... the acclaimed PBS talk show which features interviews with top theatre celebrities and critics. Hosted by New York Post theatre columnist Michael Riedel and producer Susan Haskins, Shuler's interview first aired on 24 May, 2002 on WNET/Thirteen, NYC.

The picture behind Shuler is Al Hirschfeld's drawing of the
Broadway revival of Oklahoma! 

Michael Riedel : Continuing on with our Tony Awards nomination coverage, we are happy to have with us Shuler Hensley, who was nominated for his absolutely magnificent performance as Jud Fry in Oklahoma! Very happy to have you with us, Shuler.

Shuler : Thank you, I’m glad to be here.

MR : Now this performance has been a long time in the making. You started almost 5 or 6 years ago in London with the show?

Shuler : Yes, we started in ’98 and we had the same rehearsal process. We had about 6 weeks rehearsal time. Yes, so he’s been with me for quite a few years now, sort of in the background.

Susan Haskins : Where did they find you?

Shuler : That’s one of those situations where you think it’s just destiny, because I was actually doing Phantom in Hamburg - in German - and my wife is British, so on our way back to New York, we decided to stop in London and see her family, and at that time that’s when Oklahoma! was auditioning.

MR : And you just went to……?

Shuler : I got an agent – ‘cos I’m from New York, I know you need the agent! – so I got an agent and went to the audition.

MR : What did you sing at your audition for Trevor Nunn and Susan Stroman?

Shuler : You know, what was interesting is, I did a monologue initially. They didn’t really want to hear the song, so I did a monologue, and then when I finally sang it was something like Mariah.

MR : Now you’re an opera singer though by training?

Shuler : I trained classically yes, and did a number of operas at school, but my Mom is a ballet director so I had this idea in me that classical training is the best foundation for anything you do, so I wanted to get a classical background and voice.

MR : Do you find, having performed a lot of opera roles, that this character Jud Fry in a musical compares favourably to the big operatic characters? Is it written on that kind of a grand level?

Shuler : I think the music, the actual song Lonely Room, is an extraordinary piece of music in that it is more of a classical nature than the other songs in the show, but it’s very interesting because I think the character who sings it – Jud – is exactly opposite of that classical style, so it’s a very interesting way to find to get into the song. So I try to play it as far from an opera role as I could.

MR : Oh, that’s interesting! One of the things that I found interesting in your performance is that Jud is often seen as the villain of the piece, and yet you manage to make him really rather sad and elicit some sympathy for him from the audience. Is this a deliberate working out of the character on your part?

Shuler : It’s all part of the acting classes, and my education as an actor is to take a character that’s normally seen very clearly as a villain – a villain or a psychopath, I think they never see themselves as that – so to start with, this is a guy who believes what he believes is right and everyone else is wrong. It sort of changes the idea of just playing him as a villain. Plus the song – I mean, a lot of us have memories of this show strictly from the film from which Lonely Room is cut, and it’s the only moment in the show that the audience gets to see a human side to this character.

MR : That he is lonely.

Shuler : That he’s lonely, that he wants everything we all want. He wants to be loved and cared for, so you know, there’s a lot in the text and in the song itself that leads me to believe that there’s some good qualities in him.

MR : This production is interesting because it really tries to get at the sexuality of these three young people – Laurey, Curly and Jud – and I remember thinking when you lose the picnic basket in the scene to Curly, I thought, I wonder maybe if she might be better off with Jud, because Curly, you think, when he’s done with her he’s moving on to the next town and the next girl, and you think Jud might actually be the guy who would make a home for her and take care of her…..

Shuler : ……work the farm….be there every day. Yes, it’s interesting, because when we started the rehearsal, Trevor Nunn is extraordinary at research, and we did a lot of research, and the ages of these characters. Laurey is a girl coming into womanhood and that whole experience of beginning to notice men, and Curly being a cowboy which means he’s gone for months at a time, so the only male contact for Laurey day in and day out is Jud, so I think there’s a lot of undercurrents.

MR : Well, there is some sexual attraction she has for him. In some ways he represents a raw, dark sexuality that is bubbling up inside her. You get that from the Dream Ballet where she’s thinking of you…..

Shuler : Exactly.

MR : It’s very interesting. How is this production on Broadway different from the London production do you think, having been inside and so close to both of them? It’s not a replica?

Shuler : It’s not. It could never really be, even if the complete cast had all come over. It was a moment in time as far as the London production. I feel like my interpretation of Jud has changed just based on the time that has passed.

Susan Haskins : How has it changed?

Shuler : I feel like he’s a bit more settled. He’s still got the problems, but you draw from your own life experiences, and my life has changed dramatically from London. I have a child now and I have more of a sense of family, so I think the idea of a lack of that is much stronger in my feeling when I’m playing Jud.

Susan Haskins : How did Trevor Nunn’s approach change from London to New York?

Shuler : It’s very interesting. It’s very subtle and I believe Trevor has a – I know he has a – goal to reach for each character, an arc, but the journey you find he allows everyone to take themselves. He guides without really being noticed, if that makes sense, so that each new character – the people who are cast in this production are quite different from the London cast – but in the end they’ve reached the same place.

MR : And still young and vital. It’s definitely deliberately on the part of Trevor Nunn to make these young, sexual people. What did you do between when you opened in London and the New York production, because you were going to come immediately and then there was all the trouble with Equity and all sorts of things?

Shuler : Fast food!

No, I actually focused more on television and film work and actually did Les Mis here for a year as Javert so I always knew that after all was said and done, this production would find it’s way here and that I would want to be a part of it.

Susan Haskins : And you were in the clear as an American.

MR : No trouble with the union!

Shuler : Exactly. So I always did jobs knowing that I’m in town….I’m around

MR : It might be this season!

Shuler : Can’t go to LA! You know….so it’s worked out really well.

Susan Haskins : Smart decision!

MR : Well, it was certainly worth the wait for you. And it was certainly worth the wait for us ‘cos it’s a terrific performance – Shuler Hensley as Jud Fry, the not-so-bad bad guy in Oklahoma!