Loose Lips
(Photo by © Joseph Marzullo)
A DANGEREUSES WOMAN
Tamara Tunie is no stranger to playing strong-willed women, from Calpurnia in the recent Broadway production of Julius Caesar to her roles as Jessica Griffin on the CBS soap opera As The World Turns and medical examiner Warner on the NBC primetime drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. But tackling the role of the Marquise de Merteuil in the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey’s production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses is taking “strong” to a whole new level. “She is absolutely evil,” says Tunie with a laugh. “She does horrible things to people, and her reasons are a mystery — though I’m filling in the blanks for myself. I read the original novel while I was offstage during the second act of Julius Caesar; I think the author’s point is that these wealthy people in France were simply bored, and this is what they did to amuse themselves. But if that was the case, why didn’t they just play tennis?”
The role is so intense that Tunie is taking a leave from her soap to focus on it. “What I’m finding is that the language is even more difficult than Shakespeare,” she remarks. “There are so many subtle nuances. Each word that Christopher Hampton wrote is so important that you can’t change it, even if it’s just a ‘perhaps’ or a ‘maybe.’ ” Tunie feels lucky to have hunky Gareth Saxe as her partner in crime, Valmont: “Another actor dropped out the week before we started rehearsal because his pilot got picked up, and I am so thrilled that Bonnie Monte [the show’s director] found Gareth. Sometimes, fate has a hand in things and they work out as they should. I can’t imagine doing this play with anyone else.”
She notes that Julius Caesar wasn’t even on the horizon when she agreed to do this play last year; but though there was a stressful one-week overlap when Tunie was rehearsing Liaisons and performing Caesar, she wouldn’t have traded the Broadway experience for anything. “I begin to weep when I think about that show,” she tells me. “The cast became one big extended family.” Does that include star Denzel Washington? “Absolutely. He is an incredibly gracious man. He would stay about a hour after every performance — greeting his fans, signing autographs, and taking pictures.”
Tunie will finally get a break after Les Liasons Dangereuses closes; she’s not due back at ATWT until the fall, and Law & Order doesn’t resume shooting until October. So she’s off to Europe, where she plans to be on the other side of the proscenium at least once: “Christopher Meloni [who stars on Law & Order:SVU] is doing A View From The Bridge at the Gate Theater in Dublin, and I am definitely not going to miss that!”
and Jordan Lage at the Zipper
(Photo © Michael Portantiere)
RECENTLY SPOTTED
Glengarry Glen Ross stars Gordon Clapp and Jordan Lage cheering on castmate Tom Wopat at his June 19 concert at the Zipper; Tony Award winner Adriane Lenox (on her night off from Doubt), Linda Powell (on her night off from On Golden Pond, which has since closed), and Drowning Crow star Stephanie Berry joining the ovation for the fantastic S. Epatha Merkerson at the June 20 performance of Birdie Blue; and the fabulous Daphne Rubin-Vega, walking right in front of the TheaterMania office building on June 21.
PASSION PLAYER
Sometimes it takes an outsider to put New York in perspective. Recently, Italian actor-playwright Dario D’Ambrosi was in town filming The Pathological Passion of the Christ, an adaptation of his 2004 play (seen at La MaMa) that was inspired in part by his appearance in Mel Gibson’s hit film The Passion of the Christ. “Everyone thinks shooting here is hard, but it’s not,” he says. “We shot this one big scene in an operating room at NYU Medical Center, and they gave us instruments and everything!” D’Ambrosi is hoping that the film, which features performance artist John Kelly as Satan, will be ready in time for screening at the Venice Film Festival in August.
AS THE STARS TURN
Tamara Tunie is only one of several soap opera stars whom fans can see in the flesh if they turn off the TV and head out into the world. Ellen Dolan is starring in the new play Pineapple and Henry. Bobbie Eakes will appear at Tower Records Lincoln Center on June 29 to sing selections from her new CD Something Beautiful. Tom Pelphrey will star alongside Obie winner Deborah Hedwall and Drama Desk winner Michael Cullen in the Penguin Rep revival of The Subject Was Roses. And soap vet Mark Pinter, who is now starring Off-Broadway in My Sweetheart’s The Man in the Moon, will travel to the Bucks County Playhouse later this summer to star in My Fair Lady. (His wife, Colleen Zenk Pinter, will take on the title role in Hello, Dolly! at the Pocono Playhouse beginning July 6.)
