Actor Michael Urie talks with 947 The Wave's Maggie McKay about his upcoming role as Prince Dauntless in 'Once Upon a Mattress,' and more.
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00:00I am so excited today because we get to talk to Michael Urie, yes, from Once Upon a Mattress coming to the Amundsen December 10th through January 5th. Welcome, Michael.
00:13Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here.
00:15Yay! Tell us, for people who don't know, what Once Upon a Mattress is about.
00:20Once Upon a Mattress is the musical version of The Princess and the Pea.
00:25It is about a kingdom that is under a tyrannical rule by this very stoic, evil queen named Queen Agravain, played by the brilliant Anna Gasteyer.
00:38And she will not allow anyone in the kingdom to get married until she finds the right princess for her son.
00:44But she doesn't intend to find any princess for her son because then he would rule and she would not.
00:50So she comes up with these sort of absurd tests for every possible princess.
00:56And when this wonderful, kooky princess shows up that's different than all the rest, my character, the prince, falls in love immediately with her.
01:05And the queen must come up with a test that she cannot pass.
01:09And so she decides to stack 20 mattresses on top of one another and place a pea under the bottom one.
01:16And if she sleeps through the night, she is no princess.
01:19And I won't tell you what happens in the end, but...
01:22What's it like to work with Anna and Sutton Foster?
01:27They are truly, truly incredible.
01:30Anna Gasteyer is one of the funniest people I've ever met.
01:33Certainly one of the funniest people I've ever worked with.
01:35And Sutton Foster is like a quadruple threat.
01:39She can sing, she can dance, she can act.
01:41And she's also like the sweetest, most wonderful person.
01:44So it's dreamy, really dreamy.
01:46I'm already getting sad that we close on January 5th.
01:51We have a couple...
01:52Right now, we're almost finished with our New York run, which has been fantastic.
01:57And I know that L.A. is hungry for us.
01:59So it's going to be a fabulous four weeks.
02:03Definitely.
02:04So this originally launched in 1959, right?
02:07And it pretty much launched Carol Burnett's career, I think.
02:10Yeah, that's right.
02:11This is what made her a star.
02:13Did she come to one of your performances?
02:16Or do you think she'll come to an L.A. one?
02:18I hope she comes in L.A.
02:19That's the hope.
02:20I think she's going to come in L.A.
02:22That's the rumor.
02:25We're sort of assuming she's there every night because it makes us better.
02:29How is it different?
02:31Because it's by Amy Sherman Palladino.
02:35So it's a little bit different, right?
02:36Right.
02:37So we have a fresh book.
02:39So the script of...
02:40The music is the same.
02:42All the music that you've heard before,
02:44that you've heard on the original cast album with Carol,
02:47that's what we're doing.
02:48We're doing all that beautiful Mary Rogers stuff.
02:52But the script has been updated and trimmed and finessed.
02:55Some of it's exactly what they did in 1959,
02:58and some of it's a little bit zippier.
03:01Amy Sherman Palladino,
03:02who created Gilmore Girls and Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,
03:05is an incredible writer and has worked with Sutton a bunch
03:09and so knows her voice really, really well.
03:11And the two of them have come up with a sort of new Fred,
03:15a fresh Fred, a modern Fred.
03:17And that's her character, by the way.
03:19That's the name of her.
03:20She's Princess Fred.
03:22And it's really good.
03:24The audience is loving it.
03:27It's fresh and surprising and really funny.
03:31I think that's the biggest surprise for people when they come.
03:34They think they're going to come see an old fairy tale that's great for the
03:37whole family, but it's also really funny.
03:41Okay, Michael,
03:42I really can't picture anyone else playing this role so wonderfully as you
03:46do. And this is probably a naive question,
03:48but do they just call you up and say, Michael,
03:51we'd like you to play Prince Dauntless.
03:53Do you want to do it or do you actually have to audition?
03:56Well, they did. I did.
03:58I did not have to audition for this.
04:00They did.
04:01They did sort of call me up and say, hey,
04:03would you play Prince Dauntless? And I did not know this show.
04:06This was not on my radar.
04:09But I knew Lear de Bessonnet, our director's work.
04:13And I knew, of course, Sutton's work.
04:15And I had worked with Sutton on Younger and I knew Amy Sherman
04:19Palladino's work. And I also loved,
04:22I loved the series Encores, which is this wonderful series in New York,
04:26where they take another look at older musicals.
04:29So I said yes immediately without reading it.
