What is it about men who play Percy? Peter was the fourth Percy I interviewed, and they were all charming, sweet, and positively delightful to speak with. I first met Peter on the night of his second performance in the role, after he had made his debut earlier that afternoon in the matinee. I doubt he remembers much of that evening since he was pretty much floating above the ground, but I remember being struck by how thrilled the company was for him. It seemed that each member of the cast made it a point to congratulate him after the show. They were all so happy that he had finally gotten a chance to go on after being with them for almost four months. It was such a warm show of affection that it impressed me greatly. Now that I've gotten to know Peter a little bit better, I can understand why.

NR: Let's start. Where did you grow up?

PF: I grew up just outside New York in Montclair, New Jersey. Born and bred. It was great.

NR: Did you go into New York City a lot?

PF: All the time. My dad worked for NBC. He started as the director of a radio program called Monitor which was David Brinkley and Chet Huntley. Then he became Director of Operations for Radio and when TV became the big thing he started working with the affiliates out in the country. He had an office in 30 Rockefeller Center for 45 years. So, yeah, I was in the city almost every week seeing something. I loved it.

NR: Is that what made you decide to become a performer?

PF: Yeah. I did a show when I was nine years old. I was in You're A Good Man Charlie Brown. It was in public school and the music teacher said, "I think you'd like doing this." I really didn't have any idea I wanted to do it until I did it, and then I never stopped. It was one of those turning points. I just thought, "OK, I'm going to keep doing this."

NR: What type of training did you get?

PF: I went through Montclair High School and then I went to Northwestern University for theater. That was great. I learned to do everything there - direct, perform, produce. It was fantastic. Then when I got out of school I came straight back to New York.

NR: Were you familiar with The Scarlet Pimpernel before you came here?

PF: No. I hadn't seen it, nor had I read the book. I'd been out of town a lot doing a lot of shows, so I hadn't seen it before. When I found out I had an audition I came to see it and saw Doug (Sills). I thought he was just fantastic. I really liked the show. I thought it was clever and funny.

NR: The first time you auditioned was for SP3, right?

PF: That's right. This last version. This was my very first experience with it but I had been out of town working quite a bit over the last two years at different regional theaters.

NR: You're not listed in the program as a standby. You're listed as an understudy for Percy and some of the Bounders. Is that correct?

PF: Yeah. They condensed Bryan Batt's old position, which was the standby, with a swing position. So, I actually standby for Ron (Bohmer), but then I cover Russell Garrett (Elton), Ken Land (Dewhurst), and Matt Shepard (Farleigh).

NR: Have you ever gone on for any of them?

PF: I went on for Russell.

NR: Really?

PF: One and a half times.

NR: One and a half? Did he get sick in the middle?

PF: He's our dance captain and he wanted to watch the show, so he watched while I did. That was great. I actually liked playing that role quite a bit. It was fun. Then one night, I was sitting down here (lower lobby) for the first act, as I usually do. I always go back at intermission just to check, and Nancy, I'm walking across the stage behind the curtain and I hear over the loudspeaker, "Ladies and gentlemen of the company, Peter Flynn will be playing Elton for the second act of the show." No one had told me so I literally put down my reading and said, "OK, I guess I'd better go get some make-up." I got my make-up and I went up to Russell's room. He had gotten something in his contact and it was really bothering his eye. He felt OK but he couldn't see in the light. So, in the fifteen minutes that it took for intermission, they got him out of his costume, got all of my costumes up to his room, I put on make-up, got dressed, went down to the wings, put my wig on, and literally got to my place as the curtain went up. There I was playing Elton for the second act.

NR: Bryan told me once that for some reason his pager didn't go off, and he found out very late. He had to go flying into the theater.

PF: Oh, yeah. It happened to me last week. I had just finished understudy rehearsal last Thursday and I left to go down to the lower east side to run an errand that I had to do. On the way back I stopped at my house to say "hi" to my wife. It was around ten to seven. I literally put my key in the door and the minute she heard the key she came to the door and said, "You're on tonight! You have to leave!" So, I turned on my heels and came right back.

NR: You have to be here during every performance?

