Mason Alexander Park is ‘the most famous Broadway actress who's never been on Broadway,’ but that’s changing with MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

When Mason Alexander Park thinks about Broadway, sometimes, they forget they haven’t made their debut yet. (Sometimes, Oh, Mary! director Sam Pinkleton, does too.

Now, they’re diving head first onto the great bright way — in a Shakespeare play directed by Jamie Lloyd, no less.

Theatrely caught up with Park to talk about her run as Mary Todd, working alongside Lloyd, and the surreal feeling of her Broadway dreams coming true.

‍This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity. 

‍How are you? How is your summer going? 

Summer's been good. It's been a bit chaotic and a bit busy, but it's been really nice. I finished doing a very long run in Oh, Mary! here in London around the end of April and then left the day after to go and film a movie in Budapest and sort of thought that that would be the summer. I was like, “okay, I'll go do something different for a second,” and then I had to go back to Oh, Mary! for a couple of weeks in July, so it feels like I can't quite escape the theater world at the moment, which is nice. But summer's been really good. Been traveling around a bit and just trying to do as much life stuff as work stuff to keep the balance. 

‍How has it been being back home in London? 

It's been really nice, I've been here on and off now for almost six years and I just am so in love with it and it is not lost on me how lucky I am to have built a life here in this city and in this country. I sort of pinch myself constantly every time that I'm going to the theatre or to see friends and plays or just walking around and experiencing life here. It's very dreamy and it hasn't completely rubbed off yet. 

‍I love that. Well, speaking of Oh, Mary! land, I'd love to stay there for a second. I mean, originating that role for the West End is the coolest ever. Absolutely iconic, actually. How did it feel for you to bring that iconic part to a new audience? 

It was really exciting and also mildly terrifying. I think anytime something transfers from New York to London or vice versa, there is this sort of preconceived notion that people have of like “oh, this isn't going to work,” or is “this is only a thing on that side of the pond.” It happened when Cabaret transferred, it happened when Mincemeat transferred; I'm so aware of that conversation. I think being the person that had to take the brunt of the responsibility with this production was slightly scary. But I love the play so very much. I believe in the play more so than I probably have believed in almost any other piece of theatre. It is up there as one of the great pieces of theatre that I've experienced in my lifetime as an audience member and as a performer, so I was honored to be asked to be the person to kind of do the trial by fire and see if it worked. And thankfully it did. And last night I just saw my friend Jinx Monsoon do it, it was her gala, and a lot of the actors that I started the show with are still in it. So there's something really quite special about bringing a show that meant so much to me that I got to see Cole in and got to seeing Jinx do it on Broadway and sort of fell in love with that production, and now build our own version of it here in my home and now see friends pop into it. It’s special because it very easily could have not worked, and could not be running still, and I'm just really glad that I didn't destroy it. It’s the time of my life. I think it's one of the greatest parts in the American theatre, so anyone who gets a chance to play Mary is just one of luckiest actors alive. 

‍Speaking of sort of West End to Broadway transfers, flipping it over, I want to talk a little about Much Ado, and I'd like to hear how you first got involved in this project. 

Much Ado happened in a very sweet and simple way. I originally met Jamie Lloyd a couple of years ago to start working on a musical project that we both really love that was on our to-do list separately, that we kind of were like, “oh, maybe we should meet and talk about the show.” 

As all projects do, some of them just take ages to come about and in the meantime, he had been planning this season of Shakespeare at Theater Royal Drury Lane here in the West End. It would be the first time that a play had been performed in that venue since like the late 50s, which is insane. It’s a massive 2,500 seat theater or something like that — just stunning. He really wanted to bring back these big splashy Shakespeare productions and give people an opportunity to see a play at that at such a grand scale. The season was beginning with The Tempest. And he had this idea that I should play Ariel in the play opposite Sig. And I was like “immediately in.” I think it was when we were maybe two weeks into rehearsals, I distinctly recall being in the rehearsal room still before moving into the theatre. He just kind of came up to me in the middle of a break or something and was like, “should we do Much Ado About Nothing together?” I was like, “who the fuck would I play in Much Ado?” I was, like, “first of all, I don't know the play. Secondly, we haven't even gotten into performances of Tempest yet. I know you think I work in the room, but like I could get into the theater and be the worst Shakespearean actor of all time. Like at least maybe you should wait until the play is up and running before you commit to doing another one with me.”

