Richard Thomas

Roundabout's award-winning production of Twelve Angry Men gets a national audience.

By John Istel

You can almost imagine the National Enquirer headline:
“12 Angry Men Storm 19 U.S. Cities!” But unless you've been hiding under a rock recently, you know Twelve Angry Men is not a heavy metal band or new-age support group. It's the title of a classic, well-made script, originally written for television by Reginald Rose. Henry Fonda starred in the black-and-white film version, helmed by Sidney Lumet making his directorial debut. And the script has been performed for decades in community playhouses all over America, sometimes in perhaps more politically correct modernized versions (there's even a version called Twelve Angry Women).

Roundabout's revival, however, astutely gave the original words new meaning through a faithful, well-oiled ensemble production that played to sold-out houses and became the longest running non-musical play in Roundabout's history. One of those responsible for its success was Roundabout's Associate Artistic Director Scott Ellis, who is also directing the national tour. When he staged the script for its Broadway premiere at the American Airlines Theatre, he decided to keep its period setting—a 1950s New York City jury room, where 12 men are charged with deciding the fate of a poor teenager who is accused of killing his abusive father.

George Wendt

“We're extremely proud of this production,” says Artistic Director Todd Haimes, “so we're thrilled to offer a national audience the same opportunity our subscribers and New York theatregoers enjoyed: the chance to see great American actors revive a modern classic.”

The entire cast is new, led by Roundabout's Richard Thomas (A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, Democracy) who takes over Juror #8, the role Boyd Gaines played on Broadway. George Wendt, perhaps best known for playing Norm on the beloved TV sitcom "Cheers," undertakes Juror #1, the foreman of the jury. Veteran stage actor Randall Mell plays troubled Juror #3, filling the role Philip Bosco performed so memorably in the original production.

“It's a ripping good ensemble piece,” says Richard Thomas. “And the idea of touring a Broadway production of a non-musical play is a very brave thing to do. I think it's really important that people around the country, who more and more associate Broadway with splashy musicals, see a piece of dramatic writing with an ensemble of actors and realize you don't need show tunes or big production numbers.”

Some of the major themes of Twelve Angry Men are similar to the play Democracy, by Michael Frayn, in which Thomas appeared on Broadway last season. “It's really a play about what it means to be a responsible member of a participatory democracy. Frayn said democracy is the reconciling of different points of view.” Watching a diverse group of men, with opposing opinions, come together to deliver justice, may be the kind of cathartic experience our increasingly partisan country needs. “The question in Twelve Angry Men isn't of guilt or innocence; the question is whether we can live with uncertainty and follow the guidelines of the law,” says Thomas. “The play's not about defending an innocent; it's about the process of giving justice.”

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