Barrymore by William Luce

Got this idea to do this play while looking at a photo from a show I did a few years ago, as Saunders, in Lend Me a Tenor.
I saw Christopher Plummer play John Barrymore on Broadway in March 1997 and thought it was great. He won a Tony Award. I had already reluctantly accepted the fact that I reached the point in my life where I’d have to play older character roles. By this point, I had also played Neils Bohr in Copenhagen: 

and Mr. Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors:

John Barrymore (1882-1942) was one of the most talented and interesting people ever. I became a fan back four years earlier when I was researching for the role of Barrymore's ghost in I Hate Hamlet.

Since I had already produced True West, I knew I had to produce Barrymore. You get tired of the routine after so many years of waiting for a local theater to do a play you’d want to act in, then audition and think, “God, I hope I get it. I hope I get it.” Sometimes you have to do it yourself. It’s a pain in the ass and a lot of work, but that’s the price of doing what you love.

There was a preview performance at the Baton Rouge Little Theater’s Second Stage in September 2006.

We went to Nice, France for my birthday in October and I performed Act One of it there in a hotel room for my step-dad and his wife.

There were performances at Ascension Community Theater in Gonzales in October 2006 and then at the Baton Rouge Dinner Playhouse in January 2007. One more performance at Baton Rouge Little Theater in May 2007. We invited the theater reviewer to the shows in October. The response was favorable.

Nick Cardona's 'Barrymore' a tour de force
Ascension theater play to get encore in BR in January
By GEORGE MORRIS
Advocate staff writer
Published: Oct 26, 2006

“Barrymore” is an actor’s play. But is it an audience’s play?

Well, it helps if you’re interested in an old theatrical dynasty — or just enjoy watching a really good individual performance.

Nick Cardona plays the title role in this play about John Barrymore, the sibling of Lionel and Ethel Barrymore, who dominated stage and, later, screen, in the early 20th century.

John Barrymore initially resisted entering the family business. When he did begin acting, he became popular in light roles until playwright Edward Sheldon convinced him that he had greater acting power. Barrymore earned great acclaim for his performances in Shakespeare’s “Richard III” and “Hamlet.”

Offstage, however, Barrymore was a boozehound and skirt-chaser; the latter propensity contributed to four divorces and the former to illness and memory loss.

The play opens in 1942, the last year of his life, by which time he had become almost a caricature of himself, who alternately accepted his status with wry humor and longed to recapture his old glory.

There is a delicious irony in William Luce’s play — it asks an actor to be what John Barrymore had ceased to be. Cardona delivers. Jack Wilson directs.

When “Barrymore” opened its weekend run at the Ascension Community Theater, a question was posed to Baton Rouge theater veteran Jerry Leggio at intermission: Was there another local actor who could pull off this role? He couldn’t come up with a name. The silence said everything.

Those unfamiliar with Cardona must not attend area theater. He has performed in pretty much every company in pretty much every conceivable role — dramatic, comedic, leading man, flunky, singing, dancing, you name it. There have been times when it seemed the laws of physics were all that prevented him from performing simultaneously in different theaters.
“Barrymore” expands Cardona’s credentials. It is, essentially, a one-man play (Johnny Worsham speaks unseen as Frank, the off-stage prompter.).

Such plays test the actor’s powers of memorization, since there are no other actors whose own dialogue provides cues, and the ability to command the audience’s attention. Cardona passes both tests with flying colors. He personifies both the wise-cracking, dissolute, past-his-prime Barrymore and, in flashes, the actor who made Richard III come alive.

Audiences who want a glimpse of this bygone theater giant will get another chance in January when Cardona brings “Barrymore” to the Baton Rouge Dinner Playhouse.

Advocate staff photo by HEATHER MCCLELLAND
Nick Cardona performs a scene from ‘Barrymore,’ a one-man play about actor John Barrymore.