| Irene Molloy Goes "10 Million Miles" at the Atlantic |
|
|
10 Million MilesBook by Keith BuninMusic and lyrics by Patty Griffin Directed by Michael Mayer Starring Irene Molloy, Matthew Morrison, Skipp Sudduth & Mare Winningham  Irene Molloy stars in the folk-rock musical "10 Million Miles," based on legendary folk singer Patty Griffin's songs, Molloy is a folk singer in her own right aside from her career onstage.  The Atlantic Theater Company hopes to have another "Spring Awakening"-style hit on their hands with the folk-rock musical "10 Million Miles," extended until July 15th.  Irene Molloy as Molly with her co-star Matthew Morrison as Duane.  The full cast includes Molloy, Morrison, Skipp Sudduth and Mare Winningham.  Molly (Irene Molloy) is a pregnant woman on a road trip up the Eastern seaboard with her on-again off-again love Duane (Matthew Morrison). 336 West 20th Street May 11–July 15, 2007 atlantictheater.org Now that the Atlantic Theater Company’s “Spring Awakening” has become a bona fide hit with Tony awards and satisfied audiences, the Atlantic is hoping that lightning strikes twice with its new musical, “10 Million Miles,” which has a book by playwright Keith Bunin and music and lyrics by country-rock veteran Patty Griffin. The early indications are encouraging: although it hasn’t received raves on the order of the earlier hit, it has been extended through July 15. “10 Million Miles”—directed by Michael Mayer, who won a Tony for directing “Spring Awakening”—is a 90-minute, intermissionless musical about Duane and Molly, a young couple with a checkered history who are traveling from Florida north along the Eastern seaboard to see what they can make of their lives. Molly is pregnant (her baby may or may not be Duane’s child), and en route they fall in and out of love with each other: it all sounds like the perfect plot for a country song. As it happens, Griffin’s songs—all written for her own records, making this another kind of jukebox musical—fit the subject nicely, and Bunin’s book spins variations on the old “will they get back together and stay together” themes. The talented leads Matthew Morrison as Duane and Irene Molloy as Molly are ably supported by Mare Winningham and Skipp Sudduth as various men and women that the couple encounters on the journey. Irene Molloy, the 28-year-old actress who plays Molly, is a musical theater veteran: she sang in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Whistle Down the Wind” in Washington D.C. while still in high school, and starred in “The Civil War” on Broadway. She’s also been featured on TV sitcoms “Grosse Pointe” and “Andy Richter Controls the Universe,” and is a composer and performer of her own folk-oriented tunes. (Check out her MySpace page: www.myspace.com/irenemolloy) Molloy recently sat down with TimesSquare.com to discuss “10 Million Miles” and her own career. Q: How much input did you have in creating your character, Molly, in “10 Million Miles”? Irene Molloy: Well, I came into the production pretty recently. There had been some readings, and I had a couple readings, the script was in good shape but everyone was looking to find out how it worked onstage. We [the four actors] had a lot to say about what we were creating together. Molly is a difficult, complicated character and this is a complicated project also—it’s different in that this type of music hadn’t been used previously, mixed with this sort of realistic book. We tried to find our way through it and see what it was. At the beginning, it was a really strange process: I don’t think anybody knew just who my character really was for a long time. One day in previews, I had a ponytail and was wearing a pink outfit, and I thought. “This is not me at all!” I came in the next day and said that I’m not wearing a ponytail and I’m not wearing these clothes, so I roughed up my hair and put more makeup on and looked like what I thought a recovering party girl might look like. Q: How do you see Molly? IM: She’s tough, she’s a really tough person. I really tried to learn a lot about that. There are only a few people in my life that I could draw from, so I didn’t have a large well of experience. I had to do a lot of exploring and reading about alcoholism, and try to discover why people like her put up such walls. She puts up a really strong wall so that no one can get to the heart of her. She was kicked out of her house at 16, which cemented her keeping her guard up. I tried to learn why people do that, and discover the spark in her that Duane brings alive to make her dismantle a wall like that. Q: Was it difficult trying to integrate the songs—which were not written specifically for this musical—into the dramatic fabric of the piece? IM: We definitely tried to integrate the songs; even though the songs are very poetic and were not written to be songs in a musical that drive the plot forward. “What You Are” and “Making Pies” are two songs during which my character sits and simply listens to, then is