Interview: Theatre Life with Cornelius McMoyler

Today’s subject Cornelius McMoyler is currently living his theatre life on tour playing the role of Simon in the Tony Award winning play Stereophonic. The show begins a three-week engagement at The National Theatre on February 10th and will continue through March 1st.

Cornelius is returning to Stereophonic after understudying three roles in the Broadway production. Read on to see what that experience was like.

Other NY stage credits include Hamlet directed by Kenny Leon at The Public’s Shakespeare in the Park, and Much Ado About Nothing in The Public’s Mobile Unit, as well as new play development with New York Theatre Workshop.

You can also see him in the PBS documentary Great Performances: Making Shakespeare.

Cornelius is also an accomplished songwriter and musician. His latest single “King of Myself” is now streaming everywhere.

Touring the country in any show tends to be rough. Changing venues and hotels weekly or bi-weekly can wear on anyone. Now imagine performing a play that runs for over three hours eight times a week. You have to have a considerable amount of stamina to be sure. Cornelius and company definitely do. That is why Stereophonic brings a subtle yet high voltage theatrical experience to all who see it.

For those that have an affinity for stories about the music industry or for those who want to see a Tony Award winning play here in DC, grab your tickets to Stereophonic at The National Theatre.

Corneilius McMoyler is truly living his theatre life to the fullest.

At what age did you realize that performing was going to be your chosen profession?

Probably 9 or 10? We went on a field trip to see a youth-theater production of the musical Oliver! and I remember being struck— “They let kids do this?” I think I’d only seen adults acting and, upon seeing kids like me on a stage singing and dancing and being the apple of everyone’s eye (my childhood goal) I immediately felt I should be up there, without much thought as to whether I was good.

Who would you say was your biggest champion for becoming a performer?

My parents. They truly greenlit pretty much every new endeavor I brought to them. First the local afterschool indie theater company, then the official youth theater program at the community college 3 towns over, then the opportunity to study abroad in Italy, then my ambitions to go to college in New York. They drove me everywhere and kept finding a way to make it work financially.

Where did you receive your training?

Actually, I was a pure musician in New York for 6-7 years and never thought I’d act again. I got a BFA in music (CUNY City College). Then I did a play and realized that I had no idea what I was doing. Then went through a full 2-year Meisner program (Maggie Flanigan Studio.) Then joined a rep company downtown (The Flea Theater). Then I got my MFA in Drama at Juilliard.

What was your first professional job as a performer?

The bands I joined/started when I first moved to New York made a couple bucks at the door, that would have been the first time I was paid to perform, so 2011?

Can you please tell us a little something about Stereophonic as well as something about the character you play in the show?

It’s a story about what it costs to chase your dreams, the things you think you care about vs. what you really care about when things get famous, and the dirt of the creative process. It might cost you everything and that might be exactly what you want. I play Simon, the drummer and the manager, the more grounded, reasonable character, keeping everyone’s personalities in line and functioning, managing a wife and kids back in England, trying to blend the stable loving English band members who have played together for decades with the two new exciting American band members to make something incredible happen. But never at the sacrifice of people’s well-being.

You understudied three roles in the Broadway production of Stereophonic including the role of Simon which you are now playing on tour. Can you please talk about the experience of understudying multiple roles for a show that is this epic in scope? What were your understudy rehearsals like?

Understudying this many roles is a recipe for madness but one I’m glad I put myself through. There were times I was sitting in a room on the top floor of the Golden Theatre rehearsing with my fellow understudies, switching between three characters in one scene, talking to myself, which sounds like a party trick for sure, but also it became sort of a trance-like state, it’s a very rhythmic script and Daniel Aukin directs us with tempo and shape, so doing that for 3 parts just became like swinging the bat with the weights on it, I’m very grateful I went through it.

Touring any show across the country has many variables attached to it including a different venue size in each city. Stereophonic has many subtleties in the way it is presented. Do you find your performance has to adjust depending on the venue you are playing?

Absolutely, the huge venues get laughs and then we get into a smaller theater and they’re not laughing at that same thing anymore, and I realized it’s because they’re actually listening more than sitting back watching this show unfold, they’re able to lean in and be more in the moments with us and the result is not always hilarious but more-so awkward or strange, because that’s what many of David Adjmi’s moments are, that’s the reality of being in the studio for a year.

Why do you think audiences are continually interested in stories like the one Stereophonic tells and stories about the music business in general?

Because it portrays people willing to risk something most of us would not be comfortable risking—leaving behind our families/loved ones, being away from home for long stretches, coming to hate the person you once loved because you start to grow apart but you’re forced to be together. It requires a certain kind of madness, an itch that you know no other vocation in life would scratch, and so you’re going to take the road less traveled and become a “star” or an artist or an entertainer and see what happens, and then when it actually strikes gold and starts to take off you realize it was all worth it which feels like heroin! You manifested your own destiny! You aren’t crazy for believing in yourself! I think it’s a rare person who is prepared to take that road. I think most of us are happy we chose our person and our family and our financial stability. But there is probably always a “what if…” and this play let’s people peer into that what-if and maybe contact that old feeling.

As you continue your journey with Stereophonic, what is the most rewarding thing about taking this show across the country?

Seeing America’s classic cities. Learning the show’s meanings more and more specifically the more I do it. Learning from different sized crowds and different demographics as to what is funny. Meeting people who saw the show in New York or London.

Special thanks to National Theatre's Marketing Manager Abby Berman for her assistance in coordinating this interview.