Broderick thinks latest stage role speaks volumes about detachment

on April 23, 2009 at 1:48 PM, updated April 23, 2009 at 1:52 PM
Matthew Broderick stars in the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of "The Philanthropist."

The Philanthropist. Where: American Airlines Theatre, 227 W. 42nd St., New York. When: Now in previews, opens Sunday. Through June 28. 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. How much: $66.50-$111.50. Call (212) 719-1300 or visit

NEW YORK -- What's the right word to describe "The Philanthropist," Christopher Hampton's 1970 play about a misunderstood philologist? A comedy? A satire? A spoof?

That and more, judging from a talk with Matthew Broderick, who is cast as Philip, a mild-mannered professor of language, or philology, at a cloistered British university. But after a prolonged rehearsal, and a preview performance that night in preparation for Sunday's Broadway opening, Broderick is beat and occasionally lapses into verbal slo-mo backstage at Roundabout Theatre Company's American Airlines Theatre.

A boyish 47, with some gray streaking his hair and '70-style sideburns, the actor is recharging for the evening ahead. There's a school board meeting downtown, where 6-year-old James -- his son with wife Sarah Jessica Parker -- attends kindergarten. Then curtain at 8. Today's mode of transportation is his bike, which will expend more energy because the Vespa's at home.

Although Parker is nearby -- shooting a film with Hugh Grant -- with his daytime rehearsals and her marathon hours, Broderick thinks it's been a little tough on James, but he's holding up just fine, thanks.

"Last night I ate after the show, so I was out fairly late," Broderick says of the parental juggling act. "I came home and the babysitter left, and I was just watching TV and his mother was shooting. So I was up after 1 in the morning and he came flying down the stairs and I said, 'What are you doing up?' And he said, 'I just wanted to see what the heck was happening.'"

Apparently humor runs in the family. It was one of the reasons Broderick -- who is an old hand at comedies by Neil Simon ("The Odd Couple," "Brighton Beach Memoirs") and Mel Brooks ("The Producers") -- was attracted to Hampton's spinoff of Moliere's "The Misanthrope." While Moliere's Alceste has zero tolerance for the hypocrisy he sees around him, Philip is a lover of mankind whose eager-to-please personality is downright maddening.

Broderick says these polar opposites are similar in at least one respect: "They tell the truth, and nobody can stand it."

Hampton, who wrote the play while in his early 20s, has said he was amazed that life at Oxford seemed "tranquil" despite the '60s banging on the ivy-covered walls. When, in "The Philanthropist," the British prime minister and cabinet are assassinated, and then terrorists begin murdering authors, it raises only eyebrows, not ire, within Philip's insular circle: Celia, his fiancee; Don, a fellow English professor; Braham, a puffed-up novelist; and Araminta, the campus cougar.

Under David Grindley's direction (he staged the play four years ago at London's Donmar Warehouse), Broderick is asked to subtly convey that when Philip is listening, he hears another layer of conversation -- the musicality or structure of the words themselves.

"I thought, there is something wrong with him that he can't understand what people mean and that he's so literal-minded," Broderick says of his character. "But it's a little more complicated than that because his problem is he's overly honest. He doesn't have a filter. He says, 'I have an anxiety to please people,' and that's his problem. He says what's right for that person."

Grindley describes Philip as "quiet and passive," traits Broderick has played to the hilt since his earlier, teen-rebel roles in "Ladyhawke" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." (Speaking of tired people, he's still asked by passersby if it's his day off.) But with every job as a Leo Bloom (the meek accountant of "The Producers") or Cooter (equally meek government geek on "30 Rock"), there's a project that capitalizes on either his youthful mojo or instincts for quirky characters. He's done voices for "The Lion King" and "The Tale of Despereaux" and take-notice work in indies; his latest, "Wonderful World" with Sanaa Lathan, is currently screening at the Tribeca Film Festival.

"He seems mild and meek," Broderick says of "The Philanthropist's" anagram-obsessed wordsmith, "but in some ways he's quite brave because he doesn't let almost anything pass. You could look at it like the character is waking up in this play and realizing he's going to be alone in a room if he doesn't participate and say what he wants."