Photo Credit: Suzanne Fiore
I meet up with Lucas Steele at the Imperial Theatre where, with a charming smile and flick of his thick blond hair, he is making his mark as Anatole Kuragin in Broadway’s Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. After sitting in on his daily fight rehearsal with his co-star Josh Groban (I got to watch them practice a pivotal scene of the show), we head backstage to his dressing room. Along the way, he introduces me to the hair and makeup department who “are amazing” he confides. “It’s not easy to get this color” he tells me, pointing to his signature hair.
I find Lucas to be instantly likeable and down-to-earth. It’s evident that he has retained some of that small town congeniality, having been raised in the small town of Wyalusing, Pennsylvania with a population of five hundred people. After climbing multiple sets of stairs backstage, we reach his dressing room and get settled in chairs in front of his vanity mirror.
What was it like growing up in such a small town?
Luckily, I had really amazing teachers who definitely took me under their wing and did their best to let me know that there was a world outside of where I was growing up. I remember my violin teacher saying “Watch out Carnegie Hall, here comes Lucas Steele.” And I looked at her, at eleven years old, and I said “What’s Carnegie Hall?”
Your teachers were on to something. You ended up having your Broadway debut in The Threepenny Opera alongside Alan Cummings and Cindi Lauper. Not too shabby!
Not too bad at all. That whole cast actually - Ana Gasteyer, Jim Dale, Nellie McKay. There were five headliners in that show. People loved or hated it; there was no in-between. I do feel like that’s one of the last times that a show opened on Broadway that had a very downtown aesthetic and didn’t care. It wasn’t about trying to win people over; it was like “these are the issues and we are going to shove them in your face.” It almost wanted to make people uncomfortable.
You are, of course, currently playing Anatole in The Great Comet of 1812. I understand that you’ve performed in over 500 shows?
That’s correct; it’s pretty incredible.
The show is based on a 70-page slice of War And Peace. Have you read War And Peace?
I’ve certainly started it, and read past our section, but I haven’t finished it. It’s interesting because Anatole is pivotal to the section of the book that we cover in the show, but the way he leaves the novel of War And Peace is thru a very fateful end, not very pleasant at all. But there is a moment between him and Andre, during the complete hell of war, where there is a moment of redemption.
You have several scenes with Josh Groban, who plays Pierre. How does Josh’s portrayal of Pierre differ from the original portrayal by Dave Malloy?
I’ve actually played opposite five different actors playing Pierre, including understudies, and it’s always a beautiful thing to show up and watch someone else’s interpretation and how they connect to the material and to this guy named Pierre. To me, Josh’s portrayal is, from the get-go, very philosophical. Josh is very smart, and he’s also super quick and a funny guy, and I think it’s the philosophy that’s driving him in portraying his character. That’s what I see, but you could ask Josh and might get a completely different answer.
How would you describe your character Anatole?
I think the root of him, action-wise, is that he’s a child. He sees something shiny and he reaches for it. There’s very little awareness of how his actions will affect anyone else.
Yet, the way you beautifully portray him, he’s still likable.
Thanks. It’s a really fine line because the obvious top layer is the villain, but that’s not interesting to me in art at all. I think that’s the challenge, when you look at all stories told like this, is “how do you make this person likeable?” You want the audience to be able to look at it and sort of understand why he’s doing what he’s doing, even though it’s bad. I always have my radar out for making sure he doesn’t fall off the cliff into that territory. And Rachel, our esteemed director, and I have many discussions and make some really small tweaks accordingly.
You have great chemistry with your co-star Denee Benton. What’s it been like working with her?
I think she’s doing an extraordinary job. I’m always very protective of the Natasha role because, to put girls at such a young age in this role that is very demanding, from the voice to the body to the emotional part of that journey, they need someone in their corner to do their best to support them and stand up for them when they need it. Because the reality is that all of them have been very inexperienced when they come in because they are so young. Not inexperienced in their level of ability, but inexperienced in what it is to work and do something eight times a week. You can’t be taught that stuff, you just have to learn. She’s doing an extraordinary job and I count it as a pleasure to share the stage with her.
It’s a very interactive show between the cast and audience. Does the audience always behave themselves?
So far our run has been, for the most part, very tame. The experience we had downtown was a whole other situation. It was built to be more of an experience, more of an outing in the evening. It was happening in the Meatpacking District and had more charge to it - we called it “boot camp.” The audience downtown could be rather rowdy, it wasn’t your typical theater-going crowd. One night, a journalist was sitting next to a woman who was on her phone all night. He asked her several times to please stop, and then he took matters into his own hands and threw the phone across the tent. And that was the day before we opened, and I think people thought it was a stunt to get attention but it wasn’t.
What’s a piece of advice that you live by?
I think it’s important to remember that your work can’t be the defining factor of your life. It’s taken me many years to learn that and I’m still learning it. But if you decide that’s the be-all and end-all, you will set yourself up for so many ups and downs that it will drive you nuts. I also think it’s super important to hold on to your uniqueness, the thing about you that makes you special. Without honing that ability, I don’t feel that you can ever rise above the playing field, the typical. I knew, getting into this business, that it was going to be hard but that I didn’t want to be typical. I’m doing this because I’m an artist; it’s important to me to create. So I don’t have any interest in just showing up because they need me to be this thing that I’ve seen one hundred times. Oftentimes, it works; I’m not bashing it at all. But, for me, it’s very much about what I want to bring to this as an artist and how do I mine the things that I feel make me special. At the end of the day, when it comes to this business, all you have to hold on to is why you are here and why you are doing it.
See Lucas Steele in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 by clicking here.
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