(upbeat music)
- So glad you could be here
for another great episode of "The Broadway Show."
I'm Tamsen Fadal, so let's get started.
Tony nominee and Emmy Award winner, Laura Linney,
is back on Broadway alongside Tony nominee Jessica Hecht,
starring in "Summer, 1976."
It's the moving and insightful story
of an unlikely friendship formed over one fateful summer.
I sat down with Laura Linney and Jessica Hecht.
Middle of rehearsal right now,
but I wanna jump into
to talk about "Summer, 1976,"
and where you begin to get these characters.
We were all there, younger,
but we were all there.
So where do you go?
- It's a really good question, I must say.
Your first move, is to go to someplace that is
just, sort of, intuitive and internal,
and then the language starts to tell you
a little bit more
about how to chart your journey.
I feel the way this writing works
is on a very, very deep level of our memory
of becoming, like, who we are.
They start to talk in this way
that seems very grounded in that moment in time.
- You know, the period of time and the culture
is certainly running underneath all of it.
And then it's just fun to think about.
You know, it's just fun to make lists
of all those songs, - Yeah.
and the memories of how things smelled back then.
The colorful nature of clothing,
what clothing was before it all went black. (laughs)
- Yeah. (laughs) - In the 80s, you know,
which it just did,
it all went black. - Yeah.
- And what culturally was so different then than now.
And also then what is exactly the same.
- Talk about that.
Talk about what is the same,
because I think that that's really interesting,
all that time that's gone by
all the experiences that we've had,
but there are still some threads that are the same.
- Well, I think friendship is still the same.
- Yeah.
- Friendship is friendship.
Female friendships are extremely deep,
and it can really transform you.
That's the thing that stays the same.
- I feel like female friendships,
especially for me,
like, I hit 50,
and all of a sudden those female friendships,
and my mother had told me that before she died,
they were gonna be very important to me-
- Yeah.
- someday, I see that now.
Do you feel that now in your own lives personally?
- Oh, sure.
Oh, absolutely. - Yeah.
- You know, they're witnesses to your life,
you know, they know the parents who are no longer alive.
They know where you've stumbled,
and where you've done well,
and how you've changed,
and how you've improved yourself,
or, you know, they're, it's a witness.
- That's a beautiful way to say it.
- That's a really beautiful way to say it.
And that also reflects the idea
that a great friend doesn't look at you with judgment,
that they actually understand.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Some look, there are moments.
(Laura and Jessica laugh)
There are moments,
but then they kind of- - Yeah.
Sure, but they know, they know so much of you.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - They know that,
you know, whatever annoying bad part
of you- - Yeah.
- that they may experience is a small part
- Is a small part.
- and is worth getting to the better part.
- Yes, yes.
- Now, a two person versus a one person
that I think you did last time
that you were on Broadway, this is Jessica's question.
This is your question, yeah, go ahead and ask.
- Yeah. So,
It is the question of, well, if it doesn't go well
I only have myself to blame.
(all laughing)
- [Jessica] I'd be actually curious, did you rely
on the writer and the director almost
as your scene partner with "Lucy Barton?"
- [Laura] It was the language.
It was, the language was my partner.
But I think doing a one person play or a two person play
we'll see, but I, I'm thinking you have to be very kind
to yourself because things are gonna go wrong.
You are gonna mess up.
It is bound to happen, and
you can either really just
beat yourself up about it, and then it will affect the rest
of the work in a very negative way.
Or you have to give yourself the permission
to not be perfect.
You have to allow yourself to stumble.
And that it's not the end of the world.
And there's a process.
And this is where you are in the process.
And-
(Laura sighs)
(Laura and Jessica laugh)
- I feel like if there's a lesson though, that we ever
teach somebody coming up behind us, that's it.
- I think so. - Yeah.
- Because early in life we don't,
- we don't wanna see our imperfect-
- No, oh no. - We don't allow
ourselves to stumble. - Yeah.
- It's, you don't,
you know, if you're perfect, you have nowhere to go.
I mean, you've just, - Yeah, yeah.
- you've just stopped growing instantly.
So, you have to sort of befriend the things
that are really wrong
and that, you know, are probably gonna go wrong.
And like, okay, so then how do I deal with it?
You know, the thing that's great about is about this,
and we've talked about a lot is, you know,
is we're doing this together.
So, I think we're guiding each other along the way
which consequently makes us invested
in each other's work as well.
- Okay.
Some items from 1976
that we missed that we cannot get today.
- Loves Baby Soft - My favorite.
- and Fresh Lemon.
- There was a shampoo that God knows what chemicals was
in that now, but it was a,
I think it was a Faberge wheat stalk shampoo.
(Jessica chuckles)
And it had a,
it had a certain smell to it. - Right, right.
It was kind of like light amber color.
It looked like maple syrup
almost. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- You know, smells that, - Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, that was great. - It was really good, mm-hmm.
- The lip products. - Oh yeah, yeah.
- Bonne Bell Lip-Smackers. - Yeah, yeah.
- Bonne Bell. - Yeah.
(tense music)
- What did you do today, for our family?
- Wendy, do you miss Wendy?
- Oh, oh yeah.
- I miss Wendy. (laughs) - Oh her.
Oh her.
- I know you're not Wendy.
(all laugh)
- Yes, I do. - Yeah, I do, too.
- I miss, I miss all those people.
I miss the, that was a tremendous experience,
and I loved it and I loved playing her
'cause she was just such a mess and,
(all laugh)
there were so many things wrong with her.
So I, so I do miss her.
And I've also never played anything that long.
- Oh, really.
- I didn't know that. - You know, I've never,
you know, it was, it was five years.
And I've, I've never, I've never been involved
with something for such a long period of time.
(soft upbeat music)