Latest / The BSB Podcast / Exclusive Interview: Brent Bateman of 'The Play That Goes Wrong'

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Exclusive Interview: Brent Bateman of 'The Play That Goes Wrong' · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  When it comes to comedy, there's a fine line between controlled chaos
• 0:02
  and complete disaster. And Brent Bateman knows that line better than most.
• 0:06
  As Robert in the play that goes wrong,
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  he has spent years navigating collapsing sets,
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  missing cues, unexpected mishaps,
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  and some of the most perfectly timed mayhem on stage.
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  And today he's joining us to talk about this long running play.
• 0:16
  Thank you so much for joining us,
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  Brent.
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  my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
• 0:20
  You've been in the play that goes wrong for over seven years,
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  which is a significant amount of time to be with a show.
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  What is it like to stay with a show and a character for that length of time?
• 0:28
  Yeah, it's new to me. ~ every other run that I've ever done has been at most,
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  what, three, maybe four months,
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  if I've been lucky. And this has been the gift that keeps on giving.
• 0:40
  ~ the challenges at the play that goes wrong,
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  I think, are not too dissimilar to other long running shows where the you know,
• 0:50
  the artifice is that the events that you're seeing on stage are happening
• 0:53
  for the first time. That's true with just about any play.
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  But it's really heightened in our show where it's opening night every night.
• 1:01
  And to answer your question, that's the difficult part is doing a long running show
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  where every performance is opening night and investing in those opening night stakes
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  and the opening night butterflies in the stomach and ~
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  the insecurities and and the excitement that comes along with that.
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  That's that's what's tricky about holding on to the play that goes wrong
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  for so long. What's
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  Lovely about it is that that's,
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  you know, we're approaching our performance count as getting close to 2500 now.
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  And to think that that's
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  That's incredible.
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  that's twenty five hundred audiences that we've been able to laugh with for,
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  you know, two hours at a whack,
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  and that's really special.
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  I think it's so cool when you cause you're right,
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  you don't get to hear about many actors who get who stay with a role for so long.
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  But it's kind of a blessing to be able to be with a show and get to see
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  it kind of continue to formulate and you're kind of formulating this character
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  and bringing him along. ~ and you're changing with the show and
• 2:00
  the show's kinda changing with you as I mean,
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  seven years, that's a long time to be in one role for and to get
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  to experience that is is probably such a joy.
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  It's a it's i it's a thrill because well our show changes every night depending
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  on what the audience is giving us,
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  depending
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  Got you.
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  on on what sort of you know, it's it's ~ there's a product that we're trying
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  to deliver, certainly, but there's flexibility in there for the reality
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  of what's in the space on under those given circumstances,
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  and that can change depending on,
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  like I said, what the audience is doing for us that night.
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  And it changes a lot depending on who's on stage that night.
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  You know, we've been running for a long time,
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  cast members ~ go away and come back.
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  Understudies go on all the time in our show as they do in any long-running show.
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  And that's exciting. It's exciting to have freshness injected at a moment's notice.
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  Sure. And especially
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  with a character such as Robert,
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  I mean, he's an actor who is probably convinced that he's a way better actor than
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  he is in the terms of h who he is in the show.
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  But how do you find the balance between like making him like be like leaning into
• 3:00
  the ridiculousness and also keeping him a real person,
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  you know, because he's still an actor on stage?
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  I I have a confession, it's a little embarrassing how similar to
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  Ha.
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  Robert I am. That th not not certain he's a very exaggerated version of it,
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  but I've always really envied you know,
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  I've done a lot of regional theater over the years and I've always loved the local
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  Like actors, actors, who are always in every show of the season
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  for any given regional theater.
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  And I feel like Robert is a lot of that.
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  And ~ the the moments where I show his flaws
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  are really nods of love to those actors that I've worked with over the years,
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  and I'm and I'm stealing directly from a lot of specific people to come
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  up with the bits that I've come up with.
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  I 'cause those kind of actors they're so passionate about what they're doing,
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  you know what I mean? It they put their everything into it.
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  They're own they're only in
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  it for the passion. That's that's all and and and and the and the good feelings that
• 4:02
  come along with being a part of something bigger than yourself.
