Interview: Eric McConnell and Maximillian Jansen Talk A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER at Universal Preservation Hall

Eric McConnell and Maximillian Jansen are making their way upstate to Saratoga, New York, to take on A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER, at Universal Preservation Hall with Opera Saratoga, running June 30th to July 8th. Broadway World sat down with the pair to discuss the show, favorite roles, and more.

BroadwayWorld: Hello! I’d like for you both to give a little self-introduction on your backgrounds to get to know you.

Maximillian Jansen: Sure, I’m Maximillian Jansen, and I go by Max. I’m originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, but I currently live just about an hour south of Saratoga Springs in the village of Catskill. I studied classical voice in my undergrad at Miami University of Ohio, but I also studied musical theater while I was there. I’ve done some cabaret sort of stuff as well. Then I got my master’s degree in vocal performance at Bard College, in Hudson, New York. I’ve been singing professionally for the past few years out of school, but this is gonna be the first time to be back in musical theater in a while. I’ve done standards and some of the repertoire, but I haven’t done a role in probably seven years. This is a really, really exciting opportunity to get back into it.

Eric McConnell: Yeah, absolutely. So, professionally I go by Eric J. (as in Joseph) McConnell. I’m originally from Denver, Colorado, and I’m still based in that area. I’ve worked with companies all over the U.S., and this season I’ve been in Florida, Colorado, Missouri, and now upstate New York. I have two degrees in vocal performance, one from the University of Miami, the one in Florida, and a master’s degree from Northwestern. I’ve been working pretty full time since I finished my master’s degree, minus 2020 for some reason. I’ve been sort of in the young artist sphere in the opera community for a while, but this has been my first year branching out into principal work. I’ve been doing a lot of crossover work, a combination of opera and musical theater, which so far has been quite lucrative, and the rest of my year is a combination of the two genres.

BWW: That’s incredible. Congratulations to you both on your success thus far. How did you both decide that you wanted to explore classical voice, and what did those paths look like?

Eric: Well, as you can hear from my speaking voice, I have a low voice. So, when I started looking into what I wanted to do in college, musical theater at the time did not seem to be a great option for me because they tend to really prioritize the high voiced men over the low voiced men. Opera seemed to be a really great avenue for me to go through, especially because I also loved language. Spanish was my best class at school and languages were something that came very easily to me. Opera was a really good fit because we sing in multiple languages, and it’s performance. They have just as many roles for low voiced men as they have for high voiced men. My voice teacher in high school introduced me to the 24 Italian Songs and Arias which every classical singer is fortunately, or unfortunately, acquainted with. I’m sure a lot of the readers of BroadwayWorld would be familiar. I took to those when the time came to choose a major, and decided to apply to school for vocal performance. Here I am today.

Max: I think like a lot of people, by the time I was in middle school I was doing school choir. That got me into theater originally and when I got into high school I really wanted to focus on musical theater. At one point, I had intended on going into theater education because I had a really great theater teacher in high school. Then, I got a really wonderful voice teacher and he kind of pushed me into moving more toward the classical vocal repertoire. I’ve always been a huge fan of the standards and musicals. One of the reasons I love classical vocal music is because there’s so much good poetry and libretti that can be found in opera and art songs, and I love good lyrics and texts. Also, in a lot of the musicals I love, Sondheim, Lerner and Loewe, Rodgers and Hammerstein, they have such great words. That’s what I’m so excited about with this show because it also has some really great, really funny writing. I was lucky enough in high school to have a really good musical theater program and we did pretty solid shows. I’d say, you know that’s always looking at that with rose colored glasses. I think we had really good direction, acting direction, vocal direction, and even really good dance experience. When I got to college, I was able to do a little more musical theater there. I started pursuing a minor in it, along with vocal performance and dance. I did a couple of shows in college, and then I was able to do a professional show right out of my undergrad. My vocal teacher in college had me staying in classical music because that’s what I really love doing. I do a lot of opera and concert repertoire recitals. I really, really love small and intimate performance opportunities and that’s why I started getting cabaret stuff as well. It’s like a really great crossover, between the world of musical theater and the world of classical voice. 

BWW: I love that you both can thrive in this environment. Eric, how does opera compare to musical theater?