PF: Mm hmm.

NR: What on earth do you do?

PF: I do a lot of stuff. As you know, I direct. In fact, before I got this job, that's mostly what I was doing. I was directing a show at Lincoln Center, at Avery Fisher Hall. I directed a workshop of a new play at the Williamstown Theater Festival this past summer. When I'm not on I read a lot of scripts. I'm directing another show at Playwrights Horizons, and another script at York Theatre before Christmas - readings of these plays. So, this was actually what attracted me to the job because when I'm on, I'm playing a great role, or I'm not on and I get to use the time for my directing.

NR: That's great. You really haven't played Percy often, have you?

PF: No. I've done Percy five times now.

NR: And you've been with the company since the summer tour.

PF: I know. I started in June. You know, it's for a short amount of time. I told Ron that. I said, "If I were in your shoes I would be the same way because you're in the part for such a short amount of time. I totally would love to do it." So, yes, I come down here and I read. Sometimes I make phone calls. When we were in rehearsals for A Wedding Album at Lambs Theatre, I would come here. I would call the cast and give notes over the phone.

NR: That's a good use of your time. I was wondering, because there's no where else you could be but here. There's no backstage area in this theater.

PF: When we first got here and it was nice out, there's an alley that's right behind the theater. I used to go there.

NR: Where do the swings go?

PF: Same place. They either come down here, up to the alley, or in their own dressing room.

NR: Have you tried to add your own little touches to Percy? It must be hard since you don't do it often.

PF: Yeah, I have. I'm more of a comedian than I am a hero or a singer, so I totally go the route of some of his comedy. As far as my own personal touches, I don't think there's anything specific as much as when you put a different person in a role, then obviously you're going to have differences between people. I think Ron's created the perfect hero type. You watch Ron in that role and it's like watching a superhero. I find that admirable. Then I think about Douglas and the mix of romantic and comedy. So, I think there's something there for everybody. There are personal touches but I wouldn't be able to point them out specifically. Ron and I have never talked about this, but I think the thing I concentrate on the most when I'm in the part is the love for Marguerite. Throughout the entire show you can really tell that he's struggling with all of this love he has for his wife and not being able to give it to her until the footbridge. Then he goes into high gear wanting to make sure that love works out. That's about it. I'm sure there are things if you were to watch it.

NR: Actually, I did see you and I was surprised because I thought you were very similar to Ron's interpretation. I was wondering if you had rehearsed together over the summer.

PF: Well, yeah. The understudies got called in the same time they did. A lot of it is dictated by our director, Bobby (Longbottom) who's asked for a certain feel to the show.

NR: Bryan was very different from Douglas in a lot of ways, but again, he did the role something like forty times. When I saw you, I wondered if Bobby was being stricter now, or if Bryan just got away with things.

PF: I don't think it's a question of being strict as much as Bobby knew, when he started with this cast, that he had a fresh company. Before anybody started doing their own thing, he really set a very solid foundation of where the entire company came from and where the story was being told from. He was very clear about that - what the story was and who was telling it when, so that ensemble member, lead, we all knew where the story was going to go. I thought that was pretty great.

NR: You're Wedding Album, or any of these. How does that come together? Can you take me through the process?

PF: As far as directing?

NR: Yeah. Are you doing several at a time?

PF: Well, I've never done more than one at a time but they sort of bump up back to back. It's very interesting how a new play or musical gets started. You have to find the right people at the right time. It's just like the business. Everything ultimately will come down to timing...and money. I actually saw a reading of A Wedding Album two years ago and it was great. Some friends of mine were in it, and they're in the show now. They knew it was time to do it for people in New York for money. So, like with any new play or new musical, you put your cast together and get your director, and then it's all about press and getting the right people there. It's who knows this person and who knows the producers of this show. You try to find producers that produce things that are similar to the thing you're doing. So, we started looking at a lot of Off Broadway producers thinking that would be the way to go. Once you get the reading up and running, you try to check with people and see how they like it. We actually did have somebody like it so we are going ahead with a very small production of it in February I believe. That's the next step. We'll put up a very scaled down production of it, at a theater here in town for a month, Tuesday through Sunday. That will be the hard sell. That's when we go...instead of putting all of our eggs into one night like that night at The Lambs, we then have a month to bring several producers to it. (Note: Peter has since told me that his production of A Wedding Album will be performed at a New York theater from February 3 - 20. Further details will be posted on The Scarlet Pimpernel Message Board and through the League.)

