鈥淲e met on a train platform in a cloud of steam,鈥� Jefferson Mays wistfully recalls. 鈥淟ike Anna Karenina,鈥� adds his wife, Susan Lyons, with the same dreaminess in her voice. The actors鈥� poetic first encounter happened when Lyons took a trip with mutual friends to see Mays in Outward Bound at the Westport Country Playhouse.
Mays headed out of town soon after and offered his small, sixth-floor walkup apartment to the beautiful Australian actress while he was gone. Months later they began a magical courtship. They quickly became creatively entwined, with Lyons helping with the very first incarnations of Mays鈥� Tony-winning tour de force, I Am My Own Wife. She is credited as the artistic consultant of the Broadway production, a role she unofficially continues now.
The passion and respect (and playfulness) between the two is palpable and they feed off of each other creatively鈥攅ven in their wardrobes. They carry themselves elegantly, yet without pretense. Here, the duo feverishly shares ideas about Mays鈥� roles鈥攚hether he鈥檚 playing a neat freak reporter in this fall鈥檚 highly-anticipated Broadway revival of The Front Page or eight members of the same noble family in 2013鈥檚 Tony-winning musical A Gentleman鈥檚 Guide to Love and Murder.
Jefferson offered to let you stay in his apartment while he was away on the first night you met him. What was it like to live in Jefferson鈥檚 apartment before you really knew him? Did you snoop around and try to figure out who he was?
Jefferson Mays: You said it was like a monk鈥檚 cell. That鈥檚 what you said.
Susan Lyons: But it was. It was a wonderful kind of retreat in the East Village. It was up all these flights of stairs, and it was very small. It was only 300 square feet. I ended up spending more time in New York than I thought I was going to and felt a bit rudderless, so it was a lovely, comforting place to be. I鈥檓 years older than Jefferson, and I was behaving myself. You know when you walk into a place and it鈥檚 just got a lovely vibe to it? You know that the person who lives there is obviously a good person.
JM: Then I came back, and I offered you the apartment again because I was going to Chicago.
SL: Right, but I had a friend鈥檚 place to look after, so I rang up to say, 鈥淭hanks, but no thanks.鈥�
JM: Then we met up for a cup of tea and had the most wonderful time.
SL: Within five minutes we were drawing up a list of people we both wanted to ritually disembowel.
JM: It was a great relationship founded on mutual antipathies. There were many of the same people on our lists.
Can you name names, or are they all still alive?
JM: Sadly, they鈥檙e all still alive.
SL: So it wasn鈥檛 until we met up for that cup of tea that I started thinking, 鈥淭here鈥檚 something else happening here.鈥� After that, we went off and had adventures.
JM: We called each other up every day for the next two weeks and had fantastic New York adventures.
SL: We went to the Met and the Tenement Museum.
JM: Christmas shopping. It was a wonderful wintery time together.
SL: It was kind of magical.
JM: It was kind of a whirlwind courtship I suppose. We met late in life.
SL: He鈥檚 just such fun to be around. It鈥檚 exhilarating being in his presence, so during the courtship we鈥檇 say, 鈥淲e mustn鈥檛 see each other every day. We must play on with our lives,鈥� but every day one of us would buckle and call, and say, 鈥淲hatcha doin'?鈥�
JM: She鈥檇 always walk east on 21st Street and I鈥檇 walk west on 12th Street and we鈥檇 angle toward each other and meet in the middle.
SL: I love my husband dearly, but he spends a lot of time thinking about his role and creating stuff in his head, so sometimes I鈥檇 see him sort of amble past me. I鈥檇 think we鈥檇 be coming together, and he鈥檇 keep going.
That鈥檚 hilarious! Jefferson, were you working on I Am My Own Wife when you first met?
JM: I was just starting to work on that. We met in August of 2002.
SL: And we got to together in December.
JM: Then that winter, Susan flew out to Chicago for the first performance of I Am My Own Wife, and quickly endeared yourself to the director [Mois茅s Kaufman] and the playwright [Doug Wright], who sought you out for notes and ideas.
SL: They were very generous [and allowed me to come] to rehearsals, which normally I hate doing. You just feel like a wart that shouldn鈥檛 be there.
JM: But you were such a huge part of its development. They turned to you. As did I, again and again.
SL: It was such a thrilling thing to see come together. It was unlike anything I鈥檇 seen before.
JM: And then she became the associate director when we were on tour.
SL: Thanks to Mois茅s.
JM: Susan and I traveled around the country and indeed the world together.
SL: It was a great adventure. I didn鈥檛 know America really at all, but I got to see [so many] parts of the country, and Jefferson is such a wonderful mind. He has such curiosity about things.
