-I feel such gratitude
any time any Broadway performer
uses their off day on a Monday to spend time with me.
So, thank you. [ Laughter ]
-Seth, right? -Yeah.
[ Laughter ] -Is this you?
Am I on the Seth show? -Well, and this is --
your show, you've been doing this since November,
which I really tip my cap. You have yet to miss a show.
-Yeah. -That's really amazing.
-Eight shows a week. We're in our seventh month.
I got five months to go.
It's Atticus Finch. -Yeah.
-It's Atticus Finch. And it's the role of a lifetime.
And we got the reviews. We got the critics.
We got the -- We got -- The people are coming.
-You got a Tony nomination. -That happened.
-Congratulations. -That happened.
[ Cheers and applause ]
This is -- This is not --
This is not the gig where you call your agent
and go, "Get me something better."
-Right, right. -"Get me something better."
So, this is pretty good. -And again, Atticus Finch,
needless to say, this is a character --
"beloved" almost seems like an understatement.
Did you find it daunting to take on this role in this play?
-Oh, well, yeah. Yes, and no.
You know, Gregory Peck did the movie,
and he won an Oscar for it. -Yeah.
-And people revere him.
He was -- They only made the one movie.
There were no other plays. There were no other movies.
And so people think of Atticus Finch as Gregory Peck.
And the people who love the book are --
There are three kinds of people who come to the show.
The people who absolutely love the book.
And they almost clutch it to their chest
while they're watching us, going, "Don't ruin this."
Then there are people who absolutely love Gregory Peck.
And you're not him. -Right.
[ Laughter ]
-And then, there are the teachers.
There are the teachers who --
Months before even rehearsal started, I had a guy.
I was at something, and he goes,
"You know, I've taught the book for 35 years."
[ Laughter ]
Like it was, you know, a challenge.
[ Laughter ]
And I go, "Well, you're gonna hate the nude scenes."
[ Laughter and applause ]
Well, so...
But it's -- it's -- Look, we've got them.
We come at the story in a different way.
And especially now, in today's America,
with race and everything that's going on
with Trump and all that, it's more timely than ever.
-Yeah. I mean, it's incredible that you take this work
from the '30s and -- I mean, it's sadly resonant.
You would hope that there would be --
what was addressed then would no longer be relevant.
And obviously, you knew that with the undertaking of it.
Was that something that was, obviously, not even
the back of your mind but the front of your mind
as you were putting this production together?
-You knew that "Mockingbird" had the chance to say something.
and so often, the American theater is kind of forgotten.
I think 2% of the populous has ever been to a play.
That includes Aunt Martha in a four-hour version of "Oklahoma!"
at the community theater. -Right, right, right.
-You know, 2%. So, when the American theater
can say something, can have a voice,
and you see what happens every night,
the 1,400 people that sit there,
and it's not like watching the movie or reading the book,
which you can put down or you can put on pause.
You're in that room, and they've shut the doors.
And when Tom Robinson, who is 100% innocent,
is found guilty, they feel it.
It's a different experience,
and only the theater can do that.
And with Aaron Sorkin and Bart Sher,
everybody in the cast that pulled this thing off
night after night after night, we still change people.
We can still -- We send people out the door
thinking differently, and that's all you can ask of any play.
-No, it's an incredible -- it's an incredible undertaking.
And the fact that you succeed in that is amazing.
And it must be so different than selling out
the Shubert Theatre in your early days here in New York.
What were some of your early shows like?
-Well, um...um...
[ Laughter ]
I had some success. I was off Broadway.
-Uh-huh. -Making 125 bucks a week.
Proud to get it. Glad to get it.
Occasionally, though, you did the play
that no one came to see. -Sure.
-Even off Broadway. -Yeah.
What does "no one" mean? -What does "no one" mean?
You're in a hundred -- you're in --
You know, like this. -Yeah.
-An audience about however many people this is.
And there are seven people out there.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
That's a lot of empty seats. -Seven people.
-Yeah. -And you are a cast of eight.
[ Laughter ]
So you outnumber the audience.
-So at least you know, worst comes to --
-And every single time that happens --
And it's happened more than once.
Every time it happens, you go to the stage manager,
you go, "You know, I think there's a union rule,
where if we outnumber the audience,
we don't have to do the show." -Sure, sure.
-And he pretends he's looking it up and goes,
"No, there isn't a rule. You got to go on."
[ Laughter ] So, you go on,
you play to the seven people, you get to intermission,
you get back out, and three of the people have left.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Yeah. -Now I -- genuine question.
Do you think --
Do you think they leave because they don't like it,
or do you think it's just too much pressure
to be that few people? -There's some pressure.
Especially when you go for the laughs.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
Oh, my God! You're still trying to sell it
with eight people in the audience?
-That was a good one. You missed it.
That, plus, I think, they're just going, "Why are we here?
This must be really bad." -Yeah.
[ Laughter ] -This must -- What?
-No -- I mean, yeah, you think like, "What did we get wrong?"
-"We screwed up. We're at the wrong show."