Chatting with the Company of Second Stage’s THE WAY WE GET BY- Thomas Sadoski, Amanda Seyfried

Chatting with the Company of Second Stage’s THE WAY WE GET BY- Thomas Sadoski, Amanda Seyfried

hello I’m Richard Ridge for Broadway World the latest from Second Stage Theater is Neil abuts new Play The Way We Get By directed by Lee Silverman and starring Amanda Cipher and Thomas Sadowski and we drop by the theater to catch up with the company good afternoon hey hi how are you so good thank you for letting us come into the theater you guys just started right we did we’re tonight is our fourth preview so it’s very exciting very exciting so talk about your collaboration what it’s been like working together on Neil’s play Neil it’s been like a dream as they say like a dream notice they didn’t say it was a dream um as it’s it’s everything it should be you know um I’m getting to work as a writer and hand over my work to a director and watch a interpretation of of that play come to life you know it’s it’s exciting to watch have one in your head and just see another one Blossom and go oh wow this you know that’s that’s the beauty of theater how many worlds can come out of one text and leave for you well to work on a yellow be play is a dream and it’s also I just have had no idea what was in store for me and it has been so rigorous and fun and exciting and unexpected and he’s just the perfect collaborator it’s been amazing can you tell me we’ll cut that part out can you tell me how the play came about and the idea for it sure um I um like many plays of mine the titles have come from songs so the way we get by was a title that actually for a long time was connected to recent to be pretty so weirdly it connects to Tommy sadosi again um and it was sort of poooo at a certain point by my agent saying I can’t remember the title of that play CU it’s like one of your other titles so and reasons to be pretty came about and then when I got to this play I was like no that’s a good title we’re sticking with that and and makes more sense here even and um and so that was sort of the Genesis was the title I like I liked what it had to say it’s like what does that say to me what is the way we get by and it was born out of this you know a couple who who meet and could walk away from a potential disaster or a potential best thing in their lives and one of those really small but incredibly monumentous decisions we make in our lives of who we’re going to be with yeah and Lee What attracted you to the play it’s about all the right things it’s about bravery and courage and being bold enough to go after what you want and as far as I’m concerned that’s why we go to the theater to figure out how to live and this play is all about that and then there’s your cast let’s talk about them yeah I mean if only they were like attractive it’s it’s hard it’s hard it’s really hard to watch them every day um Tommy actually was the one who called me and asked me um if I would take a look at this play it was a play that he and Neil were working on together I would do anything with Tommy um we did a reading with Amanda it was a dream come true the two of them have so much sexy chemistry that it’s sort of irresistible and they’re wonderful together same I mean I’ve known Tommy for a while now you’ve worked with him several times um I wanted to find something else to do with him I don’t really write for people so I didn’t write it for him but um once I I heard the whole play in my head it was kind of like he was I think the first person to read it and um when he said yes the clip oh my God oh my God look at this you oh my God that was like perfect that was perfect thank God I was saying nice things I know he missed the part where we were like oh that guy how we like he was really our second choice yeah yeah really awkward it would have been really awkward terrible yeah um so I mean yeah you you know they say casting is what what’s the percentage whatever percentage they say it’s about 5 or 10% higher than that yeah so if they say 90 it’s actually 100 you know it’s it’s amazing and then there’s Amanda yeah and you know how fantastic for me to get a chance to work with someone who’s never done a play before and who’s so game she’s so excited and she’s fantastic and so the combination of someone who is so new to it and also so enthusiastic about it is it’s fantastic for me it’s a great Challenge and for you Neil working with Amanda well Amanda and I actually went down the road briefly on another Play There was going to possibly be a Revival of the shape of things which she was interested in which I was very excited about didn’t happen um so when her name came up for this again I was super excited but it it’s true what you say it’s it’s actually like getting to go back to when you first started doing theater and watching that what someone feels like there’s because there’s nothing like live theater and you watch someone who you know experiences that for kind of the first time in their lives you get to revisit yourself it’s pretty great and being here at Second Stage oh I love being at Second Stage I did best walls play