‍[Laughs] You know, maybe at least a preview or two. 

Yeah, give me a couple previews to be like, “oh yeah, that works, she's fine,” and then offer me another job. But he just seemed really invested in this idea of us working together and continuing to spend more time together. I loved his initial ideas. He was like, I think it needs to be really fun and needs to be really bright — sort of a complete contrast to that production of Tempest. And a celebration of love and music. He really tried to hook me with the music aspect of it. He's like, “I really want it to be this piece that has a lot of fun pop songs that we grew up with.” It’s a complete 180 from the sort of tortured, terrifying spirit that I was playing in The Tempest, so it really was an extension of friendship, it felt like. It was like, “do you want to just keep hanging out?” So I said yes, and it turned out to be one of the best decisions I could have made. Everyone on that show was just so lush to work with. I made some of my closest friendships from that time in my life. So for us to be bringing that show with its original company to New York City and for it to be the first Broadway show that I get to do is just such a treat. 

‍You've been in the room with Jamie quite a bit. What is the energy like in a rehearsal room with him? 

It's a lot of me eating snacks and trying to distract Jamie and everyone else from actually doing any work. I think that was most of the process, which is probably why he builds in like an extra week of rehearsal. He knows that it's going to be a fun experimental time. I don't think he ever wants it to feel time sensitive or pressured. There were a lot of days where we were rehearsing from 11 to four, I would say most days, which would be unheard of in America. The pressure is higher and it's much more cutthroat. I think Jamie wants to cultivate an environment in which people feel relaxed and free enough to really experiment. It reminds me of being in school again in so many ways. He doesn't enter this space with this definitive idea of the finished product of how everything needs to go. He sort of comes in with this amazing sketch, this splash of like, “well, this is the container of what I'm imagining. And I think through voice and through body and through experimenting with everyone, we'll discover the best way to tell this story.” His playfulness and his relaxation and openness, I think, is the key to why so many of those shows are so character-driven and so actor-driven. It's because he really trusts actors and he puts actors that he thinks have great command of language into the room together and allows them to have a lot of direction of where things are going. He just gives you so much room to fail and to play and to experiment, which is the thing that I think everybody wants to do

‍This is your Broadway debut, which is almost impossible to say. How does it feel for you? Like what's kind of rolling through your head as you prepare? 

I'm quite pleased that it's happening the way that it is happening. There've been some near misses in my career and in my time when it came to a possible Broadway debut. It just hasn't happened yet. I've done many a show in the West End and led many a show here and now and have been really interested in checking Broadway off the list as a childhood dream, so to do it in this context, alongside people that I already deeply love and deeply know, feels incredibly special and sort of once, you now, once in a lifetime, because most people in this production will be making their Broadway debut, I believe. It’s so cool that an entire company of actors is coming over for 10 weeks to do this ridiculous, splashy, fun play. I'm just really touched that it worked out this way. 

‍I'm so excited for you. It's beyond deserved. I'm just like, I feel like every time I read that it is your Broadway debut, I'm like, that can't be right. 

Sam Pinkleton said something really funny to me recently where he was like, “I feel like you are our most famous Broadway actress who's never been on Broadway.” It really tickled me. A lot of people have this assumption that I have done Broadway because I've done so much theatre work in general, but so much West End theatre. Even though film and television was a big part of my life, I think many people who know me know that plays and musicals are really the thing for me. Sometimes I forget, I'm like, oh yeah, I haven't done that yet. I really would like to do that still. Like that is still on the list. That's a dream. 

‍This production is so unique. You're bringing Shakespeare in a very new way. When young folks come to see the show, what are you hoping that they might take away from it? 

I'm really excited for American audiences to get to experience the show, and a worldwide audience, because New York is such this incredible hotbed of tourism. You have incredible places like Shakespeare in the Park doing these big, remarkable productions with incredible actors, but to see Shakespeare at this level in a commercial venue on Broadway is relatively rare nowadays. This production in particular is so joyful and so exuberant and so accessible in its approach to the language and to the storytelling. Doing these shows in London made me fall in love with both of these plays individually, but also just with the experience of giving Shakespeare to audiences. It’s going to be really fun.