Jefferson Mays Quotes

My first time I directed a play was 'No Exit,' a play set in a subway.

My wife Juliana and I first saw Eurovision while on our honeymoon in Greece in 2006, and we were amazed by it. They basically recreate a music video onstage, and pyro cannons, LED video screens, background dancers, fireworks, costume changes, and wind machines are their tools.

I wear a hat on stage so that people won't be blinded by the reflection from my head. Also, if I don't wear a hat, there's no way that the hat can be at that level by itself on the stage.

When you're doing a legitimate play, if you have a company of 12, it's considered a big cast.

I do wish somewhere there was a film of our stage production of 'My Fair Lady.'

That's the main lesson I've learned from working in the theater: respect the dramaturgy. I don't want to overwhelm everything with music.

I see theatre everywhere, actually. We're all kind of performing a version of ourselves every morning by choosing the clothes and how we appear - but the stage is so emphasising that I really feel comfortable in it.

Theatre has to be theatrical. It has to draw attention to itself, like poetry.

After I left the R.S.C., I did a musical, 'Masquerade,' where I played a rabbit. I was the lead.

I was like, 'Hey, I love highflying. I love lucha libre. Can I just put on a mask and pass myself off as a luchador?' Everyone was like, 'You're going to do what you want to do,' so that's what I did for the first four or five years. I just put on a mask and pretended to be this luchador.

I couldn't be more excited about doing 'Kinky Boots' on Broadway; it's going to be a delicious challenge!

I wrote a play for Miu Miu called 'The Moment Is the Present, That's Why It's Called a Gift.' Instead of doing a catwalk show, all the actors wore the clothes and performed a 20-minute play.

Theatre is really an actor's playground.

The Greatest Showman' would be an amazing Broadway hit.

I think I'll never stop doing theater because it's a more physical and athletic activity. You can't pull any punches; there are no short cuts, and you have to be physically present and committed. I love the excitement and the response of being in front of a live audience.

I actually grew up being part of the kids' choirs, so I knew 'Joseph' basically my entire life. We've brought in this new multimedia aspect that really makes the show jump off the stage and into the audience.

I'd much rather play the psycho than the pretty girl in hot pants.

I always like to give and present my actors in a different look.

Theatre is for you if you truly want to act and test yourself. There is no room for error as you are performing in front of a live audience.

It takes a while to get a show on, and I've a number that have not yet been produced. I want to see all of them produced spectacularly before I pack it in.

Neil and I are most thrilled that we were able to bring musical theatre to the enormous audience that 'The Sound of Music' reached.

The hope is that in rediscovering 'Chicago,' audiences will rediscover what theater was. It was sophisticated, complicated, adult.

People predicted in the 1910s that live theater was going to be all gone and that we'd just be watching movies. No, live theater is still around, because it does things that are specific to it.

I've been known to wear pajamas onstage for the sole reason of wanting to make sure I'm free enough to execute new things vocally onstage and give my best performance possible.

When you take on an acting or dancing role, you have to trust your director, and in some ways there is freedom in relinquishing control.