Broadway's 'Mother Play' offers candid family tale about love, family and forgiveness
NEW YORK (WABC) -- It's hard to describe what you'll experience while watching Paula Vogel's Tony-nominated "Mother Play," which has been compared to a roller coaster ride that reveals timeless truths of love, family and forgiveness.
The semi-autobiographical show follows a family as they unpack their past over the course of four decades and five evictions.
"This play has been in my body since birth," Vogel said. "I thought I need to do a play with my mother as a central character. My mother was this kind of larger than life, funny woman who took no prisoners. And I thought, OK, we got to make this play."
The new play stars a trio of top talent, all up for Tony nominations.
Academy Award winner Jessica Lange is taking on the complex role of an alcoholic single mother of two. She performs alongside co-stars Jim Parsons and Celia Keenan-Bolger, who play her children in the play.
"It's about a family that is trying to love each other, and not abandon themselves in the process and forgive each other when they do things that are very, very difficult for each other," Keener-Bolger said.
The play contains a lot of laughs, and even more family drama.
"You watch a mother and her two children go through many different ages of time, many different experiences, some highs, some very low lows, and kind of run a full life cycle together," Parsons said. "This is really a play about forgiveness."
Having already attained numerous accolades, including an Oscars, Tony, Golden Globes and Emmy award, Lange says there's a thrill in playing new, challenging roles.
"With this character, it allows me to like really experience the gamut of emotions, and it's thrilling to play. It triggers your imagination and everything you know about acting and what you can do. The idea of doing a new play was very, very, very exciting to me," Lange said.
From heartwarming to heartbreaking and back, a mix of emotions play out on stage. Keenan-Bolger was ecstatic to hear that Lange would be playing her mother in the play.
"I just like walked in and this was a very early reading, and I was like, oh my god, that's Jessica Lange," she said.
The time commitment can be intensive for Broadway stars, but Parsons says he enjoys being able to exchange creative knowledge and play once-in-a-lifetime roles.
"There is nothing like that constant back and forth of ideas and energy, especially working on a new play, which I've very rarely done. It's really been a chance of a lifetime," he said.
Parsons says that one may lose a certain sense of anonymity as an actor, but he nevertheless enjoys doing what he does every day.
"I'm just as curious about people as anybody else, possibly more. So maybe that's why I'm an actor. But I do it, it's very funny. You say it, because I do find myself, I get caught sometimes, and anybody gets caught -- that's looking at people. But it is weird that when getting caught turns into recognition," Parsons said.
And what better place to be recognized for your work than in New York City.
"Jessica and I walked home from rehearsal together the other day, and I was like, we're both saying how fabulous it is like to live in a place like New York, the amount of different languages that go by your ear, just walking down the street. It's just heaven," he said.
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