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  That's that's why they're there.
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  They're there to be, you know,
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  to drive the train, you know, and I I just love I love an actor that takes himself
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  way too seriously.
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  ~
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  absolut I mean, we have regional theater around here in Michigan.
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  We see it all the time. There's those faces you get to know,
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  and like you just you know that you're gonna get a hundred and ten percent from them
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  every single time.
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  Absolutely it's the best. It's the best.
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  so what's maybe something about Robert though that you discovered maybe during
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  rehearsal or again over the seven years that like maybe you didn't first expect when
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  you got the role?
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  Yeah, so one of the one of the things that I sort of had to develop,
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  you know, the show is so intricately choreographed in terms of
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  where our direction wants you to look during any any certain moment.
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  And and that's true to get the laughs out of the audience,
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  but it's also true while being on stage,
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  I f I'm I had to set very specifically and continue to make adjustments
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  to this about what Robert notices and what Robert doesn't notice while things
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  are going on, in order to make the moments that I then run with the football
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  to make those moments more authentic.
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  You know, it's better if I don't know that
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  so and so is in the clock. It's better if I don't know that that something
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  has fallen over here. And those are the little the little tasty tidbits that
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  I never could have done that after three months,
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  four months. It's taken years to sort of get that detailed about
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  the comedic timing of it all.
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  And what I
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  love too, it sounds like, you know,
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  having been with the show for so long as well,
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  and you mentioned about the audience and what they're giving and
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  how things kinda change night to night because of that.
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  You this isn't a show that you can almost do on autopilot.
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  You have to be able to be fully engaged at all times to know what's going
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  on to be able to give those comedic times.
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  Absolutely. For comedic purposes,
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  yes, and quite frankly for safety purposes.
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  If if if any of us checks out for any moment,
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  it's quite dangerous. Not to mention the show falls flat,
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  but it's safety first.
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  So with a show such as this, where you're deliberately getting a joke wrong maybe
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  eight times a week, or you're trying to make it so that the audience is eating
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  it up a little bit more, ~ what do you feel is harder?
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  Getting maybe a joke wrong all those times or making it look deliberate like that
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  your character is getting that joke wrong all the the time.
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  Yeah, I mean that's that's that's
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  it. It's the it's the latter. It's it's knowing full well how it's to be delivered,
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  knowing full
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  Sure.
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  well what will work best in the moment,
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  and then making that feel spontaneous.
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  That's that's the that's the true challenge of the show.
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  Like finding
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  It's it's it's being I mean it's it's it's an acting exercise.
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  It's it's being honest in the moment and listening and responding
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  to what's actually happening and letting that feed the next moment,
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  even though you know what the next moment is.
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  And and that's the catch twenty two,
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  I think, of all theater performance that's rehearsed.
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  ~ but again, like I said earlier,
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  especially in our show where it's
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  almost mathematical about the the the the kernels that have to be laid down
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  in order for the big joke to hit.
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  Now, when it comes
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  to character such as Robert in that that terms,
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  do you feel like there are certain key pieces of him that while maybe
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  th you're changing and how you're responding or who he is in that moment,
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  but like there's core pieces of him that have to remain true to make sure that
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  the show kind of goes off the way it's supposed to?
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  Absolutely. I think Robert with great confidence solves a lot of problems.
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  by acting his way out of them.
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  And there are moments, you know,
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  there's sort of a gradient of rage when when his desires
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  and goals are thwarted. And depending on how what the audience is giving,
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  depending on what my other castmates are giving,
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  that that rage can bubble up very high.
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  It can sort of stew a little bit.
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  ~ it's nice when it gradually grows throughout the evening and it's sort
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  of structured to do that. ~ but i
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  I think there are very th there aren't any moments in the show where Robert doesn't
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  think, I can fix this. I can fix this,
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  Okay.
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  we I can fix this, we can move on,
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  and everything's going to be great.
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  That's that's that that's a th that's
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  So in his head he's kind of the hero.
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  a th ~ absolutely, and he certainly would describe himself as that.
