VideoJohn Lithgow's New Role in Hillary and Clinton Is Less Bill Clinton Impression, More Shakespearean KingThe Tony Award winner plays Bill Clinton opposite Laurie Metcalf’s Hillary in Lucas Hnath's latest Broadway offering.
By
Ruthie Fierberg
April 04, 2019
Six-time Emmy winner and two-time Tony winner John Lithgow stopped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert April 3 to discuss his return to Broadway in the play Hillary and Clinton, currently in previews at the Golden Theatre.
Lithgow was last on Broadway in his solo show John Lithgow: Stories By Heart and just a year later returns to the Main Stem. “It’s just the thing that draws all actors to the theatre—it's interacting with the audience and being a member of an ensemble and a company that works together day in and day out,” he said of why he keeps coming back. “You’re living through the story at the same time your audience is experiencing it.”
The actor plays Bill Clinton in the new play from A Doll’s House, Part 2 playwright Lucas Hnath. The show also stars fellow Tony winner Laurie Metcalf as Hillary. “It's a political play, but much more a marriage play,” he explained. The show takes place during the New Hampshire primary in 2008 when Hillary Clinton was running against Barack Obama.
“Laurie and I make absolutely no effort to imitate Bill and Hillary, we are sort of a metaphor for them.
“Lucas, in the stage directions of his play says, ‘Don’t be tempted to imitate these people. Think about playing the role of Henry V or Richard III,’’ Lithgow continued. “He thinks about it in very Shakespearean terms. I completely agree. The minute I start doggedly imitating Bill Clinton, it becomes a Saturday Night Live sketch.”
Lithgow also discussed his latest movie, the horror film Pet Semetary, and his new book of poems about the current President called Dumpty.
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Look Back at John Lithgow’s Onstage Career
Look Back at John Lithgow’s Onstage Career
Playbill.com looks back at a stage career that spans over 45 years.
51 PHOTOS
John Lithgow and Kathryn Walker in White House Happening at Loeb Drama Center, 1967
John Lithgow as Higgins, with George Emch and Holly Villaire in the McCarter Theatre production of Pygmalion, 1970
John Lithgow and cast in Of Mice and Men, McCarter Theatre, 1970
George Ede, John Lithgow and Alan Castner in The Changing Room, 1973
John Lithgow with George Rose and Lynn Redgrave in My Fat Friend, 1974
The Fred Ebb Award recognizes excellence in musical theatre songwriting, by a songwriter or songwriting team that has not yet achieved significant commercial success.