04:31Wow.
04:32And then I went and then I said, yes.
04:34And then I went and read it and listened to the music.
04:36And I was so glad I said yes.
04:38So are we.
04:40Can you just tell us real quick that great story about the first time
04:44you're on Broadway with Nick Jonas?
04:46Oh my gosh. Well, yeah.
04:49Nick and I,
04:50so we were replacements and how to succeed in business without really
04:53trying. He replaced Daniel Radcliffe.
04:55And I replaced a great actor named Christopher Hanke.
04:59And we rehearsed together, just me and him in a bubble.
05:03And the crazy thing about doing a Broadway show is when,
05:06when you're a replacement,
05:08your first night is everyone else's like 100th night.
05:12And so Nick and I, I mean,
05:14it was my Broadway debut and Nick and I went on one night that was
05:18really just a Tuesday for the rest of the cast.
05:21And I will never forget the moment when I first stepped onto a
05:24Broadway stage and I looked out and I saw this full house.
05:28And I, I, I stopped.
05:31I mean, I didn't stop the choreography,
05:33but I stopped and I looked out and I said, don't forget this.
05:36This is your Broadway debut. This is special.
05:39I love that.
05:41What's the most rewarding part about playing this role.
05:43Prince Dallas.
05:45Prince Dallas.
05:47Starts the show as essentially a grownup with arrested development.
05:52He has, he has sort of been.
05:54Kept childlike by his mother.
05:59And by the end of the show, he becomes a man.
06:01So playing a character that has.
06:06A very clear and defined arc where basically you watch him over the
06:10course of a few days.
06:12The play only really takes place over the course of a few days.
06:15You watch him grow up and become a man.
06:18And that is a very satisfying thing for an actor to get to do.
06:21We get to play arcs often in, you know, in TV and film and,
06:24and on stage, but.
06:28If you're, if you're a supporting character or, or, or, you know,
06:32like even I'm like, but I'm sort of, you might call me the second lead.
06:36They don't always get an arc.
06:38They don't always get to change before your eyes,
06:40but this version with what Amy has written and what Lear has
06:44encouraged me to do.
06:46We are, we are showing a real definitive arc.
06:50Of a man. And it's very satisfying.
06:54When you're up there on stage,
06:55do you feel the love from the audiences because you had a wildly
06:59successful run on Broadway? And of course it will be in LA. Do you feel it?
07:03Oh, absolutely.
07:05From the moment the overture starts, it's this beautiful,
07:08lush old-fashioned overture. Cause you know,
07:11most of the time in musicals, you don't get an overture.
07:13You might get the orchestra playing a little bit and then it segues
07:16into the first number. This is an overture.
07:18The curtain goes up. You see the big orchestra up there.
07:22The lights are beautiful. The set is beautiful.
07:24And here comes this lush overture and the audience every night bursts into
07:28applause. And it is, it's very, we always,
07:32we're all back there waiting.
07:35And we all stand there and listen to the overture every night and listen
07:38to the audience response. But from the moment, you know, they are,
07:42they leave their lives at the door and they check into our kingdom for,
07:47for, you know, two and a half hours. And they, it's,
07:51it sort of feels like we're all,
07:53we all climb into a big bed for a story, you know, for an,
07:57for a bedtime story. And especially when there's kids in the audience.
08:01And I imagine in LA during the holidays,
08:04we're going to have a lot of kids because their giggles are,
08:08they are infectious and they are a life force.
08:12And so hearing the giggles of children, that immediate,
08:15that immediate response from children is, is beautiful.
08:20Are there kids in the show?
08:22No kids in the show because there are no children in our kingdom
08:27because no one's allowed to get married.
08:29Oh, okay.
08:31So that's why it's an, it's a funny little plot point,
08:34but that no one's allowed to get married until the Prince gets married.
08:37So there's no children.
08:39Okay.
08:40What do you hope people leave with audiences?
08:43What feeling, or what do you hope they remember?
08:46I hope that people, you know, I was,
08:48I have a number in the show where my father has been,
08:51has a spell cast on him where he's not, he's not able to speak.
08:56And we have a number where he basically tells me the birds and the bees,
09:01but without words,
09:03his own version of miming and the wonderful actor,
09:06the wonderful actor, David Patrick Kelly plays my dad.
09:09And it's very funny.
09:13Him trying to explain the birds and the bees without words to a,
09:17to a basically a child and the adults laugh a lot.