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  You know. this this isn't the right prop,
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  whatever. I look at it, I act like it is,
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  it's the right prop now. Problem solved,
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  let's move on. You know, it's it's that sort of thought over and over
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  and over again that gets us ultimately into a lot more trouble.
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  But I mean that's
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  That's where the comedy is.
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  And what I love
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  about that too is that it takes like for as Robert the character,
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  that t that's a level of confidence to be able to just roll with something like
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  that. Cause if that
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  Yes.
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  happened in real life, most people would be like,
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  This isn't the right prop. What do I do with Or like,
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  you know, the stage is falling apart.
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  What do I do with that? And he just rolls with it.
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  It's a deep perversion
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  of you know of the improv rule of yes and it's it's just yes anding ourselves into
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  the ground, you know, into into absolute disaster.
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  It's it's a real perversion of yes and
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  And also with a show like this,
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  you also have the added layer of you being an actor in front of an audience
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  who is playing another actor. ~ so there's those two different layers.
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  How do you approach that as as an actor yourself to play an actor in front
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  of an audience ~ in that frame?
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  It has to do for me the line is
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  It's in my preparation before every show.
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  You know, I've I've been doing sort of meticulously the same or close to it,
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  the same routine before every performance,
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  without exception, that involves my warm up,
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  that involves my backstage time,
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  ~ as I'm listening to the crowd come in.
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  And it's only when, you know, I I at the top of the show the f the first thing that
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  I do is I start banging on the door to make my first entrance and
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  It's only then that it's it's actually Robert.
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  Until then it's it's Brent experiencing opening night vibes and trying
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  to f recall what that felt like the first time that I did this show
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  to make sure that those feelings are authentic within me before I launch into
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  the show. does that answer your question?
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  Is that
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  No, yeah, absolutely. I
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  also love that you're talking about the psychology to me is never
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  far from the surface. And when you talk about frame state theory,
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  is you're pulling back from your first night there to help make
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  it seem more authentic and how you're presenting Robert to the to the audience.
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  That's that's my little trick.
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  It's worked for me all these years and because that's the biggest challenge
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  is is making the routine not seem routine.
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  And it's funny that it takes a routine for me to do that,
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  but that's but that's the truth.
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  That makes me feel it's the it's those it's the recall of those feelings
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  and sensations that that makes me,
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  as I make my first entrance, the most
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  ~ linked to the opening night feeling that I possibly can.
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  And
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  you know, when
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  you're talking about a show that is so you know,
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  there's a lot of heavy physical comedy going on in the show.
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  P perhaps some of the most physical comedy that we've that I've seen from
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  a a Broadway and off Broadway show.
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  What do you feel like is like the most challenging physical moment
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  for you during the show?
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  It changes depending on how my body's feeling.
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  There are
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  Sure.
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  you know, we look, you would get workplace injuries if you were ~ you know,
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  just doing administrative work,
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  you know, you get carpal tunnel syndrome from repetition.
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  ~ it happens to us too. We're doing the same thing at least eight times a week,
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  often rehearsing on top of it.
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  So doing things like lifting someone up off the floor over and over
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  and over again can lead to back issues,
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  knee issues, wrist issues.
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  ~ the there's a point in the show at which ~
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  It happens in Act One where I'm stuck holding things that are supposed to
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  be on the wall that have fallen off.
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  And I'm holding them there because that's where they belong.
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  But the play needs to go on. And I don't know exactly what I think
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  I'm going to accomplish, but eventually we'll get through this scene.
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  I won't have to hold these here anymore.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  But the scene continues to happen and I get stuck holding them
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  in different ways while I then have to write in a bank ledger and I'm on one leg.
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  And I'm taking a phone call and and that's I think the most difficult physical
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  moment for me in the show because of the duration of it.
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  It lasts, you know, several minutes that I'm on one leg,
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  leaned over, holding stuff, screaming at the top of my lungs.
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  That said, it would be silly not to think of all of the stunts that happen
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  in the last, you know, fifteen minutes of the show ~ as not being a tax,
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  because they are. It's it's it's a lot of falling down,
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  it's a lot of holding heavy things,
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  it's a lot of awkward lifting,
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  and all of that happens at a pace ~ that doesn't really give you the chance
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  to be too form perfect about it every time,
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  and ~ and that takes a physical tax as well.
