BWW Interviews: James Barry of Arden's NEXT TO NORMAL on Music, Mental Illness and Craft Beer

James Barry, critically-acclaimed "Male Soloist" in BLOODY, BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON on Broadway, is opening September 27, 2012 in Brian Yorkey's and Tom Kitt's NEXT TO NORMAL at Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia.  This year, he performed in MAN OF LA MANCHA at University of Connecticut's Connecticut Repertory Theatre with Terrence Mann, and followed it with A THOUSAND CLOWNS at Berkshire Theatre Festival before arriving in Philadelphia. 

We talked to the performer, who will be appearing as husband Dan, at the Arden about his unexpected musical theatre career, his work at Berkshire Theatre Festival, thoughts on the relevance of musicals about mental illness, and the joys of craft beer. 

MR: Welcome to Philadelphia. 

JB: Thanks.  Philadelphia's a great theatre town and a great place for craft beer.  My friends have all been making recommendations to me about places to check out. 

MR: So you're a craft beer lover. 

JB: Yeah.  But I've given up drinking during rehearsal and taken up licorice tea.  I'm doing Thayer's Slippery Elm and Ricola Honey Lemon Echinacea lozenges. 

MR:  You're keeping your throat in shape for singing? 

JB: Yes – and this is all strange because I never set out to be a musical actor. 

MR: But you were critically acclaimed as Male Soloist in BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON.  You certainly do sing rock – were you destined for garage band greatness? 

JB: Yeah, and I don't think that dream will ever die for me.  I don't think I'll ever make money at it.  I never saw rock music and theater as working together for me.  I wish I could sing like Gordon MacRae but I have more in common with Joe Cocker.  And I wasn't obsessed with RENT – I still had it in my head then that I couldn't do musicals.  I'd been a serious dramatic actor for most of my career.  Now that I'm singing on stage, it kills me that I can't dance.  I've lost so many parts because of that, and I was so sore after auditioning for AMERICAN IDIOT, which I didn't get. 

MR: BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON must have been a boost to your career. 

JB: That show was an enormous boon for my career.  I was having some frustrating years in New York, and then it was suggested that I go to the audition at the Public [Theater].  I wasn't expecting a Broadway credit so I was beside myself to even be there.  I was pinching myself.  I was a very star-struck actor before the show, but meeting so many star actors backstage cured me of that. 

MR: You're a University of Connecticut graduate; who was responsible for your theatre training? 

JB: My department head was Gary English and the performance director was Eric Hill.  Of course, Vincent Cardinal is heading the program now.  I was always into acting, though.  I really enjoyed it in elementary school and as soon as people started praising me for it, I figured, "hey, I'm onto something here!"  My parents have been incredibly supportive – they've been really supportive of all of their kids' creative interests. 

MR: Your non-musical career's included work at the Irish Rep and the Irish Rep Chicago.  Do you have a personal affinity for Irish theater?

JB: I have a personal affinity for all things Irish.  Ireland was where I proposed to my wife.  And I love traditional Irish music.  Everything Irish is a huge part of my life.  I love it there.  I like my rock music English, my folk music Irish, and my beer American. 

MR: BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON and NEXT TO NORMAL are certainly drastically different – one was a historical fiction about a man and his impact on a nation, and the other is a story about the impact of mental illness on one family.  Do you have a better feel for the scope of one than of the other? 

JB: There are broad and narrow aspects to both shows.  In BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, the effect was broad, but the show focused narrowly on one man and certain incidents in his life.  In NEXT TO NORMAL you have the focus on one family, but in the giant scope of Western culture, you hope to remove the stigma of mental illness. 

MR: What attracted you to NEXT TO NORMAL?  It's one of the few musicals to ever win a Pulitzer Prize – is it Yorkey's writing that's the draw, or is it the music?

JB: It's all of it – initially I was concerned I was too young to play Dan, but I'm a father in real life, and I get it.  There are moments in the score where I choke up during rehearsal and can't get through it.  And vocally, it's my Mount Everest. 

MR: And of course there's no pressure in developing a character originally created by Brian d'Arcy James, either. 

JB: I know, I know.  I've had agents tell me I should play his little brother in something.  We kind of have a resemblance. 

MR: Tonya Pinkins has said she thinks that plays like THE WILD PARTY, which she was in, were the precursors to NEXT TO NORMAL.  Her thought is that THE WILD PARTY made it easier to have a show in which there is no grand transformation at the end of the show.  Do you think that no one in NEXT TO NORMAL experiences any great transformation? 

JB: I think there's a ton of transformation.  I think with Diana it's obvious.  Her decision to leave is a huge transformation.  For Dan to let go of everything he's suppressed about his son is enormous.  Transformation is what makes the payoff of the play work.  This is a significant play.  I'm thinking of THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES.  No one's done a musical about the effects of alcoholism on people's lives.  NEXT TO NORMAL also addresses the pharmaceutical industry.  Mental illness, prescription drugs – these are serious issues for our culture.  Of course there's transformation. 

MR: This is your first time working at the Arden?

JB: Yes.  I haven't worked here, or with anyone in this cast, before. But I've had friends who have worked here at the Arden, like Richard Ruiz, who was at University of Connecticut with me.  And I'm thrilled to work with this cast – everyone in this show just has staggering resumes. 

MR: You're staying in Philadelphia, of course, not making an I-95 commute. 

JB: Right, and my wife is here right now.  But she's just been cast in a show up at the Berkshire, so she has to go up and do that.  Her parents are babysitting. 

MR: Actor Robert Picardo is a Philadelphia native.  He once told me he'd had an evening performance here in Philly and a soap in New York at the same time, and a car that drove I-95 every day between the two until one of the gigs ended. 

JB: Now, that's commitment – that's insane!

NEXT TO NORMAL opens at the Arden Company, 40 North Second Street, Philadelphia, on September 27 and runs through November 4.  Tickets are available by calling 215-922-1122 or by visiting www.ardentheatre.org.

Photo Credit: Arden Theatre Company