{"id":140962,"date":"2025-11-15T09:20:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T09:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/140962\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T09:20:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T09:20:08","slug":"john-c-reilly-has-created-a-song-and-dance-show-and-its-beautiful-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/140962\/","title":{"rendered":"John C Reilly has created a song and dance show, and it\u2019s beautiful \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The acclaimed film star John C Reilly<\/a> is bringing a vaudevillian performance of love songs by the likes of Johnny Mercer and Tom Waits<\/a> and Irving Berlin to Ireland next week. He performs them in the guise of a slightly ruffled man named Mister Romantic, who emerges at the start of each performance from a steamer trunk. It\u2019s beautiful stuff.<\/p>\n

There has always been something vaudevillian in Reilly\u2019s acting, most obviously in his turn as Oliver Hardy in the film Stan & Ollie<\/a>, from 2018 (for which he and Steve Coogan<\/a> learned full Laurel and Hardy routines), but also in his double act with Will Ferrell<\/a> in Step Brothers and Talladega Nights, and in his role as the bizarre TV doctor Steve Brule in the TV show Check it Out! with Dr Steve Brule.<\/p>\n

He started performing in musicals when he was about eight because \u201cno one was doing Shakespeare or Ibsen or David Mamet in my neighbourhood on the south side of Chicago\u201d, but when he first went to study at the theatre school at DePaul University in the city he wanted to be \u201cRobert De Niro or Al Pacino or Gene Hackman\u201d.<\/p>\n

Musicals weren\u2019t what serious actors did, he says. Then he was offered the role of Amos Hart in the 2002 film version of Chicago, alongside Catherine Zeta-Jones<\/a> and Ren\u00e9e Zellweger<\/a>, \u201cand I realised that not only is this a valid art form, but I\u2019m good at it and I have these skills that I\u2019ve built my whole life. Why would I turn my back on that?<\/p>\n

\u201cI also realised at that moment that the modern musical is an American invention. You can argue that opera and classical music were invented in Europe, but jazz and the American musical are really the only two art forms that we really originated here, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

He looks bashful for a moment. \u201cSo that was just kind of a little appreciation of America there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reilly is not hugely optimistic about the United States right now. Mister Romantic \u201cwas born from a place of despair and joy\u201d, he says. \u201cBecause I read the news. I\u2019m as worried as anybody about the way things are going. And I thought, well, what can I actually do? What would make me feel better, in terms of direct action that I could do to counteract this anti-empathy thing that\u2019s happening in the world?<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I thought, Well, I\u2019ve never been really good at making political statements, and in fact I don\u2019t think entertainers\u2019 political opinions really matter very much to the public at large, but I can sing, I can dance, I can tell jokes, I can tell people I love them … <\/p>\n

\u201cTo me the biggest mission of the show is to show people we can connect with each other … There\u2019s this overall kind of meta-mission to the show, which is to spread love and kindness and compassion and tolerance and empathy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reilly put a band of Grammy-winning musicians together and practised. \u201cAnd then when I did the first show, about three years ago, I didn\u2019t really have any plan other than I want to come out of a steamer trunk.\u201d He laughs. \u201cI don\u2019t even know why I wanted to do that, but I thought I should come in in a steamer trunk.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiterally the night before the show I was, like, \u2018Why would I be in a steamer trunk? How am I going to explain that?\u2019 And I thought, Well, maybe you\u2019re just always in the steamer trunk, and you come out only for these shows, and you don\u2019t remember what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Romantic \u201cis trying to fall in love with someone every show, and he fails every time. And so then I just improvised all the rest of it, all the dancing, all the joking around, all the pantomime bits that I do during the music solos.\u201d<\/p>\n

At college Reilly was very influenced by Paul Sills, the improv guru who was one of the founders of Chicago\u2019s renowned Second City troupe, and Sills\u2019s mother, Viola Spolin.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wrote a book called Theater Games, which is the bible for improv,\u201d he says. \u201cIt precedes everyone else. She started teaching kind of latchkey kids in Los Angeles, little kids, these different games. And she turned it into this whole way to see acting. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was just something I naturally did as a kid. But I didn\u2019t recognise it as improvising. I was into plays and Dungeons & Dragons. I understood crossing into the looking glass at an early age. It wasn\u2019t until I got into college, when I met this amazing professor, Patrick Murphy, who\u2019s still my closest friend, that I realised, \u2018Oh, this is a thing. There are certain rules to it, and there\u2019s certain ways to get better at it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Improv has been at the heart of Reilly\u2019s work ever since. The moving trajectory of Jim Kurring, the character he plays in Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson<\/a>\u2019s 1999 film, originally came from running around Los Angeles in a police costume, improvising scenes while Anderson followed him with a camera.<\/p>\n