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  I mean it's kind
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  of it's it harkens back to like the original,
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  like I think almost like the three stooges type of like comedy almost,
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  you know?
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  One
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  hundred percent. And all the old silent films,
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  all of the all of the Buster Keaton,
• 13:01
  all the Charles Chaplin, it's always overcoming a problem in an unconventional way,
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  you know, and that's that's what our show is from from tip to tail.
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  And truthfully,
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  one of the best parts about this,
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  you know, the the play that goes wrong is that while it is so well choreographed
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  as you mentioned, and while, you know,
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  like safety is an issue and you have to be careful and you have to
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  hit your marks and stuff like that,
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  maybe more so than any other show that we've seen on,
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  you know, on the scene. But it it does remain so funny.
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  While you guys are probably thinking to make sure that we don't step
• 13:30
  out of line here, you know, to to get injured.
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  But like the audience is just picking up on how hilarious those scenes
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  are in those moments.
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  Yeah, that's the that's I think a huge advantage that we have as the actors
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  in the show and and I sort of compare it to ~
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  I don't know like in in NFL football,
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  they always say that like if a quarterback is playing really well,
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  he's seeing the field in slow motion,
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  even though things are happening very fast,
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  he's able to look downfield and see how things are going to develop.
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  And I think that
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  that's a huge advantage of sitting in a show for this long,
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  is that I feel like there are moments of the show that the audience
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  is perceiving as being lightning fast.
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  And I can see exactly how things are playing out and be a little more safe
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  and controlled in them, trusting that the audience is seeing that for
• 14:20
  the for the first time and and ~ and it and it does seem completely spontaneous
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  to them.
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  And while it's kind of lightning
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  fast for us audience members, do does it almost slow down for you when you're living
• 14:30
  those moments of like like when you see those beats,
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  you're like living it in like half speed almost?
• 14:34
  Absolutely it does. And and there's some moments,
• 14:36
  you know, have you ever had the sensation like when you
• 14:39
  Like when you crash your bicycle and you know that you're going to crash,
• 14:43
  it seems like it takes seconds and seconds and seconds for you to finally hit,
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  and that's that's that adrenaline that kicks in and kind of slows things down
• 14:52
  a little bit. And I feel like there are moments of the show that I sort
• 14:55
  of always experience like that.
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  Especially experience that when actual adrenaline kicks in because someone
• 15:01
  has said the wrong thing or something has malfunctioned slightly.
• 15:05
  That really sets the sets the nerves off and and things really
• 15:19
  I love the little behind the scenes looks of like how does it
• 15:21
  Mm-hmm.
• 15:21
  take to become Robert or how to pull off this show because it looks so seamless
• 15:26
  ~ on our end, but there are it's the technicality of these pieces,
• 15:30
  you know, when you're talking about like you having to hold up all of
• 15:32
  the the things off the on the wall and stuff and you're standing on one leg,
• 15:35
  like again, it looks like you're,
• 15:37
  you know, y he's doing it with such ease,
• 15:39
  but like it's actually all takes such coordination to be able to
• 15:43
  do something like that and to pull it off.
• 15:44
  It's
• 15:45
  it's hard every time. It's hard every time.
• 15:47
  And I think that that's also why I think that's also what's kept me in
• 15:50
  the show for so long, because it is a challenge every time.
• 15:53
  It's ~ I've found it impossible to be people ask all the time,
• 15:58
  Well, don't you get bored doing this for so long?
• 16:01
  And it's impossible. In this show,
• 16:03
  if you're doing it right, you can't be bored because it's nothing
• 16:06
  but focus and surprise over and over and over again.
• 16:10
  And I find it thrilling every time.
• 16:13
  So as kind of like the steward of Robert,
• 16:15
  'cause you've been with him for so long,
• 16:16
  I do have some questions of what you think when it came to Robert,
• 16:19
  what what he would be doing in in a in a different world.
• 16:22
  So like if he was in a different play,
• 16:23
  what role do you think he would assist on playing?