09:22And the kids laugh too,
09:23because they're watching this funny old man do all these funny things,
09:27but they don't really know what they're watching.
09:29They don't really get it.
09:30And one of the,
09:32our director's son came to see the show and he's too young to understand
09:37what that number was about, but he loved the show.
09:39And when it's over, my, I figure it out.
09:42I say, I love you, dad. And he says, he says, I love you too.
09:45He, he, he signs. I love you too, to me it's, it's this.
09:50And and then we walk off arm and arm.
09:54And Lear said that when her son saw the show at the end of that number,
09:59he turned to his dad and hugged him.
10:01So I think what I hope people walk away with is that hugging each other.
10:08I hope that they walk,
10:09they leave this show and want to and want to hug their dads or their moms
10:13or their loved ones or their kids or their grandparents.
10:15I mean, it's really a show for anybody.
10:18You can come if you're five years old, you can come if you're 85 years old.
10:21And I just hope people walk out a little more in love with each other.
10:26Awesome. Okay.
10:28I know I should end it there and you have limited time,
10:30but I just have to ask you just like maybe two more questions.
10:33Is that okay? Yeah. Okay. Sure.
10:35So Ugly Betty, Shrinking, Partners, Maestro, Goodrich.
10:39Oh my goodness.
10:41Do you have a favorite or it's probably like hard to pick, right?
10:47Very hard to pick right now.
10:49Shrinking is my favorite because it's on right now and we get to,
10:53I get to imagine going back to it.
10:55Like we're going to start shooting season three soon and people are loving
11:00season two.
11:01And I couldn't be more grateful for what the writers have come up with for
11:04my character this season too.
11:06That's that's on right now.
11:08They have gone deeper and further than I ever imagined.
11:14It's no surprise.
11:16They're incredible writers and,
11:17and there's a lot of care,
11:19but there's a lot of characters on our show and that they find time for all
11:24of us to grow and change and blossom is, is, is, is terrific.
11:29So right now that's my favorite, but golly,
11:31working with Michael Keaton on Goodrich and Bradley Cooper on Maestro.
11:37I'm having a lot of pinch me moments lately.
11:40Yeah.
11:42I love that you recognize it.
11:44Cause I, I wonder if sometimes people.
11:49Maybe aren't in the moment and don't realize it.
11:52Yeah.
11:53And I'm sure it's not the only thing you're doing.
11:55You're doing so much.
11:56So, so it's refreshing that you do just to wrap up about shrinking,
12:00Jessica Williams.
12:01Oh my gosh.
12:02I just look at her picture and laugh.
12:04She is so funny. You both of you.
12:07You're my favorites in the show. I shouldn't say that, but.
12:09Oh my gosh.
12:11And I'm happy to hear that they're going to expand your character and,
12:13you know, we'll see more of you. I was hoping for that.
12:15And so.
12:17busy. You have this, which wraps up in January. You have shrinking.
12:20Any any works in the future?
12:23I've got some irons in the fire.
12:25Nothing official.
12:26I go back into shrinking shortly after we finish What's On A Mattress.
12:31I'd love to do mattress again sometime.
12:33You know, I don't think I'll be done with it when we finish.
12:35We'll see if there's a life for it afterwards.
12:38I won't stay away from the theater very long, though.
12:41You know, that's my that's that's sort of my my addiction.
12:44I'll I'll end up back there as soon as I can.
12:48But I'm looking forward to being in California for a while
12:50and doing doing some more shrinking.
12:53What do you love about L.A.?
12:55Oh, well, something I have discovered since doing shrinking
12:59is L.A. has terrific restaurants.
13:02I don't think that I knew that in the past when I would go to L.A.
13:06when I go to L.A. before I think I become more of a foodie,
13:10but they have terrific restaurants.
13:11And I'm not just saying this because I'm on your show right now,
13:14but L.A. also has really good radio.
13:19And what station do you listen to when you're here?
13:22I do listen to 94.7 The Wave.
13:26I really do.
13:27OK, one more time. I got to hear it again.
13:3094.7 The Wave.
13:34It's a Broadway song.
13:36Thank you. Thank you for listening.
13:37And thank you for making time, because I know you're super busy
13:40and we can't wait to see you in this and more of you in shrinking as well.
13:44Thank you, Maggie. Thank you.
13:47So if you would like to get tickets, go to center theater group dot org.
13:51It's playing December 10th through January 5th.
13:54Thank you again, Michael. Thank you. My pleasure.