JM: Well, it鈥檚 always an adventure with you. We would take trains鈥攚ith romantic names like the California Zephyr and Southwest Chief鈥攚henever possible, so we could see as much of the United States out the window. It was romantic. That was another opportunity for us to get to know each other.
SL: It was a fantastic way to travel.
What was it like working together? Jefferson, did you want Susan鈥檚 input from the get go?
JM: Yes. Although you quickly realized鈥�
SL: I did make a horrible mistake.
What happened?
SL: Well, we both get sort of obsessed about the work, and our minds are always cooking. There was one time at about three o鈥� clock in the morning when I leaned over and tapped him on the shoulder.
JM: She woke me from a sound sleep to give a note.
SL: To give him a great idea I had for Act Two. That was a really bad idea. I learned that very quickly.
That notes are better in the waking hours?
JM: Right.
SL: Notes are always hard to receive at the best of times.
JM: It鈥檚 better [to wait until] after breakfast.
SL: We have great conversations. We love going for walks and examining things. It鈥檚 very yeasty and exciting. I think it鈥檚 lucky in a way that I was kind of older, because in Australia I had been doing theatre for 25 years and had done a lot of the roles I wanted to play. I think it鈥檚 very hard for two actors [to be] together. Work can take you out of town for months, or you鈥檙e working days and he鈥檚 working nights. I don鈥檛 have the same burn to perform. 鈥� I feel like I get the best of both worlds now, because I get to participate in Jefferson鈥檚 creations. I don鈥檛 feel like I鈥檓 missing out on anything at all. It鈥檚 a thrilling new life.
Do you feel a lot less involved when Jefferson is doing a role in something like The Front Page or GGLAM, than you did with I Am My Own Wife?
SL: I Am My Own Wife is different because it was such a solitary experience for him, so as I was working on it I鈥檇 be at the theatre.
JM: Susan was at the theatre every night, writing in my dressing room. It was so lovely.
SL: But when he鈥檚 got other cast members to play with, I don鈥檛 want to hang around like a bad smell. They鈥檙e a special family, but I love being involved in the cooking part, where we go for long walks in the park and talk about the physical life of the character, or what the past story might be. It鈥檚 usually him bouncing ideas off of me and me going, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 brilliant.鈥�
JM: We workshop things together.
Is it different to live with Jefferson when he does a one character role than when he does more non-traditional multi-character roles?
SL: I Am My Own Wife was very intense. Sometimes we would come home and he鈥檇 have to go for a stalk around the block because there was so much adrenaline buzzing through him. [GGLAM] was touching, but it was exhausting and kind of brutal. I started to worry about him physically, because he was getting injuries and not getting a proper chance to recover from them. I remember when he was doing Journey鈥檚 End and he was playing Mason, the cook. One time I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and there he was in the kitchen with three pieces of newspaper folded over his arm and holding four mugs. He was trying figure out the best way to set the table.
JM: Since she was asleep I thought I would rearrange the furniture, which I do periodically to simulate what the stage is going to be.
SL: It鈥檚 always a bit like that. There鈥檚 always moments where we鈥檒l be sitting together鈥�
JM: And she鈥檒l say, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e acting, aren鈥檛 you?
SL: Yeah because his eyes just go somewhere else. There鈥檚 a thought process or a little conversation going on in his head.
JM: Or I鈥檒l make some sort of eccentric hand gesture that makes no sense in the context of everything. Oh my God, you are so tolerant.
SL: That鈥檚 ok, I love it! It鈥檚 like seeing something born, you know?
So Jefferson changes into a different character right before your eyes?
SL: Moments of them yeah, but I never feel like I鈥檓 sleeping with a D鈥橸squith. It鈥檚 always Jefferson, but the other character comes in and becomes part of our lives as well in a thrilling sort of way.
One thing that I always look forward to, is seeing both of your looks on the red carpet! You have such a unique style. Is that something you each had coming into the relationship, or did you develop it together?
SL: I had to lift my game.
JM: No. I had to lift my game. I did not dress up to the degree that I do now before I met you.
SL: I used to have a pair of jeans. I haven鈥檛 had a pair of jeans since I met Jefferson. It鈥檚 lovely though. Early on in our relationship, I had to go to a conference in Paris. I rang him just before going to the airport and he said, 鈥淚 have a great surprise for you,鈥� and I thought he鈥檇 gone and bought me something really nice.
JM: Oh God I wish I had.
SL: I got off of the plane and waiting at the bottom of the corridor was a man standing in a taupe pith helmet.
JM: I got a new pith helmet. I wanted to show it off.
Susan, who has been your favorite character that Jefferson has played?
SL: My favorite character is Jefferson Mays.