• 16:26
  ~ always I mean, I think that what i it wouldn't matter if it were
• 16:30
  a hero or villain, it would be
• 16:33
  ~ very generically who gets to do the coolest thing as in as
• 16:38
  Okay.
• 16:40
  in like I was just talking about this the other day who gets the better entrance?
• 16:44
  Robert wants to play the role where he s swings on a rope onto stage
• 16:50
  Mm-hmm.
• 16:50
  or
• 16:50
  gets lifted up from the pit. He wants the most dramatic,
• 16:53
  the most dramatic thing for the for the payoff.
• 16:56
  He wants the the hero's
• 16:56
  Love that.
• 16:57
  entrance. So whatever role that is,
• 16:59
  that's his.
• 17:00
  I mean, there's
• 17:01
  so many classic shows he could definitely fit into because they
• 17:03
  all have that entrance and he would just eat it up.
• 17:05
  Exa exactly, exactly.
• 17:07
  If he was giving a master class in acting,
• 17:09
  which I feel like he would
• 17:10
  Mm-hmm.
• 17:10
  definitely want to give because he f he has so much knowledge that he'd want
• 17:13
  to share with the world, what do you think his most important advice would be?
• 17:16
  Yeah, I think it has to do with being with with ~ making sure that you're being
• 17:21
  as loud as possible.
• 17:23
  Okay.
• 17:24
  I think I I think
• 17:24
  that's a big part of it because ~ I think that he is
• 17:28
  so maybe overtrained that I think the I think the voice work comes first
• 17:34
  and sounding important is as important as being important.
• 17:38
  So I think that's that's where a big part of the focus is.
• 17:41
  ~ I think that he would find it difficult in an acting class to not just give
• 17:47
  a one hour, one man show. I think it would be very difficult to hand
• 17:50
  the class off to students.
• 17:53
  Thousand
• 17:53
  A one hour acting
• 17:54
  percent.
• 17:54
  class with Robert would probably be just him yelling at you for an hour.
• 17:57
  They would love it.
• 17:58
  And people would eat it up.
• 18:02
  What is maybe one small detail in your performance as Robert that
• 18:04
  you hope audiences notice?
• 18:06
  Mm. ~ well, w just as with ~ what I said about Robert,
• 18:12
  I hope people notice the like the complexity
• 18:20
  Of the vocal work that I'm doing in this show because it's something that
• 18:24
  I work on really hard, and it's ~ it's been an asset of mine since I was,
• 18:29
  you know, just starting my training.
• 18:31
  But I I trained as a classical singer when I was young,
• 18:34
  and I've incorporated a lot of that into roles that I've done over the years,
• 18:38
  but never as much as I do with Robert.
• 18:41
  there's I think a big musicality to the way that I present this role,
• 18:48
  and I think that it's you know,
• 18:50
  I've made very
• 18:50
  careful calculations about what the high notes are and what the low notes
• 18:54
  low notes are and even if people don't notice all of that I hope they walk away
• 18:58
  and say, wow what a voice.
• 19:00
  I mean, it's absolutely incredible.
• 19:01
  I getting to see some of what you were doing.
• 19:03
  It is it's a lot of I don't know how you're you're not exhausted at
• 19:07
  the end you vocally.
• 19:08
  I am.
• 19:09
  I am. And it's it's all of the the boring fundamentals of voice training that that
• 19:14
  keep me able to sustain it. It's hydration.
• 19:17
  It's warming up properly. It's cooling down properly and trusting that when
• 19:21
  I spend it in its entirety it will come back to me.
• 19:25
  And it has.
• 19:28
  Truly it sound audiences I could continue to love this show.
• 19:30
  This is one that I go to New York a few times a year and this is always
• 19:35
  one that people are raving about.
• 19:36
  You see it everywhere. People love this show.
• 19:39
  ~ and I hope that they continue to love it.
• 19:42
  And I just wanna thank you so much for being here to chat with me today.
• 19:44
  Brent, it has been such a pleasure.
• 19:44
  that's my pleasure,
• 19:45
  Brian. Thank you. I really appreciate the chat.
• 19:48
  So the play that goes wrong is currently playing at New World Stages and NYC.
• 19:51
  So get your tickets now and we'll see you there.