(upbeat music)
Hi, it's Len Cariou here.
I'm in a play called "Harry Townsend's Last Stand,"
playing Harry Townsend.
And I'm here to talk about mishaps and memories.
It's a two-hander.
So there's myself and Craig Bierko.
It's a man in his mid-eighties,
and his son is trying to get him to move out of his home
because he can't live alone anymore.
And Harry is fighting tooth and nail to stay in his home.
And it's a very funny play,
and also very poignant play,
and I think it's gonna hit close to home to a lot of people.
"Applause," 50 years ago "Applause" opened.
It was my first original Broadway musical.
We won the Tony Award for best musical,
and I was even nominated as best actor,
but I did not win, and I think the reason I didn't win
was because at one matinee, I sang the first,
the opening song, and out of the corner of my eye,
I see some of the girls in the first row,
and they're talking to one another,
and I'm a little distracted,
and I keep looking down like that.
Miss Bacall and I are up on the stage,
and she's looking at me going what's going on?
And she looks down at them, and then she looks at me,
and she starts to laugh.
My fly was open, and my shirt was sticking out (chuckles),
and when I saw that, I did a quick turn around,
stuck it in, and did the zipper up and came back
and said, "So flash that famous smile."
When I was doing Henry the Fifth
in 1969 at Stratford, Connecticut,
during that summer, I auditioned for "Applause,"
and I auditioned once in June, and then in July,
and then in August, and I thought
what is going on with these people?
The last audition that I did was I think in September
or August or, you know, something like that,
and everybody was there: Miss Bacall, the producer,
the Comden and Green, Strouse and Adams.
They were all gonna be there this last time,
and Ron, of course, and so Ron says to me,
he says, "Len, if it were up to me,
"I would offer you the role right now, but it's not.
"I said, these guys have to offer the role,
"and I can't do it.
"Listen, but you're really the guy that I want."
And he said, "And please, remind me
"what it is you're doing now."
And I just pointed across the street,
and there were three, six-foot photographs of me
playing Henry the Fifth,
and I said, "That's what I'm doing."
And he went, "Oh, my God."
"A Little Night Music," Harold Prince,
he wanted me to come and audition
for "A Little Night Music" and the role of Carl Magnus.
And I had read the script.
There was no music at the time when he sent me the script,
but it read really like an all-week play.
So I thought, boy, this is a really great book.
Hugh Wheeler had written the book.
And I thought, well, Carl Magnus I've played
in many different iterations during my career at that point,
and I thought, but it's a chance to sing for Sondheim.
Right?
Flew here to New York, and went to the audition,
sang for Hal and for Stephen.
Talked to Hal the next day, and he said, "Did you read it?"
And I said, "Yeah, and they lyric,
"especially Frederick's lyric in the opening,
"the one that I just said to you,"
and he said, "Yeah, well, that's the role
"we want you to play."
And I said, "What?
"No, Hal, he's supposed to be, you know, in his mid-forties"
and I was only 30 at the time,
and he said, "Nah, it's all right.
"It's a period piece.
"Nobody'll ever even question it."
So I went back to the Guthrie, flying high,
and went in to see Michael Langham, Artistic Director,
and I said, "Michael, I've got this incredible opportunity,
"and we go into rehearsal in a month and a half,"
and Michael looked at me and said,
"Well, that's pretty nice, but you can't do that."
And I said, "Why?"
And he said, "Because you're playing Oedipus the king
"in our next production, and it would mean
"you would open the play, and then leave."
So I had to call Mr. Prince and say,
"Sorry, I can't do this, and this is why."
Six weeks later, I get a, my agent called me, and said,
"Are you sitting down?
"'Cause they've come back, and they're going into rehearsal
"much later than the originally were,
"and they're offering it to you again."
And so I went, "Wow!"
So I commuted between Minneapolis and New York
in the dead of winter, never missed a performance
of Oedipus, and never missed a rehearsal of Night Music.
Anne Heche's debut, Neil Patrick Harris,
he and I had done a film together before,
and it was interesting because we were going to be
a replacement company.
We weren't just being patched into an existing company,
we were our own company onto ourselves.
We had our own rehearsal period,
and it was our own production,
and it was Anne's debut on the stage,
and she was a little nervous, and so I would,
you know, she kind of looked to me to say,
"What am I doing wrong?"
I said, "You're doing nothing wrong at the moment.
"Now listen, just, you know, relax,
"and try and think of it as a leading role in a film."
At the curtain call, we came out,
and I'll never forget Anne Heche's look.
She came out to take her bow, and it was a standing ovation,
and she was absolutely poleaxed by this response,
and that was kind of the launch period for her.
Yeah, "Sweeny Todd," well, I think it's a genius work.
Here's a mishap for you.
One show, it was a bare stage,
and Angela and I,
Angela Lansbury was playing Mrs. Lovett.
And myself were in partnership with this meat buying company
and our servant Toby finds out what we've been doing,
making meat pies out of human beings,
so I say, "Well, then, we're gonna have to eliminate Toby."
So we go looking for Toby, and the stage was bare,
and in a trap door, we came out onto this bare stage,
and we were singing, "Toby, where are you?
"Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around, Toby."
At this particular show, we come out,
and I hear a rattling sound, and I thought what is that?
There's just two of us on stage,
and we're in spotlights, and I happened to look up,
and I see the bridge starting to descend,
and it's not supposed to be moving at all.
And I hear this (rattling chatter),
and I walk over to Angela,
and I take her down stage of this thing,
but because we were on spotlights, our spotlights guys
are now following us, but we're not supposed to be moving.
Anyway, we move downstage,
and behind us, the bridge comes all the way down
to the deck, and crashes onto the deck,
and then the chains rattle down behind 'em.
Everybody in the audience is going oooh (chuckling).
And we stop obviously.
The lights come up.
Stage manager says, "Well, we better go back
"and do it again."
And so they stop the show, raise the back curtain,
came out and got the thing and took it back,
dropped the back curtain in again, and said okay,
let's do this again, and I came out onto the stage,
and I looked at the audience, I said, "Take two."
And everybody I think that I've ever met
was at that performance (chuckling).
(upbeat music)