Frank Langella, this year鈥檚 Tony Award winner for Best Actor in a Play for The Father, has been shopping around for a new category to compete in for his next play. At 78, he has decided to get in touch with his feminine side and is ordering his roles accordingly.
鈥淚鈥檝e always been jealous of the great female roles,鈥� he confesses. 鈥淲hen I see an actress biting into some wonderful Medea, I think, 鈥楪ee, I鈥檇 love to be able to do that.鈥� I wanted to explore that in myself. It鈥檚 something I鈥檝e wanted to do for 20 years.
鈥淚 want it to be a full-out female鈥攏ot a transgender, not a trick, not a mockup of a woman鈥攁 real woman. It鈥檚 a monster woman鈥攏ot a feminine, delicate creature. I don鈥檛 think I could get away with that. I鈥檝e gone through all of them that have been played by men. I didn鈥檛 want to do Lady Macbeth. I didn鈥檛 want to Lady Bracknell. I didn鈥檛 want to do the traditional. For a while, I thought I might try Mother Courage.鈥�
Finally, he has found the play that would make his two-decade dream come true.
鈥淚 ran to Arthur Kopit, the playwright, in a restaurant recently, and, all of a sudden, the lights went on,鈥� Langella recalled. 鈥淗e said that he wanted to revive Oh Dad, Poor Dad and he needed to have an actress, and I said, 鈥�滨鈥檓 your actress.鈥� And he went, 鈥�What?鈥� I said, 鈥楽end me the script.鈥� And I read it, and I optioned it, and we鈥檙e going to do it next year in La Jolla in the spring of 2017. If it works, we鈥檒l bring it in.鈥�
碍辞辫颈迟鈥檚 Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma鈥檚 Hung You in the Closet and 滨鈥檓 Feelin鈥� So Sad bowed Off-Broadway at The Phoenix Feb. 26, 1962, and ran for 454 performances. Jo Van Fleet starred as a rich eccentric who traveled the globe, neurotic son (Austin Pendleton). Barbara Harris co-starred, and Jerome Robbins directed the comedy.
