Quotes About Theater

Because I am the biggest musical theater nerd, I worship Sondheim.

I used to make fun of those actors who talked about the theater as their temple and their place of worship. I'm not to that degree of zealotry or idolatry of theater as this holy place. But it's a place where I get together with people who do what I do, and we understand each other in that respect.

The worst acting is about imitation.

Musical auditions are always the worst because you have to sing and act, and that's so stressful.

The wonderful thing about theater is that it has so many people involved in the creation of it. The worst thing about theater is that it has so many people involved in the creation of it. That dynamic is thrilling and challenging every time you make a show.

Guy Ritchie, he thinks going to drama school is the worst thing in the world.

You have to take a huge loss financially to do a play. You have to put aside the commercials and the speeches and the other things that put money on the table, and really save up to do it. And that's what I've done here. But it's worth it to me to be in a really good play.

My relationship with Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm reaches far back into my childhood. I grew up with Grimm's fairy tales. I even saw a theater production of 'Tom Thumb' during Advent at the State Theater in Danzig, which my mother took me to see.

In the life of any actor or actress, there is inevitably a time when they will be eligible to act in a Tom Stoppard play. He has written a lot, and they are revived often, and there are so many characters of different ages that it was more likely I'd end up in something of his than that I wouldn't.

I'd do anything with Tom Courtenay.

Everyone said how brilliant of Tom Conti to be in bed in 'Whose Life Is it Anyway?' and only have his head to act with. He should be so bloody lucky. I'm not for a moment disputing that Tom Conti is an absolutely brilliant actor. But he should be so lucky to be stuck upstage in the spotlight, with everyone focused on him.

I've always wanted to be in a play by Tom Stoppard.

In this business, you have a hierarchy of stars. Russell Crowe, Tom Hanks - you name 'em, they can play any part they want. Guys like me who are somewhere down in the middle of the pack, that's a different story. I can do things in the theater that I can't do anyplace else.

When I was in kindergarten, I had one line in a little play. I said, I am Patrick Potato and this is my cousin, Mrs. Tomato, and I heard laughter. I wanted to be an actress from that moment on.

My first experience in a movie theater was Dick Tracy. There was a scene with a guy with a Tommy gun and a wall of fire behind him. I panicked, screamed, and jumped out of my seat. And I ran six New York city blocks, running into the street and almost got hit by a bunch of cars and had my mom chasing after a panic-stricken four-year-old.

'Tommy' was the first show I ever saw on Broadway. I was 14. It wasn't 'the show' that started that flame in me or anything, but it did excite me in a way no other show had. I'd never seen a show so brilliantly cast and directed.

I'm working in theater. I did not grow up loving or even knowing anything about it, except for 'Jesus Christ Superstar' and 'Tommy.' But I love it. It's such a great collaborative thing.

I really am a theater person. That means you put something out there, and you let it go. Tomorrow night is a new performance.

The mission of the A.R.T. is to expand the boundaries of theater through works of the canon and the new works of tomorrow.

If you miss something in the theater, you are working through it; you'll get it tomorrow. It's easy to forgive yourself in the theater. On television, you do one shot. All you've done rehearsal-wise is be blocked. There is all this pressure to get it right then.

When you realize that the uncut 'Porgy and Bess' started me off, that I'd have the opportunity to do a ton of 'Stoppard,' 'Hairspray,' that I'm able to do 'Il Trittico' at the Met - how do I top that?

I lived in Chicago in the early '80s and did a ton of theater, and then Nick lived there in the '90s and did a ton of theater. Then we both moved to L.A. and did a ton of television.

It's hard being a Broadway actor going into film where you have to tone everything down. In theater, everything you're taught is to be big and broad and make everyone feel like they are right next to you, even in the last row of seats.

In musical theater you have to be very big and very animated, while film and television are more toned down.