Quotes About Theater

I started in London, as a kid. My mother knew I had sort of an inbred talent. She was an actress, so I inherited it from her. But I think I got a lot of it from my grandfather, who was a great politician.

Opera can be exceptionally moving but can also be pompous.

So it's joyful to me, in my 71st year, to be able to be in a play that is absolutely right for my age and my experience, and that is a popular success. What more could you ask as an actor?

Quite a few operas are still being commissioned around the world, although nothing apart from audience popularity can ensure more than a few performances.

I think an actor should portray all kinds of emotions in films.

Like any other actor, I also look for good scripts and want to portray some memorable characters on screen.

As an actor, what I can do is tell the truth. At least, I hope I can tell the truth - a dramatic truth, but still an honest portrayal.

For me, what is more important is the challenge the character poses for me as an actor.

There's posh character actors. For God's sake, Olivier was one of the greatest character actors in the world. Hamlet, Shylock, Othello - Othello! Whether you like it or not.

I think musical theater fans - obsessive fans - are very much like Comic Con fans in our personalities. We're very possessive, and we're very obsessive, and we're very critical. So don't screw with our stuff.

'Cabaret' was one of the first pieces of musical theater I saw that showed the possibilities of what musical theater can do.

The thing is this: I've got an amazing career in England that couldn't possibly get much better. I do the best theater around, I work at the National Theater, the Old Vic - which I'm sure you've heard of because it's the one Kevin Spacey runs - and I play the most amazing roles and work with the most amazing directors.

There's been talk of YES possibly doing something on Broadway in New York. People have approached me with that idea, and there are discussions about that.

I directed Bebe Neuwirth in 'Here Lies Jenny' at the Post Street Theatre. I was gobsmacked - the audiences were extremely knowledgeable, affectionate, interested, and not cynical.

To come into my world, I've got some M&Ms and some potato chips, and I'm asking you to move furniture. We're making a movie. We're making it like we're putting on a play.

When I was 15, I was asked to do 'Cyrano de Bergerac' at school, and it fundamentally changed my life. It's obviously an extraordinarily diverse and potentially electrifying part. It's a big leading part, and I hadn't really played anything like that before; I was the one doing the comedy side bit.

I really enjoyed doing Albee's 'The Goat.' It's a powerful piece and a really exciting play to do.

A Dumont actor was considered to be too stilted - the way we Dumont actors used to speak.

I'm sure there are actors out there who work with other actors on a consistent basis - I am not one of them.

'Scandal' has been, for me, the most consistent time I've ever logged in front of a camera. I grew up in the theater, and I feel very confident and comfortable on the stage and in front of a live audience, but the camera is a very different medium.

'Law & Order' was amazing but so consuming, I couldn't get to the stage.

I would love to do more on the stage; having actual contact with the audience is great. You can give them a good seeing to!

I started writing songs for youth theater and stuff, and so it's really writing music for the stage that started me out, but then I eventually went to music college and did a two-year course in contemporary music and then just played in endless bands, cover bands, jazz bands.

It's a contract of connection to be in the same space and watch and listen to stories and be caught in them. When you're in a theater, your brain expands because somebody in the theater may do something or respond to something that you wouldn't have.