Interview: Ahead of Cast Album and Concert, Rufus Wainwright on the Myth and Legend of Opening Night

In the spring of 2024, singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright experienced a rite of passage: his musical flopped.

Wainwright provided music and lyrics for an adaptation of John Cassavetes’s film Opening Night, about a Broadway star who has a breakdown on the eve of her next production after witnessing one of her fans struck dead by a car. The buzzed-about West End world premiere, with a book and direction by Ivo van Hove and a leading performance from Sheridan Smith, was received cooly to say the least: the critic at our sibling publication, WhatsOnStage, called it “a show that mystifyingly seems to fail from the moment it begins.”

But what looked like a dead end may turn out to be the start of a second life. With more than a year of hindsight, Opening Night has already taken on a kind of mythic status among audience members who saw it and those who didn’t. A live cast album will be released on September 12 via Center Stage Records and a concert celebrating the score will take place on September 15 at Town Hall. A benefit for the ACLU and it’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, the evening will feature Wainwright alongside Patti LuPone, Sara Bareilles, Darren Criss, and Justin Vivian Bond. Rachel Chavkin will direct.

What began as a high-profile stumble may now be on the verge of a more positive second act, and Wainwright has not given up hope.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

I wish I had gotten to see Opening Night live.
A lot of people have stated that, whether it’s after hearing the music or even just hearing what has now become the legend of the show. I think it’ll go down as something people would have been interested to see. Not everybody would have liked it, but I still think people would be interested.

So, take me through that legend. Where does the story begin?
Well, Ivo van Hove and I are good friends, and we’d been wanting to do something together for years. There were a few projects that we discussed, but nothing ever clicked.

What happened is that I had this run-in with depression before Covid. It’s something that runs in my family, and I’m aware of it now and I deal with it accordingly, but I never really had it before.

I was in Australia and there was this one day that was really bad. I had to sing that night and I just really felt the need to ask for help or for a message from somewhere; some sort of guidance from the spirits that be. All of a sudden, an image of Gena Rowlands from Opening Night came into my mind, and I took it as a talisman or whatever. Whether it was related to her character, or her, or the movie, I’m not quite sure, but I focused on that image of her, and it did help me through that day, and I got better over the next couple of weeks.

I went back to New York, and I got an email from Ivo, who had not heard any of this. And Ivo, in his typically Belgian style, said “Hey Rufus, what do you think of doing Opening Night as a musical?” So, I immediately was like, “This is meant to be.”

Did you see it as a musical when he pitched the idea? Were there natural places in the film where you could imagine songs?
Kind of. I watched the movie many, many times, but what we were working on was a script that was already written. Ivo had done an adaptation of the movie into a play, and the idea was to take that adaptation and then turn it into a musical. It was very much like the [movie] script but had slight changes and there were a lot of edits and stuff. I had to follow that map. I will admit, Ivo…Well, I adore Ivo. We focused mostly on his script. We tried to keep it away from the movie, which was very difficult for me, because I love the movie so much.

Obviously, the run was what it was…
Speaking of depression! My second bout of depression was after Opening Night closed, mainly because I was so exhausted, and there were about eight other projects I was working on, as well.

And yes, I had become so enamored and passionately involved with the piece, and I was warned by my friend Neil Tennant [of Pet Shop Boys], who had done a musical that didn’t do well. He said, “There’s a certain kind of heartache for reserved for people whose musicals don’t work out.” And he was spot on about it. It was really devastating. It was devastating for everybody because we knew that there was something there. In hindsight, things could have been done differently, but that’s always the way it is.

For this concert, did you just call up people like Patti and Justin Vivian and assign them parts?
Yeah, I called everyone, and I’m honored that they’ve agreed to do this show with me. I feel a little embarrassed because I know how legendary they are. I love musical theater, but I wouldn’t say that I’m a musical theater creature yet. Whenever I say to anyone “So-and-so is going to be in the show,” they’re just so impressed by that. I take that to heart, and I feel very fortunate.

We’re not really assigning people to sing specific roles. We have two people singing the Myrtle stuff. Patti’s basically focusing on the playwright. I’m singing little bits and pieces. It’s a heavy lift to ask one person sing a whole role [for a one-night concert]. You can’t really do that.

I’m only going to talk about my love for the film and my experience writing the songs and what I’m trying to express. I’m not really going to get into anything with London, because that has already passed. But the concept is “This exists.”

What did you learn from the experience?
I think if I had gone in, and it had been some massive success — look, that would have been great. But I think it’s equally as good when something fails. There is something to be said for really going through the mill.

One thing you realize is just how much work is put into musicals. There are so many hours spent. That shouldn’t be in vain, you know? Maybe I still believe in that initial spiritual meaning with Gena Rowlands in the depth of my depression. I hold onto that experience very dearly.

I still think it’s a great idea for a musical [and] my dream is that Opening Night has a life after London. The songs are there, the story is there. We might have not gotten it totally right the first time, but there’s something in it that’s very, very interesting.