NR: Will that be open to the public?

PF: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. They want to come and see a typical night. I really think that something like A Wedding Album has really sturdy legs. I think it will sell.

NR: The night I saw it, there were a lot of actors in the audience and it seemed like there were a lot of inside jokes in the show.

PF: There were. Especially in A Wedding Album, there are a lot of theater references.

NR: Is that something that was just there for that night, for that audience, or would they include those jokes for a general audience?

PF: They would put them for a general audience.

NR: Would a general audience get them?

PF: Sometimes yes, sometimes no. What I like about a play like A Wedding Album...somebody came up to me afterwards and said, "I knew there were inside jokes about theater in it, but I felt like there were inside jokes for everybody - married people, anybody who's ever gotten married and planned a wedding, been a part of a wedding, that sort of thing." As much as there were theater jokes, there were also jokes for other people, and you sort of space them along evenly. My fun that night was watching this clump of people laugh at something and two or three seconds later it sort of rippled through the audience as people got it. That's just the best. That's what you hope for. If the audience isn't going to fall out together laughing, then five or six people here or there will get it, and then all of a sudden people start thinking, "What was that?" So, those jokes would definitely be in there for a general audience and it's just luck of the draw. Inside jokes become dangerous when a play's made of them and I don't think that's the case with A Wedding Album.

NR: Do you prefer directing over acting?

PF: Oh, that's a tough question. I did...until I did this show! (laughs)

NR: It helps that this is your Broadway debut.

PF: Yes, exactly, so it's that childhood dream fulfilled. It's playing a swashbuckler who also gets to be a clown.

NR: And you get that audience response that's just for you.

PF: Absolutely. And that single bow...when my parents came I thought they were going to fall over when they saw just me on stage for that final bow.

I think ultimately I will end up doing more directing than performing. If anything, because there's just something indescribably wonderful about starting with a seed of an idea - a thought or a script for a playwright, and having a perfect idea of where I want to go with it, seeing how it could be on stage. And then collaborating with designers and actors and producers and, in the best of all possible worlds, having all of them say, "Yes, I see where you're going, but what if we did this?" Then all of a sudden, I get what I thought I was going to get at the very end, but in a way that looks completely different than I thought, or with people that I didn't know I was going to have. Ultimately it's the collaboration that just turns me on and gets me out of bed every day thinking, "I'm going to work with some great people today and I wonder where we're going to end up at the end." There's nothing like it.

NR: Now, your wife (Andrea Burns) just did the tour of Company.

PF: She did.

NR: Is that hard when she's touring?

PF: (groan) Ugh! Is it hard!

NR: I saw you when you raced up to Hartford in the rain.

PF: Oh my gosh! Yeah, it's pretty tough. Yeah. It's extremely difficult. We got married a little over three years ago and we're still head over heels. It's the best part of life. Really. We just have a great time together. So, it's very difficult being away from each other. We have a standing rule that we don't go more than three weeks apart however we can arrange it.

NR: In that tour they did a week here or there and then they were home.

PF: That's right, they were home for awhile so that worked out perfectly. When I went away when we were out on the road this summer, she had a week off right in the middle of mine so I was able to see her. Somehow we put it out to life that we only want to be three weeks apart and it always works out. But the more we work and the more we live together, the more we realize that it's more about staying together and trying to stay home.

NR: Have you performed together?

PF: We met performing together. We met seven years ago in a European tour of West Side Story playing Tony and Maria. We were both dating other people at the time so we became great friends. Then two years later I finally said, "OK, I think I'm in love with you. Stay with me." Two years after that we got married.

NR: Would you like to work together or do you think that might be too much togetherness?

PF: Oh, yeah. We always look for ways to work together.

NR: You don't feel like you have nothing else to talk about at the end of the day?