here last season American here and um to be here with Neil right now at this time in the season it’s really exciting it’s terrific it’s a great place to work first time for me never worked here and it’s fantastic it’s a great building great people here um it you know it’s a they have a whole community of people that I that I’m just you know getting to meet now I feel really lucky congratulations welcome to the New York stage how does it feel it’s a lot of a lot feels like a lot of things um I feel really really really good for the first time I didn’t not to say the first time in my life I feel like happy no but um I feel like I’ve been treading water for the last 10 years not to not to um I mean there’s a everything’s had weight for me it’s just it’s this is a whole different experience um it’s a it’s a really important experience for for an artist I feel like I’m finally like confident in saying that I am I’m an actor I’m an actor I’m I act you wanted to get a stage for a while I know there was even a Neil project before that you wanted to do also yeah it’s um it’s all worked out the way it’s meant to I I just wasn’t ready I don’t I there’s just so many reasons that the shape of things didn’t shape shape up into anything um scheduling and casting and all that stuff it’s just this is thank God all that didn’t happen I mean there was I was always dipping my toe in and it never really yeah never really took shape until now I always say timing is perfect for everybody what it’s meant to be it’s going to be tell me what you love about this play and why you both wanted to do this uh well I mean when Neil sent it to me he he sent it to me um with this sort of note attached saying this is a departure for me and and and tell me what you think and and uh I said great so I I took a look at it and I realized immediately that it was probably the most subversive play that Neil has ever written um and he’s putting himself out there in a way as a writer that he hasn’t ever before and I’m really I was thrilled to first of all to take a look at it fell in love with the play immediately I fell in love with the characters immediately I I Adore his work obviously and um I feel like we work really well together and so uh I just I wanted to be a part of it I wanted to be a part of him trying something new and um then it all all things just started falling into place you know rapidly um this amazing company that we’re getting an opportunity to work with here who are so generous and so supportive of their artists and um you know Lee who is easily one of the best directors working out there today uh who I adore deeply um as a human being but also respect so much as an artist and then um to have a man to come along uh was really um I think that was the moment that for me everything sort of gelled is when we sat down in the room together and started reading and and the frankly like I thought I knew what the play was and then she started speaking and I and I and my understanding of the play Chang changed entirely um which was like so exciting and I sort of couldn’t keep it together I couldn’t keep it to myself like when that happened I I was sort of like bouncing in my chair and like I was so unprofessional about it I you know I was like I really was which I I don’t think I’ve ever apologized to you for what I think that I should I was basically I was like do you want to do this please do this do you want to do this let’s do this and um uh oh God poor sweet Amanda just sort of sat there and took it like a champ uh uh I felt the same way you did after the reading it’s like if they want me I’m going to just cuz I always think God nobody wants me you know I’ve still got that I’m serious I when is that going to go away but um but you were so oh you were so warm about it being on stage together in this play what has meant to you so far I mean this is where I started my career they gave me my first two jobs um they gave me my first job on Broadway yeah uh you know I’ve worked for this Theater Company more than any other actor has worked for this theater company and um that’s not accidental you know I I I keep on coming back here because I I love this space I love the people I love this organization I love the the crew that they put together I you know and and um so for me it really is coming home and it’s coming home in uh in under the best of circumstances and it’s coming home in a way that I mean working working together um it feels full in a way that this early on that I I don’t recall um many if any times in the 20 years I’ve been doing this that has ever felt this full this early and I think that there’s something really special about that

From BroadwayWorld’s Archive: Second Stage Theatre welcomes film star Amanda Seyfried (Les Miserables, Dear John, Mamma Mia!, upcoming Ted 2 and Pan) in her off-Broadway debut opposite Thomas Sadoski(The Newsroom, Wild, upcoming in NBC’s The Slap) in the world premiere production of NEIL LaBUTE’s drama, The Way We Get By. Directed by Tony nominee LEIGH SILVERMAN, the production officially opens on May 20, 2015 at Second Stage Theatre, 305 West 43rd Street.