Stacy Keach reveals the complexity of Nixon in the riveting play ``Frost/Nixon''
The funniest line wasn’t obvious to actor Stacy Keach when he first read the script for the play ``Frost/Nixon.'' It’s a peak moment, when Nixon says, ``When the president does it, it’s legal.''
``I didn’t know it would be that funny, but it gets a huge laugh, the biggest in the show,'' said Keach, who stars as Nixon in the national tour that runs Jan. 27 to Feb. 8 at The Colonial Theatre in Boston. ``It’s not a laugh of ‘ha-ha.’ It’s a laugh of truth. There’s the recognition that our current president is very much in keeping with that whole thinking of being entitled and having your own set of rules.''
That parallel, along with the recent release of the film ``Frost/ Nixon,'' make the stage production particularly timely and relevant. Based on interviews British talk show host David Frost conducted with Richard Nixon in 1977, the play by Peter Morgan is a fascinating look at the president who sought to rehabilitate himself three years after his resignation and the interviewer who elicited from Nixon something no one else had.
``It plays like a thriller, like a verbal boxing match between Richard Nixon and David Frost,'' said Keach, 67, winner of Obie and Drama Desk awards, and known for a multitude of roles including Detective Mike Hammer in ``Mike Hammer'' television series and the lead role in ``King Lear'' at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.
For Keach, the challenge was to reveal a man whom he calls a ``tragic figure,'' not just to impersonate him – though the actor’s rumbling voice sounds uncannily similar.
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``I have to assimilate some of Nixon’s behaviors and vocal characteristics, but that isn’t the measure of success,'' said Keach, who studied the original interviews and other footage of Nixon, known for his slumped shoulders and furrowed, sweaty brow. ``The journey is to reveal his soul, to capture the essence of his character, to humanize him. It’s not a whitewash or to gain sympathy for him, but to get a deeper understanding.''
``Frost/Nixon'' debuted in London in 2006 and played for five months on Broadway in 2007, where it received Tony nominations for Best Play and Best Direction. The first half sets the stage, as preparations are made for the interviews by Nixon, Frost, researchers James Reston and Bob Zelnick, Hollywood agent Swifty Lazar, who brokered the $600,000 deal, and others. When the interviews occur in the second half, they take place both on stage and on television screens around the stage.
``When you see the live and the televised images, it’s tantalizing,'' Keach said. ``You get a chance to watch many different levels of reality and to see how images on television affect our biases.''
As a playwright, Morgan has taken poetic license with the actual interviews. In a pivotal scene, an inebriated Nixon calls Frost at night and the conversation sparks in Frost an aggressiveness and seriousness he’d lacked. While that never happened, it’s based on facts about Nixon – that he called people at night slightly drunk and that he felt scorned and unappreciated, a feeling shared to a lesser degree by Frost.
``Morgan combined these elements and put them in a phone call,'' Keach said. ``As a dramatic device, it’s quite brilliant because it allows a glimpse into their souls.''
Morgan also gives people something the real Nixon never did – acknowledgements that he was involved in the cover-up of the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters during his 1972 reelection campaign, and that he let down the American people and felt regretful. In reality, Nixon admitted guilt only indirectly, by his line ``When the president does it, it’s legal.''
At the time of the actual interviews, Keach said he felt ``disgusted'' and couldn’t sit through them. In preparing for his role 30 years later, Keach started to see Nixon as more than just a paranoid crook and scoundrel, but also as a highly intelligent, misguided man who destroyed his ambition for greatness.
``I began to see him in a different way,'' he said. ``I think he really believed that the cover-up was in the best interest of the nation and he was justified in doing it. He didn’t think what he did was criminal. He’s an iconic tragic figure.''
When the national tour ends in May, Keach will prepare for his role as King Lear at the Shakespeare Harmon Center in Washington, D.C., this summer. And only then will he see the film ``Frost/Nixon,'' where Frank Langella received a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nomination for best actor.
``I love Frank and know he does a great job, but I have my own way of doing it,'' Keach said.
If you go...
What: “Frost/Nixon”
When: Jan. 27 to Feb. 8
Where: Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston St., Boston
How much: Tickets are $35-$81
More info: Call 800-982-2787 or go to www.broadwayacrossamerica.com.