Last year, Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy boasted a stunning Broadway real-life husband and wife team, Lauren Kennedy and Alan Campbell, as the season's Artistic Producers. With creative juices flowing, from both the New York and the Raleigh talent-pools, they return this season with a fresh batch of invigorating theatre! But can this town be big enough for two family acts?
This summer, real-life Broadway brothers Matt Bogart and Dan Bogart will star in Sam Shepard's True West, directed by Kennedy, beginning Wednesday, July 2 through July 13.
True West world-premiered at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco 28 years ago. Tommy Lee Jones and Peter Boyle first gave it life in New York at The Public Theatre before the Steppenwolf Theatre of Chicago revived it with (then unknowns) Gary Sinise and John Malkovich. When True West finally hit Broadway in 2000, Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly played the leads and were known for switching roles every so often during the run.
Now, the Bogart brothers add their names to a list of milestones surrounding this notable play…
Eugene Lovendusky: Howdy boys! Congratulations on making your Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy debut in an incredible brotherly-focused play, True West. Thanks so much for finding a moment to talk with BroadwayWorld.
Dan Bogart: Hi Eugene, nice to hear from you. Thanks for your well wishes. Rehearsals are going very well and we're having a great time tackling this material.
Matt Bogart: And it does feel like we have to literally tackle this piece; tame it in a way.
Eugene: Don't work-up too much of a sweat in the summer heat! Before we dive into True West as a piece, let's get to know a little more about these players. Matt, how was your trip to Ireland?
Matt: Ireland was fantastic and challenging. I was there to perform a piece about James Joyce and his wife Nora called, Himself and Nora during the Bloomsday Festival in connection with The James Joyce Cultural Center. At first, Dubliners were resistant to an American cast flying in to play-out a story about one of their own, but in the end, we won them over with the production.
Eugene: One day you're in Europe and the other you're in North Carolina! How did the Bogart brothers get involved with the Hot Summer Nights season?
Matthew: Lauren Kennedy, my long time friend and director of True West, had called me to talk about doing the play and she hadn't yet figured out who the other actor was going to be. Since the characters in the play are blood brothers, I naturally suggested my brother Daniel as a possibility. Lauren instantly loved the idea and we were off and running.
