Brandon Uranowitz quickly cops to the fact that Mendel, the psychiatrist he plays in the new Broadway revival of “Falsettos,” is wildly inappropriate. His conduct is little short of indefensible. As the shrink for Marvin, the neurotic center of a clan that involves his wife, Trina, his son Jason, and his gay lover, Whizzer, Mendel has his hands full to be sure. But the psychiatrist seems to cross the line when he starts quizzing Whizzer about his wife’s sexual proclivities and is clearly smitten when she also becomes his client. When Trina invites him to dinner, he jumps at the chance and thinks very little of taking on Jason, the son, as a patient as well.“He tends to be somewhat unethical in his practice,” says Uranowitz with a laugh. “But he’s going to follow his heart no matter what.”That quality at least is of a piece of Uranowitz’s previous role, the hapless and wounded romantic of “An American in Paris,” for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. “Falsettos” cuts closer to home for the actor who was raised in New Jersey and who, like Jason, celebrated a bar mitzvah. He also admits that had he not become an actor - starting in his earliest years - he’d have become a psychiatrist. Thus Uranowitz was a natural choice for the role of Mendel when the revival of “Falsettos” was hatched by the same team that had brought it Tony-winning success in 1992: director James Lapine, who co-wrote the book with composer William Finn. The specter of AIDS that hangs over the show was a conflagration of fear and sorrow during its original run. But the intervening years has shaded Marvin’s unconventional family with a new and, perhaps, more optimistic perspective.Uranowitz recently sat down with Blouin ARTINFO to talk about the delightfully flawed and neurotic human beings stumbling through the dark to light in “Falsettos” and why he believes that every actor should avail themselves of a shrink.Have you been in therapy yourself? I have. I recommend it for everybody.Can you apply that experience in playing Mendel? Absolutely! I have learned from my therapist that listening is paramount and that has helped me as an actor. Our job as actors is to listen and to react and often times, you get into your head and stop listening to the person you’re on stage with and you stop listening to yourself. Psychology and analysis are all about listening, absorbing and taking in what’s coming at you and analyzing it. I’m trying to incorporate that skill more into Mendel.Do you think that Mendel’s relationships with Trina and Whizzer are wildly inappropriate? Yeah. He tends to be somewhat unethical in his practice (laughs).Is this just a liberty that the writers have taken? If you ask Bill [Finn], he’ll tell you that Mendel is a terrible psychiatrist but Mendel has to believe that he is a good one. I have been trying to be the best psychiatrist I can be with the context of being an unethical, flawed human being. The genius behind Bill’s writing is that every single character in the show is flawed and complex and damaged in some way which makes them human and more accessible. While one can frown on Mendel’s actions, his humanity shines through - which is actually very fun to play.Would Mendel be offended is somebody called him a shrink? No. Everyone calls him a shrink in the show. I think that was just the language of the time. I think there’s a part of Mendel that might take pride in it to be perfectly honest. I don’t think he gets easily offended. There’s a joy to him and also a gravitas.He says at one point that he’s a sixties shrink stuck in an eighties world. What does he mean? I think he enjoyed his work most when he was dealing with people who were living compassionate lives. In the ‘60s everyone had heart, everyone felt a part of the same team, and now with Reagan moving into the White House, society has become very whiny and narcissistic to him.Do you agree that he himself is a case of arrested development?I do.His defense appears to be: “I may be messed up but so were Freud and Jung.” They felt human emotions just like everybody else even if they were pioneers. That’s Mendel pleading with the audience to forgive his actions but he doesn’t necessarily need their forgiveness because he’s going to follow his heart no matter what.What makes Mendel step over the line when he starts interrogating Marvin about Trina’s bedroom habits? It was never his intentions to turn this therapy session towards a discussion of Trina’s bedroom habits. He just starts free associating and you have this interesting moment when the psychiatrist ends up falling into his own trap of free association. He’s caught off guard by it and just keeps going. He tries to backpedal a bit but it just keeps flowing out of him.Is Mendel in serious need of therapy himself?Um, he should be. He definitely should be. [laughs]Would you recommend psychotherapy to your fellow actors? Every single actor should go into therapy.Why? I guess I shouldn’t make sweeping generalizations. Going into psychotherapy is, as you say, like skydiving into my internal self, unpacking and unraveling who I am and what makes me me. I have access to things I didn’t know existed. They were there but surrounded by brick walls. But if you’re open to self-exploration and breaking your heart open, you’ll be a better actor for it. The writing in “Falsettos” is so raw and honest and the characters are going through major turning points in their lives. If you’re scared to confront things in your own life, I don’t see how you can confront them on stage in front of a thousand people. Therapy takes a lot of the fear away of confronting certain aspects of oneself. And the best and most dynamic actors for me are the ones who are most fearless.“Falsettos” deal with Jews in psychotherapy. What is it about that relationship?Jews are just very heady people by nature. They’re neurotic, emotional, and sensitive. The Jews in this show and Jews I grew up with are very impulsive so in terms of going through therapy and analysis, I felt it was very helpful to have guidelines in dealing with all these feelings rather than just being a puddle of emotions. I not sure if it’s specific to Jews but the Jews I grew up with in New Jersey were very neurotic, emotional people.When Trina invites Mendel to dinner does he have any reservations? No. He jumps at the chance. It’s this perfect opportunity to enter Trina’s personal space under the auspices of professionalism. He’s nervous about it. It’s foreign and novel to him. I don’t think he’s ever made a “house call” before. But he jumps at it.And he’s something of drama queen? He likes to stir the pot? For sure!How does he look at Marvin and Whizzer’s homosexual relationship? He’s a 100% open to it. He has no judgment about it at all. I think he’s curious about Marvin’s wish to have this unconventional family of having a gay relationship with Whizzer while Trina’s around. But he realizes that’s not really workable. It’s got to stop. As hard as it was at the time to be a gay man, Mendel thinks that Marvin should just live his truth. He’s sort of the voice of reason of what will come in the future: Live your truth as a gay man.In previews at Walter Kerr Theater, 219 West 48th Street, New York.
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