4 AR THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2020Theater
Back in February, Hiram Delgado quit his
wait staff job at Dock Asian Eatery in Bush-
wick, Brooklyn. “Hey,” he told his boss, “I’m
not going to be able to work here anymore
because I’m going to be on Broadway.”
For Delgado, who has a degree from New
York University’s graduate acting program,
the big break had finally come — a role in
Second Stage’s starry revival of Richard
Greenberg’s 2002 play “Take Me Out,”
which was set to begin previews at Broad-
way’s Hayes Theater on April 2.
A drama about a biracial baseball star
who comes out as gay, “Take Me Out” began
rehearsals with several days of batting and
catching drills at the Baseball Center on the
Upper West Side of Manhattan. The cast
then moved into Second Stage’s rehearsal
space, roughing out blocking and refining
the play’s rhythms.
“In a very short period of time we built a
bond,” said Patrick J. Adams, another
Broadway first-timer.
But slowly — with forearm bumps and
hygiene directives and updates about disin-
fection protocols, then all at once — the
break broke. A few days after the Broadway
League announced the closing of its the-
aters through April 12, a consequence of the
coronavirus pandemic, the producers of
“Take Me Out” put the production on pause.
The 11 actors scattered.
Five of them, Delgado included, would
have made their Broadway debuts. Now
that coming out party has been postponed,
indefinitely.
“I was looking forward to this more than
anything else in my acting career ever,” said
Jesse Williams, who stars as Darren, the
gay player.
Depending who you are and where you
are in your career and what your bank bal-
ance looks like, a Broadway debut can mean
a lot of things. For some, like Delgado, it
means a steady paycheck and guaranteed
health insurance. And maybe the first time
in your life that your art has paid a true liv-
ing wage. An actor on an Off Broadway con-
tract might make less than $700 per week,
minus taxes, union dues and agents’ fees.
On Broadway, the minimum rises to over
$2,000 per week.
For others, like Adams and Williams,
both coming off lengthy TV stints, it serves
a more symbolic function — a validation of
genius or know-how or hustle or knack. If
you have had formal training, Broadway in-
vites an opportunity to put that training to
use. Actors who have worked mostly in film
and on television have a chance to prove
that they can act without benefit of retakes
or editing. The coronavirus put all of that on
hold.
When rehearsals ended, Williams, a regu-
lar on “Grey’s Anatomy” since 2009, flew
home to Los Angeles, as did Adams, best
known for the legal drama “Suits.”
Delgado went to the apartment in Asto-
ria, Queens, where he lives with his girl-
friend and her mother. Eduardo Ramos, an-
other Broadway newcomer, returned to his
apartment in West New York, N.J.
Carl Lundstedt, the fifth “Take Me Out”
actor in his first Broadway role, stayed in
the city for a while. Then he and wife, the
actress Denée Benton, drove 12 hours non-
stop to Libertyville, Ill., to stay with his par-
ents.
A rehearsal room creates an apparent
equality. Some actors have more lines and
some have fewer, but everyone works to-
gether in the same small space, drinking
the same awful coffee. With the cast scat-
tered, differences have emerged more
starkly.
Delgado spent the early weeks of quaran-
tine making up to 50 calls a day, trying to
access his unemployment benefits. He
looked into volunteering, but was con-
cerned about exposing his girlfriend’s
mother to the virus. He cooks; he skate-
boards; he talks to his family in Puerto
Rico; and does scenes, via Zoom, with a lo-
cal theater company. “I haven’t been spend-
ing a lot,” he said. “No luxuries, just like
what I need.”
Williams, who has shared custody of his
two young children, spent the early spring
supervising their schooling, and more. “I’ve
taught them how to ride their bikes, how to
skateboard, how to roller skate,” he said in
May. “Now we’re playing baseball.”
Though he declined a follow-up call to dis-
cuss it, Williams, a longtime activist who
gave a forceful speech on racism and police
brutality when accepting a 2016 BET award,
has also occupied himself with social justice
work, co-hosting a national town hall for
Breonna Taylor.
Adams, who has a 20-month-old daugh-
ter with the actress Troian Bellisario,
spends early mornings hiking and running
his lines, “just to keep the play alive for me,”
he said. Ramos, who began receiving unem-
ployment benefits in May, spends most
days working out in his apartment, then
caring for his 3-year-old daughter. “That’s
been pretty much the saving grace,” he said,
“just living in her imaginative world and be-
ing away from my Twitter feed.”
In Libertyville, where he grew up, Lund-
stedt works out and tries to eat well, though
he makes an exception for his mother’s
cookies. He just finished reading “War and
Peace.”
Even in this off-season, they try to feellike a team. They share a lively text chain.
They watch the same baseball documenta-
ries. Adams, Williams and Jesse Tyler Fer-
guson, another “Take Me Out” actor, sent
food baskets to the other cast members.
(Because “Take Me Out” has a famous nude
scene, Adams joked that sending everyone
high-carb food was a way to make himself
look better by contrast.) Cast members take
turns taking over Second Stage’s Instagram
page. Twice they have run lines over Zoom.
On what would have been opening night,
Second Stage hosted an online party. Carole
Rothman, the artistic director, read a made-
up New York Times rave. Scott Ellis, the
play’s director, gave a speech about what
might have been — how the play had come
together in the third week of rehearsal, the
applause that greeted the first preview.
It’s a funny/not-funny paradox that base-
ball, which doesn’t need a live audience,
might come back more quickly than a play
about baseball, which does. (Lundstedt said
you could never livestream “Take Me Out,”
“unless all of us feel comfortable with hav-
ing our nudity on the internet forever.” So
that’s a no.)
