Its impossible to take your eyes off Joshua Jackson in his latest role, not that youd want to.
You start watching him and you cant look away.
Preparation took months of effort including a monthlong out-of-town run last summer in Stockbridge, Mass.
Credit: Matthew Murphy
and the shows Tony-winning director, Kenny Leon, was floored by Jacksons commitment.
It didnt feel like, Oh s, we dont know what were doing yet.
I would run through walls for that guy.
He brought this to me and said, This is something that Ive been wanting to do.
So hes the one that really lit this fire and now here we are, two years later.
When it wasSmart People, it was, What is being a white man in America?
The conversations around the deaf community have evolved since the play was written.
What keeps it relevant?The power of the play is in its universality and not in its specificity.
That is something, sadly, that weve all gone through.
We are in a place right now where we just dont listen to each other.
Im as guilty of it as the next guy.
The signing is difficult and the speaking, theres obviously a learning process for that.
It turns out that SimCom, which is signing-speaking at the same time, is actually the most difficult.
So that is unbelievably difficult on stage, because obviously you cant stop, youve got to keep going.
So to keep the trains going, its hard.
Its a hard show.
