The most buzzed-about play on Broadway right now features a face familiar to many residents in Malibu.
The actor Joshua Malina kept a high profile while a dad at Webster Elementary and as an AYSO soccer referee during the years he was featured on the popular TV show “The West Wing.” This month, Malina took over a starring role in the latest play by Sir Tom Stoppard, who’s won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for “Shakespeare In Love” and an unprecedented four Tony Awards for Best Play, the most ever in that category. The buzz around the Great White Way is the playwright, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, will be on his way to winning a fifth.
His drama “Leopoldstadt” opened in London’s West End in 2020, where it won a prestigious Olivier Award and its critical raves have followed the show to Broadway.
The play is receiving widespread acclaim and is a sellout at each performance.
Malina couldn’t be more thrilled to get back to his Broadway roots. The popular actor started his career on stage there 34 years ago in the drama “A Few Good Men.” After 15 months on Broadway “living the dream” he said he “naively thought” his Broadway career was born, but “that second job proved to be elusive.”
Success for Malina, however, came in Los Angeles, where the actor booked roles on “The Larry Sanders Show,” “Sports Night,” “The West Wing,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and “Scandal,” plus many movie roles, including “In the Line of Fire” with Clint Eastwood.
Still, the 16-year Malibu resident had always longed to return to the theater.
“I hadn’t done a full theatrical production in 30 plus years,” he said when he was offered the lead in Nathan Englander’s latest play and world premiere in 2022 at the Old Globe in San Diego. “I had such a good time,” acting in that play, Malina commented, adding he feels “Leopoldstadt” is also one of the great opportunities he’s had in his career.
Malina has followed the career of Stoppard since he was a teenager.
“In 1984 I was 18 years old and went to the opening night of Stoppard’s ‘The Real Thing’ with Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, and Christine Baranski, and I was blown away by the incredible writing,” he said.
The actor also commented that being in this play “is like a bucket list item that wasn’t even on my bucket list because I never would have believed this far into my career that this was possible.”
Malina may have been a bit nervous meeting the renowned playwright the first time describing,
“I walked to rehearsal and to my surprise I saw the director Patrick Marber and Sir Tom just chatting.” After an introduction and handshake, he soon found the playwright to be charming and warm.
“He thanked me for being part of it (the production),” Malina said. “He couldn’t have been more gracious and put me at ease.”
“Leopoldstadt” explores an extended Jewish and interfaith Viennese family over a 50-year span. Malina’s character converts to Catholicism to gain upward mobility in the society of the cultural and art world. Five decades unfold from fin de siècle through the restoration of an independent Austria.
“People have described it as a Holocaust play, but that’s not really fair,” Malina commented. “It’s really a play about 50-plus years in the lives of a large extended family: good times, joyous times, and then much more difficult times. Obviously, the family is going to be largely lost through the course of the play. In order to feel the loss of members of this family Stoppard shows the audience them in very good times. The first act is a joyous family gathering where people laugh and have fun conversations. In order to feel their loss by the end of the play he’s (Stoppard) shown us how full of life they were.”
The play explores the historical shadow that follows the very British Stoppard, who in his 50s learned, having been raised by a British officer stepfather, that all four of his grandparents were Jewish and perished in the Holocaust.
Malina hopes his old friends from Malibu come to the show before it closes in July.
“Come by the stage door to say hello. I have very fond memories of Malibu and AYSO in particular,” he said. “One of the things I miss most about Malibu is going to the soccer games and the soccer parents’ community. It was a tremendous amount of fun. This is an opportunity for anyone who finds themselves in Manhattan and wants to see a great play.”