In the next 830 words, I face an innumerable challenge: holding your attention. My competition: your Blackberry, gchat, YouTube, something cute that just walked by, or maybe the circa ’88 photo of one Barnard alum, Cynthia Nixon. (I never said I was above name dropping.)
Just before spring break, I had the pleasure of speaking on the phone with Nixon, BC ’88, about her role in Lisa Loomer’s new comedy, Distracted. Playing at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre, Nixon plays Mama—a mother distraught by her son’s diagnosis with ADHD, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. As her character seeks the advice of numerous professionals and gets lost in the quagmire of literature (à la DSM IV), she wonders what being given the label of ADHD actually means in our hyperactive, over-stimulated society.
“I wouldn’t say I’m an ADD person, but I’m a very fast-paced multi-tasker,” said the native New Yorker. “That part of the character really resonated with me.” Nixon, herself a mother of two, balances parenting with her eight-shows-a-week performance schedule. She assured me that she’s always been, well, on the go. Nixon even left her graduation early and hopped the 1 train in order to make a matinee of Romeo and Juliet, in which she played the title role.
Booking professional gigs since age 12, “I earned money to pay for college—that was ostensibly part of the reason I started acting,” said Nixon. During her first year at Barnard, the English major made theater news when she performed simultaneously in two Broadway shows (Hurlyburly and The Real Thing). “I had been doing both plays separately for a while, and then I did them together. But I actually quit in December from both plays because I wanted a few weeks to study for my finals,” she said.
Although Nixon attended Hunter College High School in Manhattan, it took some time for her to adjust to the demands of college life. Geology labs put a kink in her carefully crafted schedule, but the then-ingénue managed to organize her classes so that she could continue to act professionally and maintain her full-time student status.
“It was crazy,” she said. “Monday in the theater is your day off, so I would have classes all day. Then I would try and do no classes after two on Tuesdays and Thursdays so that people could rehearse me in the afternoon.” Due to matinee scheduling, Nixon also avoided courses that met on Wednesdays.
Unfortunately, the registrar could not provide me with a comprehensive list of Nixon’s classes, citing issues of student confidentiality, but Nixon’s activities began to generate considerable buzz 10 years later after she was cast as the no-nonsense red head, Miranda Hobbes, in HBO’s Sex and the City.
Distracted co-star Josh Stamberg made a guest appearance in the fourth episode of the popular HBO sitcom in 1998. “We had half a scene together on Sex in the City,” said Stamberg. “I remember it being a really fun, late, NY night of shooting and having absolutely no idea that the show would become this megahit. I just knew that I was surrounded by beautiful women and calling it ‘work’...not terrible.”
Stamberg first became interested in Distracted after seeing the world premiere in L.A. By happy coincidence, he was later approached by director Mark Brokaw for the part of the Dad after Nixon had already been cast as Mama. Learning that he would be starring opposite the Tony Award-winning actress was “one of the major draws” for Stamberg. “I’ve admired her work for a long time,” he said.
Nixon spoke fondly of the rehearsal process for Distracted, commenting that the cast and creative team were constantly working to tweak the script and hone performances. “In theater you really have to build a house that you can live in,” she said. “You have to have a thing that you return to night after night, week after week that will support you.”
Careening through scenes, Nixon especially appreciates the fragmented, stop-and-start structure of the play. As actors don multiple personas while projections of Google searches and the nightly news flash on and off moveable backdrops, Distracted provides a cultural commentary that transcends one family’s story of dealing with ADD. If we’re sinking in a tub of information, then it seems as though we’ve got just enough time for the headlines, and even those better go down easy.
If you’re still tuned in, here’s the dish on what Nixon’s into and the star’s not-so future projects. The stage-o-philic actress gets giddy discussing this season’s theatrical offerings, so what does she recommend? “I saw the Garden of Earthly Delights and I thought it was just amazing,” Nixon said.
And while Distracted bows in May, the actress recently allayed rumors that she would be returning to the Great White Way in a musical incarnation of Sex and the City. Who’s behind the gossip mill, you ask? Probably some twittering lunatic, no doubt.
As you were, dear reader, as you were.
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