almost completely changed by the time they’re over. If I tried to separate them from the play, the scenes that follow wouldn’t make any sense. There were others that were more difficult to integrate—“Mary,” for instance,” where not much changes from the beginning to the end of that song. Q: As a musician and composer yourself, it must be exciting to sing Patty Griffin’s songs every night onstage in “10 Million Miles.” IM: She to me is at the top of the list as far as female singer-songwriters go. I’m a huge fan; it’s been a dream for me to be able to delve into her work day in and day out. It’s a thrill, it’s a joy, and it’s a journey, for I’ve been learning so much from singing her music every day. It’s helping me too, because I’ve been writing my new record in the process of doing “10 Million Miles.” I’ve been focusing on my songs, and I find her unique approach to songwriting very liberating. Q: Have you been discovering more in Griffin’s songs as the run of the show continues? IM: Yes, the entire experience is growing and changing constantly—I’m learning new things about these songs all the time. When they extended our run, Mare [Winningham] and I were so excited, because we’ve been learning so much, and a piece like this is a living, breathing thing at this stage. I’m amazed by the amount I’ve been able to glean from it in the couple of months we’ve been doing it. There’s so much integrity to her music, and it’s so ambiguous as well—it astounds me sometimes that I can find more meanings and surprises in her writing every time. Q: How has it been working with Mare Winningham, Skipp Sudduth and Matthew Morrison? IM: They’re all dreamy [Laughs] I just adore all of them. I’ve learned so much from them, and I think we’re different but very game for trying new things, so it’s been a thrill to work with them. They’re such pros. I can’t say enough good things about them. Q: And what about director Michael Mayer? Does he continue to contribute new ideas for the staging? IM: He has been a real trip! [Laughs.] He has so much energy, he’s such a bundle of ideas and knowledge. He’s like a fireball, and he’s a really smart director. We opened a week before the Tonys, so he originally froze the show. But he’s always sticking little things in. I think right now he’s been on overload and is taking a little break. Q: The set [by Derek McLane] pretty much consists of a red pickup truck that is transformed at various times into a motel bedroom, a booth in a local diner and someone’s porch. IM: I think that the set went along with the simple nature of the whole thing—Michael and Derek wanted to keep it very bare bones, so we could just focus on the story. Q: Have musicals always figured in your life? IM: I grew up on musicals in Philadelphia because my mom’s obsessed with them. I was raised on musicals, along with church music and Simon and Garfunkel. I came to New York when I was 17, did some musicals, went to L.A. and did some TV shows, then I got out. I started writing songs and I wanted to experience more real life, so I went back home, had a daughter, got married and kept writing songs and performing and recording. I sell CDs on my website, I love creating things organically from the ground up and I enjoy music, so it’s been huge for me just to get out of the musical theater box. I wanted to explore world music and jazz also. So I found my way to folk music and got back into theater because of this “folk musical,”so it’s been a strange circular journey for me. Q: So you’re surprised to be back onstage singing someone else’s songs every night. IM: I would not have imagined I’d be in a musical again at this point, just because I departed from singing in that typical style. I do like to tell stories in my songs, which is what folk and country is: storytelling music. The story telling from folk and country singers is amazing. This show is about down-and-out, real people who are trying to make things work: it’s real simple and basic and human which is why it fits with how Patty writes. Q: Have you been able to keep your own creative spark going while starring in “10 Million Miles”? IM: I had really planned on doing more shows here during the run but we only have Monday nights off, and I’ve been writing a lot. I felt like I had to give my own songs a break, and I’ve been writing, writing, writing, so I think at the end of our run, in July or August, I’ll probably do a show here in New York before I take off to record the new record. Q: You have the same name as the heroine of “Hello Dolly”—coincidence? IM: It goes back and forth over the years—sometimes my mother admits that I was named after Irene Molloy in “Hello Dolly,” and other times she denies it. But then her whole family told me that she was always singing songs from it when she was younger, so my mom copped to it. Now she just says that it’s a beautiful name! Q: Have you ever played her? IM: Of course I did! It was in high school. My mother still has the program and photo album. |
