From Presque Isle To Broadway: John Cariani Stars In Hit New Msical

Actor and playwright who grew up in Maine assumes its most important role to date in the hit musical "Something rotten!

NEW YORK - Thirty minutes after the final ovation, John Cariani walks the empty stage of the St. James Theatre. It's mostly quiet apart from the talk in the wings.

"Stop for a minute," he says. "Just stop for a minute and look."

It is situated on the edge of the stage, looking out through the 1,700 empty red seats and says in a voice that suggests reverence: "There is so much history here are ghosts of the past.”

St. James, West 44th Street that opened in 1927, is one of the theaters of Broadway floors. Yul Brynner is where sang and danced in "The King and I", which starred Carol Channing in "Hello, Dolly!" And where the cast of "! Oklahoma" made Broadway history in 1943 as the first musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

This summer, Cariani, who grew up in Presque Isle, helps bring the ghosts to life as one of the stars of the musical comedy "Something rotten!" He has a one-year contract to perform in the musical, which opened in April.

Cariani, 45, is best known as a playwright in Maine. He is the author of "Almost, Maine," a play about falling in and out of love in northern Maine. It has become one of the most played produced in the United States. He has written several other works that have occurred in Portland Stage Company and elsewhere in Maine, and has been on Broadway before, in a revival of "Fiddler on the Roof," for which she earned a Tony nomination in 2004.

But there has never been a success like this.

"It's a little overwhelming," he said after signing autographs for fans who waited for him outside the theater after the show. "When I was in the 'Fiddler,' nobody stopped us on the street. This is a very different experience. I've been in the works that people love, but not how people love this show. People love this show”.

Cariani is a character actor who has had mostly small roles on stage, television and film. "Something rotten!" She puts her front and center on the stage of St. James in a leading role, and offers the opportunity to transform his career from small parts of something bigger. The show parody 400 years of theater, and especially musical theater. Casey Nicholaw, who directed "The Book of Mormon" and "Aladdin" among others, directs.

Cariani bill has the No. 3, behind Brian d'Arcy James and Christian Borle, both with large loans and Broadway experience. Cariani is the unknown of all.

"Something rotten!" It is a silly, witty and some would say immature musical, set in London in late 1500. It is about two brothers, Nick and Nigel Bottom. Nigel, played by Cariani, is a playwright. His older brother, played by d'Arcy James, is a producer. They are desperate for a hit, but cannot escape the shadow of the star of the day, William Shakespeare, played outrageously by Borle.

A soothsayer tells involves the future of theater and dance while singing acts and suggests that first written musical world. The show-stopping number, "a musical," names or references almost all music you've ever heard, and this show is becoming a cult hit among theater people.

CANTO SERVES AS WELL

 

He has been in New York for almost 20 years, working as an actor in television and making off-Broadway and regional theater. He has appeared on TV in "The Good Wife", "Fatherland" and "Numb3rs." He has been in movies and done a lot of TV commercials. We saw it in a campaign of TD Bank a few years ago as a guy who could not endorse a check on the service desk from a rival bank because the chain on the boom was too short.

But this, by far, is its most important role and reason moved to New York - even though he never imagined himself singing and dancing on Broadway, necessarily. He sang a little in high school in Presque Isle, but was more than one type of band. At Amherst College, he sang in the choir. He is a tenor with the ability to sing in falsetto. Much to the dismay of alternates Cariani, creators of the series, wrote the paper with Cariani account to take advantage of her sweet voice.

Singing was fun, she said, but distressing. His first solo comes early in Act I, when it moves to the front of the stage and sing directly to the audience.

"That's the hardest thing for me, every night I'm not connecting with another person on stage I have to sing for the public -... And I can see them a little, and it's big and scary."

One of his co-star and love interest in the play, Kate Reinders, likes to be on stage with Cariani, because, he says, "He is a goober such. And he really loves to sing, and I do not know that Maine him. But he's really good, and he loves it. His voice is so clear and sweet. "

Your favorite moment with Cariani occurs when you hold hands and sing to each other.”It's like a great song in a Disney movie. It's just kind of fun and wonderful," he said.

Cariani loves this role. Most of the plays he writes are about normal people falling in and out of love, but rarely get to play one on stage. "I'm just a guy falling in love with a girl and trying to write a good game," he said. "I want to play the love story, and when you're a character actor who did not play the love story. So it's very fun to play the geek in a love story. I love love stories and I love the love ".

HEARING continues to grow

The musical opened in April, and the show was well outside the door, getting decent reviews to draw large crowds. When Tony nominations were announced in May, "something rotten!" He got nine, which swelled and public advertising helped build word-of-mouth.

Houses are on average 80 percent of capacity, and the show is making $ 1 million in box office receipts every week, according to the World trade publication Broadway.

Those gains put solidly in the middle of the table of 30 or so shows on Broadway this summer. By comparison, "The Lion King" was top earner Broadway during the period of the most recent report, $ 2.5 million for the week ending July 26.

But "something rotten!" It's brand new, no history. Producers hope that the public will continue to build over the summer and fall. Some observers think they have the opportunity to be a great success with a long-term, because it is fun, light and easy to digest.

When the Tonys were awarded in June, Borle was the only "something rotten!" To win. Cariani not receive a nomination, it does not bother him, and until people told him he should. He received a nomination for actor in a musical for the Outer Critics Circle, although they did not win.

He shrugs when asked about Tony snub. "People come to see the show. To be on a show that people want to see is pretty impressive," he said.

His manager suggested that not getting a Tony nomination can benefit you, because people are talking about him as someone who was despised rather than someone who did not win.

The marketing team for "Something rotten!" He was amused by the lack of trophies at the Tonys series. In ads that ran after the Tonys, a big red flag was drawn in over the sample logo with the word "loser" At. That campaign generated buzz Broadway and helped set the tone that is a show that does not take itself too seriously.

Brian Allen, artistic director of good theater in Portland, saw "something rotten!" In May, after Tony nominations he came out. He loved the show and was surprised Cariani was not nominated.

"I thought it was great," Allen said. "Their role is not as flashy as the brother or the boy who plays Shakespeare, but John is the heart of the fair. I gave her a Tony nomination if she were on the committee. I thought it was brilliant."

Cariani has a one-year contract, which means that it is committed to "something rotten!" Through the spring of 2016. In addition to being on a show that people love the most beneficial aspect of being in a very popular Broadway musical it is the opportunity for other producers and directors to see. For an actor, you see it is essential for landing more jobs, he said.