Eric: I mean, at the end of the day you are telling a story, on a stage to a crowd. That never changes. The reason why operas are still performed today is because they have a message that an audience can handle, which is the same thing as musical theater. It’s all about being human. Musical theater can be a little more palatable for some people because there’s not usually a language barrier; it’s almost always in English, with some exceptions. In terms of style, I mean I’ve always believed that having a classical foundation is the best thing you can do as a singer because that’s kind of how we first started singing as a species. Every other style of singing stems from that style. I still think about my vowels in a very Italian way when I’m singing musical theater, then you just tweak them a little bit to give a more American, musical theater sound. A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER is actually very classically sung, it’s almost operatic singing the entire time. I’ve been approaching it more as an opera than other things I’ve done in the past that are a little bit more brassy, American musical theater. 

BWW: Max, how did you find your way coming into a show like this, having not performed a musical theater role in several years? What is this process like for you?

Max: The biggest hurdle over doing something like my role, Monty, is that I’ve got a lot of dialogue. Our director, David Gram has chosen to change around how some of the dialogue is approached. In the original production, there is quite a bit of voiceover for Monty, but we’ve changed all of that to live dialogue which is pretty daunting, but it’s a really great challenge. I really started with the text first, especially the spoken dialogue. I think the music was pretty easy to get a handle on and one of the nice things of studying classical music, not that any musical theater is really easy per se, but there’s different challenges to reading and learning music quickly in classical vocal repertoire. That’s prepared me to learn this musical theater music a little more quickly. It was really just diving into the text and figuring out who this character is. Originally, Bryce Pinkham played Monty on Broadway, and he had such a strong take on the character. With any show that kind of gets famous, it can be really hard to make sure you know the character and how to put your own spin on it, so you’re not just playing someone else, playing this character. So, it was a lot of researching this production’s history, and it was based off a book that got turned into a movie called Kind Hearts and Coronets from 1949. The plot is quite different but it was interesting to see different takes on these characters and see how the production was adapted for the stage. I got the music around Thanksgiving and stuck my head in it. I was lucky to have other concerts going on at the same time, but I was just plugging away at this every day and really feeling like I could inhabit this character and my relationships with everyone else on the stage. It’s so important in comedy, and especially in an ensemble, ensemble being me and for the most part Eric who’s playing all of the D'Ysquiths, the satisfaction of nailing the comedy beats which are all about timing and understanding how to react to people honestly. People say in comedy that you can’t try to be funny or else you’ll lose the audience. You have to be real, and what I love about this show, and the character of Monty as I see him is being a kind of straight man to all of the wacky, over the top D’Ysquith family, and that’s a really fun character to play.

BWW: Can you tell us about the role you’re playing in A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE? How do your characters move the story along?

Max: The show kind of starts in the middle of the action. I’m playing Monty Navarro, and he’s just come from his mother’s funeral. It’s established from the beginning that I’m lower class and it’s set in Edwardian England. I discover that I’m ninth in the line of succession to become part of this wealthy family, and surely since I’m a lost son of theirs, they will want me back. When I go to them, they snub me and consequently, I somewhat accidentally fall into killing one of them. Once I realize it’s not that hard and they’re pretty terrible, I start to knock off everyone ahead of me in the line of succession. 

Eric: So, I play all nine members of the D’Ysquith family. I’ve been describing it to people who aren’t familiar with the show as The Nutty Professor, the movie with Eddie Murphy, where he plays all of the family members. It’s very similar except this is on stage, and I can only be one of them at a time. The story is pretty simple. Monty, the gentleman in A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER, slowly kills off each member of the family to get that earldom, and I get to die on stage eight separate times. It’s a comedy, let me be very clear, it’s very funny. It’s an extremely dark comedy, but it’s very light at the same time, very much like Sweeney Todd, but this one is full of comedy. You’ll be laughing the whole time. There are nine members that I play, two of whom are women. The age range is early twenties to I’d say mid seventies. It’s been very exciting to figure out what each one sounds like and looks like. I have several quick changes, and there will be moments where I’m wearing three costumes at a time so I can go off stage, rip one off and then be in the next one two seconds later. There’ll be a lot of magic to the show, and I’m sure the costume people and wig and makeup people are ripping their hair out thinking about it, but it’ll be a really fun time. I saw the show on Broadway in 2015 and I adored it, so when I got the call to do this role it was literally a dream come true.

BWW: So Max, you’re killing off all of Eric’s characters! Eric, how do you keep track of and create nine different characters?

Eric: I started with the text of the show, and that’s really where I found a lot of it. I read the dialogue that they have and each character is written with a slightly different literary voice. From that, I developed their literal voice. All of them are British, and there are a lot of British dialects to choose from. I’ve been creative in assigning a dialect to each one. That’s where being an opera singer comes in handy because we usually have a really good ear for accents and diction. It’s been very helpful. The characters are all vastly different and each scene is written for each member of the family. One of them is gay, one is really old and stodgy, another is a bit of a drunk and a little dimwitted. Because of their very different personalities, it’s really easy to keep track of which one I am.