But the dream of making a Broadway de-
but — in three months, or six months or a
year or whenever — remains. “It’s a beauti-
ful feeling,” Delgado said. “Like it’s always
stayed with me. The pandemic hasn’t taken
that away.”
Second Stage remains committed. And
the actors, so far, have all agreed to return.
“I’m going to do this play,” Williams said.
“I’ve made that clear.”
That play may not be the same “Take Me
Out” that began rehearsals in March. The
story of a biracial man trying to meet the
world on its own terms will resonate differ-
ently. The world has changed. The actors
have changed in the many months of wait-
ing and wanting and hoping to play togeth-
er again.
“I really do believe it will happen when
it’s supposed to,” Lundstedt said. “People
are being forced to make incredibly difficult
sacrifices right now. Postponing a Broad-
way debut feels incredibly doable in com-
parison.”In the Game, but Out of Work
The lockdown postpones a
play about a gay ballplayer.
By ALEXIS SOLOSKISABRINA SANTIAGO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESSARA KRULWICH/THE NEW YORK TIMESTHE LINEUP CARD‘Take Me Out’ was set
to begin previews, then
Broadway went dark.
JESSE WILLIAMS
Darren LemmingPATRICK J. ADAMS
Kippy SunderstromEDUARDO RAMOS
RodriguezCARL LUNDSTEDT
Toddy KoovitzAbove, Hiram Delgado, who was supposed to make his Broadway debut this spring in “Take Me Out.” Below, the opening scene from the play’s original 2003 Broadway run.
Live theater, it would seem, lives on.
Granted, the traditional traffic of the
stage has almost entirely ceased in this
age of social isolation. But to devoted
lovers of dramas, comedies and musi-
cals, star turns from as long ago as the
mid-20th century continue to thrill.
Such was the evidence offered by
responses to my essay on great acting
remembered. Hundreds of readers
wrote in to testify about performances
that still burn brightly in their memo-
ries. What follows is an edited sam-
pling of lovingly specific evocations of
mythic performances.BEN BRANTLEYAs a young theater student, in late
December 1981, I saw Gregory Hinesin
“Sophisticated Ladies” at the Lunt-
Fontanne. By some magic, it was his
final performance in the run. He
stopped the show cold. Twice. Once in
the first act, then again in second. I
had never seen anything like it. Nor
have I since. JOE H, CINCINNATII made a beeline to Broadway when
Ralph Fienneswas cast in “Hamlet”
after falling for his work in the film
“Quiz Show.” Early in the perform-
ance, clad in head-to-toe black, silent,
and with his back turned to the audi-
ence, Fiennes was still the only thing
you could look at. Presence personi-
fied. REBECCA B, TACOMA, WASH.Robert Sean Leonardas the younger
A. E. Housman in “The Invention of
Love.” Admitting to Mo that he loves
him with merely a turn and a glance
tore a thousand hearts in two.
GUY WILLIAM MOLNAR,
TRAVERSE CITY, MICH.I snagged a ticket in the fourth row to
see John Malkovichin “Burn This.” On
entering the theater, I reflected on the
fact that I knew women who found
him attractive, which baffled me. Not
long after his entrance, I found myself
wanting to jump onto the stage and
offer myself to him then and there.
MKORAL, PITTSBURGHThe 1980s production of “Death of a
Salesman,” with Dustin Hoffman as
Willy Loman. The performance that
haunts me to this day wasn’t Hoff-
man’s, but that of the young actor who
played Willy’s son Biff: John Malkovich.
MINDI, SHERMAN OAKS, CALIF.
Kristin Scott Thomasin the 2008 re-
vival of “The Seagull.” It changed my
understanding of the play. It changed
my understanding of myself.
AYD, NEW YORKZoe Caldwellin Terrence McNally’s
“Master Class.” The whole audience
was vibrating in her grip.
MAXIE, NYC-LA
Claudia McNeil in the original “Raisin in
the Sun,” falling on her knees, down-
stage center, at the end of Act One,
looking to God for guidance after
learning that the family’s entire sav-
ings were gone. DAVIDO, NEW YORKMeryl Streepin “Mother Courage and
Her Children” in 2006 at Central Park’s
Delacorte Theater. The show had three
rain delays. Watching Streep adjust
her performance (throwing herself on
the ground meant throwing herself in a
mud pit) was astounding.
ANDY GRAY, NILES, OHIOI could. Not. Blink. Watching a mes-
merizing Raúl Esparzain “Company.”
JP STEPHENSON, EMERYVILLE, CALIF.
Rex Harrison in a piece of fluff called
“Aren’t We All?” He came on, scooped
the entire audience up in his hands,
proceeded to juggle them like a rubber
ball for the evening, and walked off at
the end with a sly grin.
R STUART, NORTH CAROLINAI was a little 9-year-old black girl from
Chicago when my mother and I
dressed in our Sunday best and went
to the Auditorium Theater to see
Sammy Davis Jr.in “Golden Boy. ” I had
never been to the theater and to say I
was mesmerized would be an under-
statement. GREER, CHICAGO
Jack Lemmonas James Tyrone in
“Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” At
intermission I bought another ticket,
5th row aisle, for two weeks later. I
saw how much the depth of his per-
formance had grown in so short a
time. ED O’LOUGHLIN, BROOKLYNMusically, nothing will top Nathan Lane
singing “Betrayed” in “The
Producers” or Angela Lansbury’sde-
luded bows after “Rose’s Turn.” Well,
maybe one. The ferocious cries from
Glenn Close (above) at the end of
“Sunset Boulevard.” Or two: Christo-
pher Plummer’sdeath scene in “Cyra-
no,” a flop that produced one of the
greatest performances that I have
seen. MOVIE LOVER, FLORIDAUnforgettable
In Every Way
Certain star turns stay
with the audience.
SARA KRULWICH/
THE NEW YORK TIMES