“I’ve never really needed approval, or attention, or anything like that� states Brooks Ashmanskas, fresh out of his first rehearsal for Smash on Broadway. “All I’ve ever wanted was to feel like I belonged in the room. Any room. That feeling, that I’ve earned my seat at the table, be it through a joke or just being smart enough about something that someone notices. I just want to belong.�
Ashmanskas has more than earned his spot at Broadway’s dinner table. A two-time Tony nominee, Smash is his 16th Broadway show, and his second this season after Once Upon a Mattress�s Wizard. From his teenage turn as P.T. Barnum to his new gig playing a director in Smash, this beloved funny man crafts his characters with all the care his classical training contained, creating clever comedy without ever careening into caricature.
“There is nothing until you demand freedom in the space. In rehearsal space, in performance space, I am demanding, not in a mean way, but…� Ashmanskas pauses, considering his words with operative precision. “We have to be free to do this sort of work, especially comedy. If there are unnecessary limitations that I feel are getting in the way of delivering the best performance possible, I'll do anything I can to get rid of them. It's important to me that everyone in the room feels at play and free and having fun. Call it my method, call it my thing, but I can’t work without it.�
It certainly helps that Ashmanskas has been mentored by some of the best and brightest. Raised in Oregon, his father (US Magistrate Judge Donald Ashmanskas) was a known wit, whose finely tuned sense of humor at home inspired Ashmanskas to find the laugh in life from an early age. “Dad was a hilarious judge. He was very respected, but he also made a difficult job funnier for everyone he worked with� I was always trying to run the room the way he did. I tried to emulate my father and my mother, their way of capturing a room of people and making them laugh. I remember the first time I made friends of my parents laugh, and that great feeling that comes with bringing people joy; I wanted to do it over and over again.�
As he aged, he zeroed in on a range of comedy influences, studying the humor of Steve Martin, Lucille Ball, and the Three Stooges to create a wider understanding of the ways to cultivate communal joy. Once he moved to New York, Hal Prince, Susan Stroman, and Victor Garber entered his life as perhaps the most impactful type of mentor; true and trusted friends. “Victor is a sneaky mentor in the best way, meaning he never forces anything on you. Especially when I was younger, he was always very helpful about the business and embracing what I had to offer, guiding me without forcing my hand. And then, of course, Martin Short.�
In 2007, Ashmanskas hooked his first Tony nomination for his work opposite Short in Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me. The experience was formative for Ashmanskas, who describes Short’s influence on his life as practically parental.
“Marty is a parent, both literally and figuratively. That’s who he is, he’s a fosterer. He is a sweet, supportive, darling of a man, and he also happens to be Martin Short, who is the quickest, funniest, weirdest comedian of his generation. He's brilliant, and he has been such a great friend, and such a sweet soul.�
Ashmanskas had a front row seat to Short’s ability to juggle public comedy and personal catastrophe in the back half of the 2000s, learning an ever-present lesson about how to maintain a showbiz career. “I mean this as the deepest compliment: Marty’s really good at compartmentalizing things. He and Nancy [Dolman] were arguably one of the greatest couples, and they were both so dear to me. Nancy was, again, sort of like another mother." Dolman died in 2010 from ovarian cancer. As Ashmanskas recalls: "When Nancy was so very sick, I was wildly upset, because I'm a big crier, and I just weep. And I remember taking note of Marty's ability to not to be distant from it, he was totally feeling everything that was going on, and totally honest about it—but he was also able to put it where it needed to be, to compartmentalize it so that he could still function. He still had to be a father to his children. He still had to bring home the bacon and ‘be� Marty Short to people who didn’t know what was happening. Somehow, he was able to prioritize things in such a way that he was exactly as present as he needed to be for everything that came at him in those years, both the tragedy and the comedy.�
The blend of Short’s sensitivity, his father's wit, Garber’s care, Martin’s absurdity, Ball’s commitment, and the Three Stooges embrace of the ridiculous have coalesced in a truly one-of-a-kind style for Ashmanskas. Ashmanskas� sense of comedic timing, which could’ve positioned him as the third adversary to Fred Allen and Jack Benny in the late 1940s, also has made him something of a secret weapon for more than a dozen Broadway musicals. Winking through material that could fall into archetype in less able hands, Ashmanskas� ability to deliver a retort dryer than a Duke’s martini has made many a revival role “his� in the eyes of his audience.
From his Broadway debut as Bud Frump in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying through his performance in Once Upon a Mattress, he has refined his sense of timing with such precision that even darker material, such as Shuffle Along’s 11 o’clock number laying out the erasure of Black artists, can manage to summon a bitter smile. His hard work originating material, however, cannot be overlooked; having Ashmanskas in the room is certain to sharpen even the tightest of musical books. In Bullets Over Broadway, Something Rotten, and The Prom (which brought home Tony nomination number two), you can practically feel his wit wrapped around every word his characters speak.
Now, as he brings his attention to Smash, about a team of artists creating a Marilyn Monroe musical, he is preparing to redefine yet another role: the director of that fictional musical, Bombshell.
While Ashmanskas is tight-lipped regarding the numerous changes that have been made to Smash’s plot along its journey from NBC television show to the stage, it is clear that his director, now named Nigel, will be no copy of the lascivious screen director Derek. While the musical itself is directed by Stroman, Ashmanskas is taking his in-universe position as a leader seriously as he endeavors to model fearlessness for the show’s young ensemble.
“I find it nice to be the older guy in the room. I have this opportunity now, to look at these young people and say, ‘You can be great. I'm here for you, and I expect you to be there for me, because we are going to do this together, or not at all.� ... It’s got me thinking a lot about my dad, who was the funniest person I ever met. I keep hearing him when I’m talking, which is hilarious to me, but it’s also very comfortable. I've never met anyone nearly as smart or as funny or as sweet as my father, so I can’t complain!�
