“The making of” has always been a curiosity of the American public. Whether through documentaries or fictionalized features and television series — or today’s YouTube shorts and social media bites — audiences seem to yearn for a behind-the-scenes look at how performing art is made. Over the years, theater has gotten this behind-the-scenes treatment — from “Cast Album: Company” to NBC’s soapy “Smash.” Now, a new series takes a whack at the genre, but places it in a fabricated version of small-town Millersburg. The theater viewers will see inside this time is regional. “American Classic,” an original streaming series made for MGM+, premiered on March 1. Five episodes are currently available.
Created by Michael Hoffman and Tony Award winner Bob Martin, “American Classic” begins when famous actor Richard Bean, played by actual famous actor Kevin Kline, has a public meltdown and, just a few hours later, learns of the death of his mother. He returns home to Millersburg, where his career began at his family’s local playhouse. Much to his dismay, that prestigious venue has now become a dinner theater. Bean is determined to rescue it by putting on a production of “Our Town.”
Hoffman and Martin serve as executive producers alongside Ellen Fairey. All three are also writers on the series; Hoffman and Tricia Brock direct the eight-episode dramedy.
“American Classic” started out as a project for only Hoffman and Martin. “[Producer] Leslie Urdang reached out to me and pitched me the idea for the show: a seasoned Broadway performer has a public meltdown and then returns to the family business, a small regional theater in Pennsylvania. Strangely, I was working on a similar idea at the time,” Martin told Broadway News. “It was shortly after that that Michael Hoffman and I started shaping the story. There were several delays along the way, and when we finally reached production, my life became very complicated because of two Broadway shows [“Smash” and “Boop”] that I’ve been working on for years coming in at the same time. That’s when we hired Ellen Fairey to be the third partner in the project. She and I hit it off immediately.”
Fairey spent her adult life in Chicago, “where theater is in the water along with politics, sports, food, music,” she said. “It’s just part of the life of the city, and it will find you whether you’re looking for it or not.” Soon, Fairey began writing plays of her own. When she was asked to help out on “American Classic,” she felt it was a perfect fit. “I fell in love with the two episodes that had been written (the pilot and episode 2),” Fairey said, “and we got to work breaking the rest of the season and writing while Bob ‘Betty Booped’ and ‘Smashed.’”
Here, the trio dig into the details of “American Classic,” their cast of Tony Award winners and making a TV show about regional theater.
Broadway News: What was the kernel of an idea that has now grown into “American Classic”?
Bob Martin: The kernel of the idea was that a Broadway veteran, struggling with age, frustration and constant criticism, has a public meltdown that brings his career to a crashing halt. He returns home to reconnect with his love of the theater, to find himself again. Because of his success, he had become socially isolated. The return home was also a chance to reunite with his family. This initial idea is really a premise. The show is about finding yourself, about family, reconnection and how art — low art or high — can heal.
Michael Hoffman: “American Classic” is just that. It’s conceived as a long movie and looks back to classic Hollywood comedy makers from Frank Capra to Mike Nichols. The show was conceived as a comedy but also wants to explore ideas of family, community and the value of storytelling to restore us. None of this asks for quick cuts, broad comedy or fast-paced action. We needed to believe the set of values and the quality of character writing would be enough to pull the audience in. Once they were in we believed they would recognize themselves and their lives and stay with us.
The tone of the show is quite gentle... tender. It takes its time to unfold. Tell me about finding the tone and choosing to make a series that feels more gradual and measured.
Martin: The tone did evolve. A season of serialized television is one long story. It's a massive undertaking. You write the scripts, you budget the shoot, you cast, you push through pre-production, but you really don't discover the show until you start filming. As we started to see cuts, we began to adjust the tone, which was initially quite broad. With [head of MGM] Michael Wright’s guidance, we made it gentler and more human. We started to realize that there was great power in these small, human moments and that they told a greater story.
Fairey: I think early on the tone leaned a bit more into “hard comedy,” but the more we wrote, the clearer it became that there was this kind of ambient melancholy running along underneath it all. This often happens with new series — the show reveals what it wants to be through the writing, all the way through production and post. I think we’re all really pleased with where we landed.
You have an incredible company of actors. In the first 10 minutes we see Kevin Kline, Jessica Hecht, Stephen Spinella, Aaron Tveit and Tony Shalhoub. Your regular cast has Len Cariou, Laura Linney, Jon Tenney… Tell me a bit about the casting process.