PF: Oh no. Not at all. We have so much to talk about! We would LOVE to work together. Actually I've directed her. We've worked together a couple of times performing and I've directed her as well. Either way works terrific. I think she's a incredibly gifted actor.

NR: She was wonderful. We went to see Company because we know Mark (McGrath). That was an extra bonus when you posted on The Scarlet Pimpernel Message Board that your wife was in the cast too.

PF: Yeah. Small world.

NR: (laughing) I will never forget your face when you walked out of the door in Hartford and saw Pimpernel jackets.

PF: Oh, I know! I thought, "Whoa!"

NR: (laughing) Now, did that scare you?

PF: (laughing) No, not at all. Then of course I put it together that you were there to see Mark.

NR: Since you didn't know anything about the show, I suppose you didn't know anything about the League before you got here either.

PF: No, I didn't.

NR: Was that a surprise?

PF: It was, and you know, you are all the talk of the show when you come in. They say, "The League are these people that come." And there are so many different kinds of you. I was told, "There's somebody who has costumes, and there's somebody who always does baked goods, and there's somebody who does interviews." (laughing) It was like student government, like you're going to Pimpernel High and you have to get introduced to the student council.

NR: (laughing) Well, I hope you're not too afraid of us!

PF: Oh, no, not at all. When someone asks me about it, I think it's ultimately great. It's not like we're promoting people to smoke crack. It's such a proponent of live theater. No matter how small the groups are that go, all of a sudden there is this outcropping of people who are wild for live theater again. We've needed that for twenty years.

NR: Plus, because of this, you told us about the reading. I had always wanted to see a reading and I finally got my chance.

PF: Right. Exactly. Hopefully you'll be able to follow the process.

NR: And Jim Hindman told me that when he does Pete `n Keely, hopefully he'll have a little audience that will go see it.

PF: Totally.

NR: It's been wonderful. It's very win-win.

PF: Exactly. It's helpful on both sides. We have an established audience that we can call on.

NR: What do you like to do when you're not working? (laughing) Are you ever not working?

PF: Right now when I'm not performing I'm directing. When I'm not doing that, we love to travel together. Andrea and I love to travel. Her mom's side of the family is from Venezuela. In fact Andrea's first generation stateside on her mom's side of the family, so there's lots of family to travel to. Because we met each other in Europe we'd like to go back and travel there. If we do have a day in which we're both off, we'll get a car and go to a bed and breakfast - just get away. I love to travel.

NR: Do you have any dream roles you'd like to play?

PF: Oh, Lord! A whole slew of them! All of them are still out of my league age-wise, which is a good thing. I'd love to play Sweeney Todd at some point, Juan Peron in Evita.

NR: Not Che?

PF: I've played Che and he was terrific. I would gladly play him again. There are a couple of Sondheim roles - George in Sunday in the Park, mostly older guys. I think since I was eight I've known that I was meant to be older in this business. The older I get, the more I feel like I'm coming into my own. The more I'm in the business, the more I find shows that I'd like to direct as much as I'd like to perform. I'd love to direct A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim. I'm totally turned on by new plays which I didn't know I would be as a director. It's about finding the "Next American Classic." (laughs)

NR: Have you decided if you're doing the tour?

PF: I'm not sure yet. It's still very much up in the air. I've told them that I didn't want to go out as a swing, so it will depend on if there's a place that's appropriate for me on stage, the future of the shows that I'm directing. It's about which strikes first. It's amazing how things can boil down to the next month, what this show does, what these plays do.

NR: Well, good luck.

PF: Thanks.

Peter has since told me that he was offered a role in The Scarlet Pimpernel tour but he turned it down to stay in New York and continue with his directing. Hopefully a lot of people will turn out to see A Wedding Album when it goes up in February. It's a very funny show, and a chance to see how a play develops from one of its early stages. I wish Peter the best with it and all of his other projects.

Questions suggested by:

Jan Combopiano, Amy Lovett, Leona Hoegsberg, Susan Luchey, Jody Uyanik, Lauren Teweles, Lois and Elizabeth Colpo, Laura Cutler, Colleen Rosati