Ryan McCartan about the beautiful growing pain of the Great Gatsby: “I chose what was startled by me” | Broadway -Buzz

Ryan McCartan
(Photo by Sergio Villarini for Broadway.com)

Ryan McCartan was ready to deal with the 19-person ensemble from Stephen Sondheim’s old friends. The show, a Sondheim pastic that came to the Friedman Theater in spring, would bring him on stage with music theater lights like Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga. It would also be a relatively low way to return to the Broadway scene. When he at the same time offered the opportunity to follow Jeremy Jordan as the title star of The big gatsby At Broadway it felt like a cosmic joke.

“This is the best and worst thing that can happen to an actor: to receive the decisions,” said McCartan to Tamsen Fadal On The Broadway show. “We fight and fight so often – and we get one thing on the skin of our teeth. If you get two at the same time, there is a piece of it, like: ‘This is miserable. This is cruel. ‘”

McCartan-a 2011 Jimmy winner and Disney Channel-Veteran-made his first splash on stage as a silver voice psychopath JD in the off-broadway premiere of Heathers: The musical. Two years later he played Brad Majors in the Fox remake of The Rocky Horror picture showAnd two years later he gave his Broadway debut with an eight-month run as a fiyero in Evil. In February 2020 he returned to Broadway as Frozen‘S dreamy villain Hans, a job that …You guessed it …took less than a month.

With his typical tariff, which ends up somewhere between Angsty School Jungen and charismatic hunk, The big gatsby‘S tached antihero felt like a intimidating departure. “I started in this business when I was seven and now 31 years old,” he said to Fadal. “I still consider myself the child who is thrown a bone. And Gatsby is just like that, I mean, due to a better word, gatsby is so – –Adult. “”

In contrast to “a child from Minnesota”, he stands with the “refined and complicated” man, who was sure that the casting directors of the show were looking for in their next Gatsby. Regardless of whether methods already act or forget that Gatsby hides his own roots of North Dakota under a Central Atlantic accent and stacks of illegally earned money, McCartan decided that it was time to startExpand.

“I chose the thing that frightened me,” he said. “I know that was a good choice. And I also have the feeling that I will be handed over every day. I am so happy that I stay here. And I can’t believe that I stay here. Because it’s terrible. “

As so often, Sondheim’s texts are useful here …

Grow up
To understand that growth never ends
Like old dreams –
Some old dreams –
Like old friends