BWW: Max, how do you balance a role that has a bit of an evil tendency?

Max: You have to figure everything out as you go. I can’t start the show knowing that in the end I’ll have killed eight people. I think there’s a little bit of this in all of us, you know, the feeling of being snubbed or taken advantage of, and you fantasize about how you could turn something back into your favor. Maybe that’s just me, but I do believe that Monty thinks he is doing the right thing. They are pretty awful people that are cruel to the poor, very imperialistic and out of touch. Once Monty starts realizing the power he gets out of it, he begins to get too big of a head and that’s his downfall by the end of the show. I don’t think Monty is totally evil, but he’s unfortunate enough to have been turned away.

BWW: Why should someone be interested in hearing this story in particular?

Max: At the very least, it’s gonna be in a really beautiful hall. Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga is gorgeous, and the audience is right next to you throughout this whole performance. Every single person in this cast is a fantastic singer and actor, but it’s a story that can resonate with a lot of people. In this time of social change that’s happening and these kinds of growing pains that the U.S., and the world, are going through. People will be able to see a lot in these characters and the writing is so smart, it punches up so well. It’s so good at lampooning these types of people in Edwardian England that still act like this and believe they have all the rights to their wealth no matter what happens, even if they didn’t have to work for it or came to it by cruel means. I think it’s a show about taking your power and trying to right a wrong, even if it gets dark along the way. It’s very relevant, in a post Trump era, if it even is post Trump, I think again that there’s a lot of stuff people can relate to in this show. I think the music is great too because it’s almost a play on Gilbert and Sullivan operetta music to fit in this Edwardian time, but then it also has great jazz aesthetics. It doesn’t get boring, it’s a really exciting show to be in and to see.

Eric: Absolutely. First of all, it’s just a fun show. You certainly can learn something about people going after power, but you will laugh your butt off the entire time. I know it’s not as familiar to people as Sound of Music or Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gilbert and Sullivan, but if you are familiar with the works of these composers then you will feel right at home in the show. It is very much in the style of a golden age musical, it has a lot of the same sounds and styles that you would expect from a musical of the early or mid 20th century. It did win the Tony for best musical when it was on Broadway, so it’s objectively a good show! Plus, there’s the magic of seeing all the D’Ysquiths come on stage with, as our costume director referred to them, hatefully quick changes. The music is quite good, it’s very easy on the ears but it’s also a little bit complex. It challenges you, which I think opera people will really appreciate, and people who are familiar with the works Saratoga did last year. It’s fun for the whole family and you know, if you have a tinge of dark comedy in your soul then you will feel very much at home. Even if you don’t, you’ll still laugh because it’s silly the whole time. In our rehearsals we’re just running around like chickens with their heads cut off. It is utter chaos and it’s so much fun.

BWW: Well, speaking of exciting shows, do either of you have a favorite role or show that you’ve been cast in?

Eric: Ooooh, that’s a great question. I veer towards the comic roles. I love comedy and it’s something that comes naturally to me. I can act dramatically but I love making people laugh, it’s very much a part of my psyche. I was covering the role, but got to perform it twice in Sarasota, Florida, Leporello in DON GIOVANNI. He is a great role and I had a lot of fun with him. I also love Figaro in THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO. Those two are my favorites right now and they’re things that I’m actively getting hired to do at my age. Not only are they fun to perform, but also they will pay my bills. 

Max: Yeah, one of my favorite roles was in college a while ago playing the titular character in Benjamin Britten’s ALBERT HERRING. It has similar themes to A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE, where there’s a young man who’s really sheltered from the world and when none of the queens are pure enough to be May Queen, Albert is selected. He doesn’t want to be pure so he drinks too many cocktails at the festival and goes out on the town to discover that he can have fun on his own without the watchful eyes of his mother and society. I love these roles with people behaving badly to push against their constraints. It was such a fun role and the music is absolutely gorgeous. It’s hilarious and there’s some of that in Monty as well.

BWW: I’ve greatly enjoyed chatting with you both, and I thank you for your time today. I hope that you enjoy this process and have good fortune in the future. I can’t wait to see the show, it’s gonna be fabulous!

Eric: Awesome, thank you so much. I look forward to reading the article. Take care.

Max: Great, thanks so much. It was great talking to you, bye!

A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER comes to Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga, running June 30th to July 8th. Tickets are available through https://www.operasaratoga.org/gentlemans-guide