INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR MICHAEL LONGHURST
Education Dramaturg Ted Sod spoke with Director Michael Longhurst about his work on Caroline, or Change.
Ted Sod: The last time I interviewed you was in 2012 when you directed Nick Payne’s If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet here at Roundabout. Will you tell us about some of the seminal career changes and directing assignments that have happened in the intervening years? Michael Longhurst: After If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet, I was still a freelance theatre director. I continued to work with Nick Payne. My production of his play Constellations, which started at the Royal Court, transferred to the West End and then to Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club with Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson. I directed a bunch of productions on and off the West End including Simon Stephen’s Carmen Disruption at the Almeida, Caryl Churchill’s A Number at the Young Vic and Florian Zeller’s The Son at the Kiln. Classics included ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore and The Winter’s Tale in the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe and the UK premieres of several American play including Joshua Harmon’s Bad Jews, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Gloria, and Francis Ya-Chew Cowhig’s The World of Extreme Happiness. I directed a high-profile revival of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus at the National Theatre, which incorporated a 20-piece orchestra and opera singers that were fully integrated into the staging. Next came Caroline, or Change, which started at Chichester in 2017 before going to Hampstead in 2018 and then the West End in 2019. And, most recently, I became the artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse taking over from Josie Rourke in March 2019. We’re just coming to the end of my first season there, for which I directed a revival of David Greig’s Europe, and we currently have Teenage Dick by Mike Lew running.
TS: Why did you choose to direct the musical Caroline, or Change? ML: Daniel Evans, who is Artistic Director at Chichester, is also a musical theatre star. He was in Sunday in the Park with George at Roundabout—he’s very passionate about them. We had had a conversation back when I directed The History Boys for him in Sheffield, and he asked me if I was interested in directing one, and I said I’d love to, and that resulted in an offer to do this several years later. I didn’t know Caroline, or Change, but I remembered its reception in the United Kingdom when we had the original New York production come over in 2006.
It’s such a brilliantly complex and rich piece of work, and I was really drawn to it because of that—the characters are portrayed very three- dimensionally, which maybe is not always the case in musical theatre. Jeanine’s soaring music thrillingly combines African-American and Jewish musical styles and is constantly changing so the composition evolves with the characters’ thought structures and the drama. I love the fact that Tony has written an intimate domestic portrait that is also, absolutely, a state-of-your-nation in 1963 and which also combines his flourishes of magical realism. This is my first professional musical, and it was a big opportunity to work in a new genre. I’m a massive Tony Kushner fan, so it was a bit of a dream to get to work on it.
It’s a heartbreaking portrait of the corrosive psychological effects of racial and socio-economic disadvantage and the incredible strength, resilience, and bravery needed to survive and make change.
TS: Did you know you had something special during rehearsals or previews at Chichester? ML: I must say even when we opened the show in Chichester, you could feel a really profound reaction in the audience to the material and to the production, and that is a huge testament to the brilliance of Sharon D Clarke’s performance. It was so exciting to see Sharon have the opportunity to step into such a gargantuan role, and she stopped the show. Sharon has always been an amazing theatre actor and performer, but this role presented her at a whole new level to UK audiences.
TS: How do you hope audiences will respond to the musical in 2020 —especially here in the U.S.—where the subject of race relations has become a lightning rod under President Trump? ML: I remember, just as we started rehearsals, reading in the American press about Confederate statues being taken down, which felt incredibly exciting given the subplot of the story. Tony Kushner reveals himself to be a prophet once again. But almost immediately, Charlottesville happened. We’re doing a musical that feels incredibly urgent. Given the length of time it takes to make a musical, it’s remarkable to be involved with one that politically feels so timely and important.
"Change come fast and change come slow" is the key motif of the play, and I think the story is going to become even more relevant as we shift into these new times. I think there’s a real necessity to tell this story now in order to remind ourselves of what was and to fight for what needs to be.
14 ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY Michael Longhurst
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