John Rubinstein on 'Eisenhower,' Trump, Fosse, Sondheim & Williamstown Theatre Festival
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — It's a rainy Saturday afternoon in Columbus, Ohio, and John Rubinstein is driving to the Berkshires. He left his Los Angeles home a few days ago, and his next stop is Cleveland. Once he gets to Pittsfield, he readies for his return appearance as Dwight D. Eisenhower in "Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground," a one-man show Rubinstein first did at the Barrington Stage Company last summer.
The show has been brought back by rave reviews and popular demand; it opens Sept. 16 and runs through Sept. 26.
Rubinstein, who turns 80 in December, has been crisscrossing the country, doing the show for the past four years: "I can't wait to do it again and again and again," he said. "It's one of the great crowning pieces of luck of my career."
And what a career: "Crazy Like a Fox," "Family," numerous Broadway plays and musicals and TV movies and feature films and two Tony awards for "Pippin" (1972) and "Children of a Lesser God" (1980). A surprise many fans don't know: Rubinstein has scored the music to several films and TV shows, including "Jeremiah Johnson," "The Candidate," "The Dollmaker" and "China Beach."
During an exclusive interview over a 75-minute phone call, Rubinstein talks about liking Ike and loving "Eisenhower," as well as Donald Trump, Stephen Sondheim, Bob Fosse and the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
How did you hook up with 'Eisenhower?'
Director Peter Ellenstein sent me an email that said, "I have a play about Eisenhower, and I'd like to send it to you to consider." I read it. It was 40 pages long and single-spaced, one guy talking. I thought. "Jesus Christ, I don't know if anybody's gonna want to hear that, a two-hour monologue." But I liked it. I respected it. I found it fascinating but (a) I wasn't sure it would work as a play, (b) if I could memorize it and (c) if I could memorize it and it was a good play would anyone want to go see it? So I didn't commit myself at first. But Peter said, "Why don't you come and meet with me and the playwright, Richard Hellesson, and read the play out loud?"
You grew up during the Eisenhower years. Did that help you change your mind?
Yes. I remember him well. I even remember wearing an "I Like Ike" pin when I was in second grade, but I didn't know what the hell I was talking about. I listened to his voice on YouTube and a few of his speeches to get his cadence and rhythm and basic Midwestern dialect down. It wasn't a Rich Little imitation but enough of his voice. I didn't look anything like Eisenhower — but I am roughly his age and an old bald guy — and that's enough.
So I read the play out loud in Ike's voice and by the time I was done, we all looked at each other and — I don't know if I was the first person to say this — "this play has got to be done." It was moving, informative, funny and brilliantly written. In my humble opinion — and I don't use that world often — it's a masterpiece.
As a kid, you got to meet Ike, right?
Yes. A friend of my father, Sherman Adams, was his chief of staff, so Sherman arranged a meeting because my dad [renowned pianist Arthur Rubinstein] was performing a concert there. My parents and my sister and I went to the White House. I was 7 or 8. We toured through the White House then we came into this room where Eisenhower was meeting a bunch of people. I shook his hand and he said, "It's nice to see you, young man." He talked to my dad for a long time. He was one of the greatest presidents this country was lucky enough to have. He was what Joe Biden tried to be, a man who cared about the people, not just the people who voted for him. I believe if he ran today he would win. He would get us out of Trump's toilet.
What would Eisenhower think of Trump?
He would think he was a criminal and should put where he belongs — in jail.
Let's switch gears and talk about someone else you really liked: Bob Fosse. He directed you in your Broadway debut "Pippin," for which you won your first Tony. That was nearly 25 years ago. Does it bother you to go so far back?
If "Pippin" is always the first thing people mention — and certainly it will be in my obituary — that's great. I'm proud and happy people want to talk about it. It was crazy, ridiculous and I loved every second. "Pippin" was a project Bob made brilliant, and he allowed me to be part of it. Fosse was deeply intelligent; he loved to work. Loved it. That love was very quickly communicated to anyone who worked with or for him. What he did was beyond creative genius.
How about a few words on Sondheim?
I could talk a lot about him. I am not good at brevity. You used the word "genius" many times in relation to my father — Stephen was a genius. He changed the sound of Broadway. Young people are still trying to emulate and imitate his way of composing music. He was a charming, irascible, funny, fantastic guy. He wrote a song for me, "Growing Up," for the first revival of "Merrily We Roll Along." I am prouder of that than almost anything else in my career.
You have a long history with Williamstown.
Yes. My oldest sister, Eva, was an actress back in the '50s, then she married William Sloane Coffin Jr., a famous Presbyterian minister in the '60s and '70s — a wonderful, interesting guy. When they married, he was chaplain at Andover, where many of my friends from grade school went. Later, he became chaplain at Williams College for a bunch of years, and they had a beautiful house in Williamstown, raising their two children there. I often visited and I'd go hear Bill preach each Sunday. He was a huge name in Williamstown, so I spent plenty of time there. Did you know Bill was immortalized as the Rev. Sloane in the "Doonesbury" comic strip?
Then, in 1987, you moved on to the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
Nikos Psacharopoulos, the founder of the festival, invited me to Williamstown to perform in the restoration comedy "The Rover" with Christopher Reeve and Kate Burton. I ended up directing it, which launched my directing career. I later directed "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" and acted in a bunch of plays throughout the years.
Now the Williamstown Theatre Festival is closed ...
I am devastated. The Williamstown Theatre Festival was extremely dear and important to me in my career. Last summer, when I was at Barrington, I read the Williamstown Theatre Festival was doing all kinds of weird things as a festival ... cabaret and a play for two nights and something else. It wasn't the old Williamstown Theatre Festival with Broadway actors doing plays, but a new kind of theater fest. I was disappointed. If it is closing for good, that's terrible, terrible news. I am going to be 80 in a few months, and I indulge in memory. I'm an old doddering coot and to indulge in memories of the Theatre Festival as it was and to realize it's gone away and is not what it used to be is heartbreaking. I am very hurt.
"Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground" opens on Wednesday, Sept. 16, and runs through Sept. 26 at the Boyd-Quinson Theatre of the Barrington Stage Company. For tickets or more information, call 413-242-6411 or visit barringtonstageco.org.
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