope I just don't bring everybody down!

Normally, my way in to any role is by trying to find the humanity and the character. But of course, I'm not playing a human! So I just don't know what the approach is going to be like. I'm meeting with Anne Kaufman tomorrow to talk about it, and to try and get some insight in terms of how she wants to approach the character and the piece as a whole. 

Right! I bet that will make for a very interesting rehearsal process for you.

I know! I get to tell a lot of stories. And again, it's interesting, like, who am I? Am I telling stories as an AI? Am I telling stories as this character? I don't know the answer to that. I think even if I am impersonating a human, I'm curious about things like: as a storyteller in the play, do I stutter? Do I slouch? Do I ever forget the story halfway through and need to go back to fix things? Is that something that happens or not? Again, I've never played AI before. I have a lot of questions myself going into it, but I'm really excited because I've never played a role like this.

And the scenery should all be pretty familiar to you...

Yes, and I get to go back to the Hayes! Being on Broadway is I think any actor's dream, and for me, it certainly was such a pinch me moment in my life and in my career. The idea that I'm going to be able to do it twice in one year is unfathomable. 

In back to back seasons! 

It's insane! I still honestly don't quite understand it... but the fact that, like, I'm going to be able to see a lot of the same dressers, the security crew, the house managers... it's its own family that I get to come back to. That just is awesome. 

What do you personally love most about this play?

I don't think there is a more relevant time to be telling a story about that uncanny valley that AI is bringing to us all right now and how to exist in that space. I'm really interested in exploring what is real, what is authentic, what matters, what relationships matter most. How do we interpret those relationships? How do we remember those relationships? How do we manipulate those relationships? It's about the idea of family, the idea of companionship, the idea of responsibility to our family, and what that looks like. I just think that in this era of people searching for connection with chat bots and AI in general is so revolutionary and scary and unique and maybe helpful?

Personally, I'm a major AI skeptic. As an actor, there's constantly this fear, especially now, that all of our jobs are going to be taken over by AI. If anything, there's never been a better argument for why theater needs to exist. No matter what's happening, when I'm looking at that stage, I know that there's a human being on it. So what better arena to be discussing the dangers and controversy of AI in our lives than with flesh and blood human beings on the stage? I think that's just a really spectacular space to be having the conversation.

Did you know the play well before now?

I read it maybe a decade ago when they first did it at Playwrights and I was so moved. I knew it was great when I read it then, but re-reading it for this... maybe because it's so much more relevant now, or maybe because I'm older now, I'm gobsmacked at the writing. The way that Jordan pieces it all together is just beautiful. And when I think about what Cynthia and June and Danny are gonna do with these characters, it's going to be just devastatingly beautiful. 

Part of the reason I also am excited to meet with Annie is to ask the big question on my mind, which is of course, "Why did you pick me!? Why on earth?" It's after it was a done deal, I went and reread the play again. Very quickly, the excitement turns to absolute dread, because it's a heavy lift! I want to meet the moment! 

Marjorie Prime will begin performances at the Hayes Theatre on November 20 and will open on December 8, 2025.

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