Jeff Daniels lives in Chelsea and commutes to work on both coasts. While appearing on Broadway, an idea took shape. “I always thought there was a play in the wide-eyed innocence of all those tourists in Times Square,” Daniels says. “Before long, I was imagining three Midwestern housewives, who’ve never been to New York City, flying in for an overnight stay—where everything that could possibly go wrong does.” The result was Diva Royale, a slapstick comedy with the rhythm of a musical that opens this month at the Purple Rose, with Daniels himself directing.
Cast members Rhiannon Ragland, Kristin Shields, and Kate Thomsen in Purple Rose Theatre founder Jeff Daniels’s revival of his 2018 comedy Diva Royale, which runs at the Purple Rose every Wed.–Sun., Oct. 13–Dec. 23. | Photo: Sean Carter
The housewives are obsessed with Titanic and Celine Dion’s song for the movie, “My Heart Will Go On.” They come to the Big Apple for a Dion concert. That’s not where they wind up.
The characters get into all kinds of trouble as their plans unravel in a show that’s full of surprises. It isn’t just audiences who don’t know what’s coming. “Some plays are written with a predetermined beginning, middle and end,” says Daniels, explaining he wrote Diva “to find out what happens.”
When the Rose premiered Diva in 2018, four actors kept audiences in stitches with perfectly timed physical comedy and line delivery. Director Guy Sanville used all of the Rose’s three-sided arena and kept the show within the play on the single stage wall.
For this production, Daniels has reconfigured the space so the audience is on all four sides, with no wall at all—a first for the Rose. “That demands we reimagine the show,” he says. “The staging will embrace the fact that the audience is everywhere. Our lighting and sound systems have been upgraded … We’re going to surround the audience. Pull them in. Engage their imagination. When the characters go to Times Square, I want the audience to go with them.”
He wants the audience to laugh, and more. “There’s a lot of fear in this country right now,” Daniels says. “Maybe some of the things some people are so afraid of aren’t really things to be feared at all. Maybe even celebrated. That’s in there.”
The original cast is returning. “Kate [Thomsen], Rhiannon [Ragland], Kristin [Shields] and Rusty [Mewha] know where funny is,” he says. “They’re also fearless,” adds the playwright/director.
“For me, part of the joy of doing Diva again is being able to watch these four actors return to [their] roles. They know the characters and trust each other as actors. That combination will lead to a precision you can only find with that kind of familiarity.” A second cast may fill in for some performances.
The actors will be aided and abetted by scenic designer Brian Dambacher, Shelby Newport (costumes), Dana L. White & Stephen Sakowski (lights), Danna Segrest (props), and Robert W. Hubbard (sound).
Diva Royale previews begin on Oct. 6 (see calendar listing). Opening night is Oct. 13.
