Bryan Cranston could soon return to the board.
The two-time Tony Award winner told a friend at Monday’s “Celebrity Autobiography” opening night party (just before saying, “Watch what you say, he works for the Post!”) that he hopes the London revival of Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons,” co-starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Papa Essiedu, will hit Broadway next spring.
I saw this play directed by Ivo van Hove in December. And, as is typical of the Belgian auteur behind Broadway’s gloriously bloody A View from the Bridge, the production is shocking, extremely stylish and wonderful.
Cranston and Jean-Baptiste are ferocious. And Essiedu, who played Chris, won an Olivier Award in April. However, Essiedu’s schedule may be tough. He’s the new Professor Snape in the upcoming HBO TV series “Harry Potter.” But hey, Hogwarts put John Lithgow in charge of the Giant’s PTO this season.
“Breaking Bad” star Cranston was at the Red Eye Grill on Monday night after “Celebrity Autobiography,” a funny Broadway show in which the cast skewers bold figures like Celine Dion and David Hasselhoff by reading their ridiculous memoirs.
Cranston said his career in theater wasn’t always exciting, but he wanted to be part of the action.
“It would be an honor if something from my autobiography was read on stage,” the actor said. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, I remember writing that!'”
Cranston was upstairs at a West 56th Street restaurant with Tom Hanks and Nia Vardalos celebrating Hanks’ wife Rita Wilson, one of the show’s rotating readers, along with Gayle King, Vardalos, Kenan Thompson and Jackie Hoffman.
Sitting in the Shubert Theater Monday night, he said he was prepared in case Wilson turned to his autobiography.
“It was something I wrote 10 years ago and Rita was a friend of mine so I wondered, and I thought, ‘Maybe she found an excerpt of me?'” he said.
Fortunately, Cranston was spared. Because this crowd is definitely laughing at the celebrities — not with them.
When I pointed out to the 70-year-old actor that looking back on his past decade, a second installment would be necessary, he agreed.
“There’s enough material to write another book,” Cranston said. “And I’m in a group of character actors and friends and I’m writing a book for a charity of other stories. So there’s three stories in there.”
The actor loves the stage and has currently won two Tony Awards for his performances as President Lyndon B. Johnson in All the Way and Howard Beale in Network. A three-peat may even come true. Joe Keller plays a towering, emotionally demanding role.
But theater is hard work, he said. And for many Hollywood stars, it’s completely unexpected.
“There’s no money,” Cranston said. “The fact is, you’re losing money doing theater. That’s how difficult it is for actors who only do theater here in New York. They have to work all the time.”
