SPOTLIGHT ON MAX von ESSEN TONY NOMINEE APPEARING IN MINT’S
YOURS UNFAITHFULLY BY JESSE MARCHESE
Max von Essen’s mother was a bit nervous
Directed by Jonathan Bank December 27 through February 18 Tues-Sat 7:30pm; Wed, Sat, Sun 2:30pm
at The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row (410 W 42nd) Reserve your FPC Tickets now! FPC Hotline: (212) 315-0231 Further Reading Series CONFLICT by Miles Malleson
when she first learned that he would be playing Stephen, a man in an open marriage, in Mint’s production of Yours Unfaithfully. “She read a press release and she thought there was probably sex, or nudity, or something. I said, ‘No Mom! I hardly do so much as kiss...’ It’s all about the dialogue. The play is so well-written—it’s so intelligent. It’s just about having the discourse.” Growing up with his mother and father in Rockville Centre, Long Island, Max was the youngest of four children. “They were all into sports—and academics was most important in my family.” Max, however, was different. “I just gravitated toward the arts.” Max fell in love with music at a young age, and quickly became a proficient piano player and singer. After high school, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a double major in economics and vocal performance. “I never really knew if I was going to do this for real. I always loved it—but I wasn’t brought up with that mentality.”
Monday, February 13 at 7pm
It wasn’t until the end of his four years at UNC that Max decided to attempt a career on the stage. “Then I finally got up the nerve to call my parents and ask for their blessing.” Happily, they gave it.
Miles Malleson’s Conflict is a timely and surprising look at what happens when the personal and political collide. The play tells the story of an aristocrat’s daughter who experiences a political and romantic awakening when two men—a fiery young socialist and a dashing conservative— vie for her affections.
Max describes his first job after college—touring with Liza Minelli as a back-up singer—as “a dream.” “She was everything I fantasized she would be. She would stand at the microphone and within one song was a short one-act play. She really did have such precision. It was a pretty incredible master class.”
“Neat and spare, always natural and often witty…It is both entertaining and exciting.” (The Guardian)
“A pressure is taken off because you’re not presenting a completely new work to the audience. When you walked into the theater and heard those sweeping orchestral Gershwin pieces—It felt like you had the audience on your side, in a way.”
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That gig led to a series of roles in musicals at regional theatres across the country, as well as off and on Broadway. Most recently, Max landed Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle nominations for his performance as Henri Baurel in An American in Paris, a new Broadway musical based on the 1951 Vincente Minnelli film—a production that Max describes as having the “thrill and comfort of a revival.”