Josh Radnor may have made his name as Ted鈥�Haaaaave you met Ted?鈥攐n the long-running CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, but television star wasn鈥檛 on the agenda when he pursued a career in acting.
鈥淲hen I was leaving grad school, my intention was to be a New York theatre actor, but circumstances led me to Los Angeles,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 always seemed to have good success booking pilots鈥攁nd then this one just took off. When you have a great success鈥攁 very visible success鈥攜our next choices have to be, on some level, a response to that. You do have choices here: Are you going to lean into what you have been doing, or are you going to risk it and try some new things? It鈥檚 quite scary to come outside of that, but, at the same time, that鈥檚 where all the joy lives鈥攊n the risk, in the doing of new things.鈥�
These days Radnor is basking in the greener pastures of . The Babylon Line refers to the Long Island Rail Road line that once a week takes his character, a struggling Greenwich Village scribe, from Penn Station to Levittown, where he teaches creative writing to a class of adults during the last quarter of 1967. Prior to his Broadway bow in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Disgraced, the Line actually first re-connected Radnor to New York theatre after his sitcom siege.
He didn鈥檛 hesitate too long to hop that train. 鈥淲hen the series was finishing,鈥� he recalls, 鈥淚 was anxious to get back to theatre, but I didn鈥檛 know how鈥攐r when鈥攖hat would happen. Then, a couple of weeks before the series ended, I got this offer to do The Babylon Line at New York Stage and Film up at Vassar [College]. I鈥檇 been an acting apprentice there when I was 19, and every couple of years I go back and do a play.
鈥淚t was a very successful production, but we just had two-and-a-half weeks to throw it on its feet, and it was more of a sketch in terms of trying to figure out what this thing was. Six out of the seven cast members in the current production were in that production two summers ago. We鈥檙e all old friends now.鈥�
The housewife contingent of the students (Maddie Corman, Randy Graff, and Julie Halston) has been dubbed 鈥渢he furies鈥� by director Terry Kinney. Michael Oberholtzer and Tony winner Frank Wood are the other carryovers from Vassar.
Elizabeth Reaser is new to the cast but not to Radnor, who has known her since she was at The Juilliard School and he was at NYU, long before she played the girl he wound up with in Liberal Arts, a film he wrote and directed.
Radnor says The Babylon Line, opening December 5, is 鈥渁n everything play. It鈥檚 melancholy, it鈥檚 got huge laughs, there are poignant moments. It鈥檚 about language and love and bitterness and regret and perspective. To me, it feels like a full meal of a play. It鈥檚 the kind of play that grows in you the more you reflect on it. I think theatre is at its best when you personalize it鈥攚hen you think about your own life and reflect on your choices.鈥�
Needless to add, it鈥檚 a joy to act. 鈥淥nce I discovered acting onstage, it has been a lifelong love. There鈥檚 no part of me that feels less enamored of stage acting than I did back then,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 something about sharing a play with an audience that鈥檚 holy. A group of people gathered in a room鈥攊t feels ancient to me, sitting by the campfire, telling stories. For me, a dark and empty theatre is like a cathedral. I could sit there, feel quiet, and get in touch with something deeper. I really honor the experience that can do this. Even when I watch a play, I feel like it鈥檚 a gift to be able to receive it.鈥�
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