Interview: A Chat With Jeff McCarthy of Arena's OLIVER!

I had just moved to New York and the day after moving, I went for a walk around my new East Village apartment building and walked past a storefront with a show poster in the window.

The storefront happened to be the Vineyard Theatre, and there was a new musical playing there. My little gay heart exploded. A new musical by called Dream True, starring Jeff McCarthy, Judy Kuhn, Daniel Jenkins, and Jessica Molaskey - all performers I'd spent most of my life listening to on cast recordings - live, in the flesh, singing songs I'd never heard! I ran in to see if they had any student rush tickets and they were sold out. The house manager was standing there and asked if I wanted to usher - of course I jumped at the chance, and then was seated next to composer Ricky Ian Gordon.

It was a pretty magical night for me, being two days into my new life in the city, it was just the welcome I needed. And it was my first experience seeing the brilliant Jeff McCarthy in person.

Jeff starred in Broadway's Beauty & The Beast, Chicago, Les Miserables, and the original casts of Side Show (Terry) and Urinetown, creating the role of Officer Lockstock, which he reprised several times for the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS events, The Easter Bonnet and Gypsy of the Year competitions.

He's spending his holiday season in Washington D.C. at the Arena Stage, where he'll take on the role of Fagin in their production of Oliver!. Jeff took a moment to chat with me about the show, as well as his past, present, and future plans.

(I usually use initials in interviews, but as we share the same ones, I'll go with first names)

Jamie: You were down here in DC for You, Nero at Arena a few years back. What's your favorite part about performing in the nation's capital?

Jeff: Next to San Francisco this would be my city of choice if i didn't have to make my living as an actor. I love the politics, the museums, the momuments. It's like New York without the dirt, noise, and grime.

Jamie: You have a bit of a history of playing animated characters - from the Grinch at Madison Square Garden, to the Beast, and since I'm a Pokemon voice actor, I took particular interest in reading that you were the voice of Michigan J. Frog for the WB back in the 90s?

That was an enormous job, I went in to audition for Chuck Jones. He'd been hired by WB to do a sequel to the 1955 cartoon and I thought "This is fabulous, I get to hang out with Chuck Jones for a month." Then a few months later, my agent called and said "Are you sitting down? They want to make Michigan J. Frog the spokesphibian (as it were) for the whole WB network." I was in the studio twice a week, bouncing from Korea, to NY, to LA. It was great.

Jamie: Voice over is what allows a lot of actors to pay their bills...it's what allowed me to spend 10 years producing benefit concerts.

Jeff: One time I went into an audition - it was to do the Tarzan yell for some insurance company, it was written out musically. I get it. I got the job and their scheduling got screwed up, so we couldn't get around to doing a recording session for it, so they just used my audition, I didn't even have to do the job, so I wound up getting paid for the audition.

Jamie: Tell me a little bit about this production of Oliver!. What's it doing differently from what we know of the show?

Jeff: It's so different. Molly (Smith, artistic director of Arena Stage) has set it in 2015. It has a tip of the hat to teh Victorian age in the costumes and some of the scenery. We're doing all the songs, but we got permission from Lionel Bart's estate to allow us to reorchestrate. Some songs are being left alone, but some things might be a little hip hop. To be honest, when Molly announced her vision at the table read, we all sort of rolled our eyes, but it's been this fabulous experiment. It's an industrial set in a time period you can't really place, there's iPhones, and a flash mob - very contemporary. It will be great to see how people react. If you know the show, I think you'll like it. And if you don't know the show, I'm not sure how people will take to it, but I think people will really enjoy it.

Jamie: Oliver is not a nice show. It's got thievery, child trafficking, and a heroine who sings about her Stockholm Syndrome, by staying with her domestic abuser. How are some of these themes being tackled in this production?

Jeff: We're not pulling any punches. It's going to be quite rowdy and down and dirty. It does have a happy ending, this story, so we're not pulling away from that at all, as far as the spirit of Christmas and the holidays. But it is a dark story, even as Dickens wrote it. But even seeing it traditionally, I've never been able to apply it to modern life, so I think it's really clever of Molly to try this, and I think its working really well. It's a bold concept and we're definitely on board to try it. We're really trying to make sure the current day homeless environment in London resonates.

Jamie: Are you saying it's kind of steampunk?

Jeff: It's like steampunk without the clock, or at leat that's what I've been told. There's a big industrial feel to the set that will look fantastic. There's a bridge and it's using the space like it's never been used before. There are so many first rate people involved. It was never on my radar to play this role and was never really one of my favorite shows, but I'm appreciating it more than I ever have before.

Jamie: Talk to me a little about Fagin. He has a truly remarkable journey in this show, and I think one of the best written arcs in musical theatre.

Jeff: It's not that big of a role, only three scenes basically, but its a blast and a faceted role. He's a fairly real character with a great sense of theatrics. I'm digging it. I'm into this guy who is shaking his fist at the establishment up above, who has a lot of social ideals. He's a bit of an anarchist towards the established system, maybe even a Marxist. He's looking after these boys and yes they're robbing for him, but he really cares for these kids. Its a wonderful role, it's a lot of fun, and we have a bit of a surprise ending I can't get into.

Jamie: I'm looking forward to it. What's next for you?

Jeff: I've been working on Southern Comfort - a musical based on the life of Robert Eads, a transgender man.

Jamie: I'm familiar with the conference by the same name, that brings together transgender activists and organizers.

Jeff: Yes, the story actually ends at the conference. Its a bluegrass musical with a score is by Juliann Wick Davis. There's a sequence of songs that starts each section - Winter, Spring, Autumn, Summer. Annette O'Toole is playing Robert Eads, and I'm playing Lola Cola. We did a workshop in New York 4 or 5 years ago and then again at Barrington Stage probably 3 years ago. Kate Hathaway, Anne's mom has joined us as a producer. We'll be at the Public Theater starting in February.

Oliver! runs October 30, 2015-January 3, 2016 in the Fichandler Stage at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.