\"MisterMister Romantic: the actor John C Reilly, whose passion project is a cabaret act in which he sings the standards. Photograph: Sinna Nasseri\/New York Times \"MisterMister Romantic: the actor John C Reilly, whose passion project is a cabaret act in which he sings the standards. Photograph: Sinna Nasseri\/New York Times <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were bored, and we couldn\u2019t get his movies made and we were just struggling to just make it through the summer,\u201d Reilly says. \u201cThere was no point to it other than Paul and I bored and wanting to make each other laugh and have fun, and Paul wanting to direct and have a camera in his hands and do what he dreamed of doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were trying to get the money together for Boogie Nights, and it wasn\u2019t going anywhere. We weren\u2019t trying to please an audience. We weren\u2019t trying to use it to get somewhere else. We weren\u2019t trying to create a character for a movie. We were literally just f**king around and running around the streets of LA, calling up actor friends of ours just to goof around. Paul took all those video tapes eventually and turned them into the character for Magnolia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reilly and Coogan also improvised a key sequence in Stan & Ollie. \u201cTheir big falling-out scene was written in this way that didn\u2019t quite feel like performers would talk to each other,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Steve, we owe it to these guys to put the words that they might have said to each other, and you and I both understand what it\u2019s like to be a partner in a double act … We understand that kind of bond and that marriage. So what would you say to really hurt my feelings, Steve?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he was, like, \u2018You\u2019re a lazy, fat ass.\u2019 He\u2019s, like, \u2018All right, your turn.\u2019 And I was, like, \u2018You\u2019re hollow. You\u2019re a hollow man. There\u2019s nothing in there.\u2019 And those things end up in the script.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"StanStan & Ollie: John C Reilly and Steve Coogan as Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel in Jon S Baird’s 2018 film <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of improvisation in Steve Brule too. Reilly and the American comedy duo of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, with whom he created the character, \u201cwill come up with concepts, but virtually everything in that show Steve improvised\u201d.<\/p>\n

Is \u201cSteve\u201d not a part he played? \u201cHe is a different entity. He\u2019s not me. I\u2019m not Steve. I\u2019m the executive producer of that show.\u201d He laughs. \u201cNext question!\u201d<\/p>\n

There are now two schools in the world of improvisation, Reilly says. \u201cSome people use it in this pure way: it can end up being a scene about someone dying or something violent or sad. And then there\u2019s this other branch that went into pure comedy … I love that kind of humour, but I think you\u2019re passing by a lot of opportunities if you\u2019re only chasing the laughs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life is a mixture of comedy and drama, he says. \u201cThe way I see acting, and the reason you see so much pathos in my funny characters, and the reason you see maybe something a little bit humorous about my more dramatic or serious characters, is because I think that\u2019s the way life is. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s the truth about human beings … Whenever you go to a funeral, someone always cracks a joke. Whenever you go to a birthday party, you check in on people and see, \u2018Oh, wow, that person looks sick.\u2019 There are things that temper the moment. That\u2019s the truth about life.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some people like to keep comedy and drama entirely separate, right? \u201cFascists like to separate them \u2013 people that say, \u2018Don\u2019t get politics involved. Don\u2019t get the true human experience involved. Just make us laugh.\u2019\u201d Reilly sighs. \u201cI\u2019ve been thinking about fascists a lot lately for some reason. I don\u2019t know why.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"StepStep Brothers: Will Ferrell and John C Reilly in Adam McKay’s 2008 film. Photograph: Gemma La Mana\/Columbia Pictures <\/p>\n

Improvisation isn\u2019t for everyone, he says. \u201cI worked with this older Irish actor one time \u2013 God rest his soul, he\u2019s not with us any more. He was bummed out if I said anything that wasn\u2019t the lines. He\u2019d be, like, \u2018F**king Americans. No respect for the script.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Reilly loves Ireland, by the way; he comes here twice a year. He grew up listening to traditional Irish music in Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this clip of me in Doolin<\/a> singing The Wild Rover,\u201d he says about a trip to Co Clare. \u201cIt was literally about 10 years ago that someone filmed it, and every time I come back they\u2019re, like, \u2018John Reilly seen in Doolin.\u2019\u201d He laughs. \u201cI\u2019ve had so many great interactions with people in pubs\u201d in Ireland. \u201cYou\u2019re talking to some guy who has these turns of phrase and these stories, and is telling you about characters from his town, and you\u2019re, like, \u2018Are you a poet?\u2019 And he\u2019s, like, \u2018No, I\u2019m a dairy farmer.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople\u2019s ability to be lyrical and explore language and sing is a beautiful thing. I was going to try and do a little pub tour around Ireland. I\u2019m going to try to talk Cormac Begley<\/a> into doing it, and maybe Lisa O\u2019Neill<\/a>. We\u2019ll get up to some high jinks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reilly loves the lack of hierarchy in trad sessions. \u201cThe temptation as a singer is to think, I have to sing this beautifully. But David Byrne\u201d \u2013 of Talking Heads \u2013 \u201conce said that people don\u2019t trust a perfect singer. I use my flaws to my advantage. The flaws and the little idiosyncrasies in the way people sing are what make it unique and special and relatable.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think that goes for my acting, too, by the way. I don\u2019t look like Brad Pitt. I look like maybe the guy that works at the grocery store \u2013 which I did for many years. There\u2019s something relatable about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

How does Reilly relate acting to singing? \u201cIt\u2019s all storytelling.\u201d But \u201cin writing and in any kind of acting you have to go through the audience\u2019s brain first. You have to launch these intellectual ideas. And then, if they agree with them, it might make it to their hearts.<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic skips the brain altogether and goes straight at the heart … There\u2019s something alchemical about the sounds themselves, the notes, the arrangement of the notes. There\u2019s just something so powerful and so direct about it …<\/p>\n

\u201cI end up crying every show. Someone asked me afterwards, \u2018Were you really crying or was that an act?\u2019 Of course I was crying!\u201d Reilly laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of troublesome, actually, because it\u2019s very hard to sing well when you\u2019re crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does he get out of singing? \u201cI suffer from depression here and there,\u201d he says. \u201cI go through waves of depression, like literally chemical depression. And what singing often does for me is pull out of those dark places. I think it\u2019s literally the vibration of your vocal cords themselves, creating these vibrations in your body that heal you.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, the morning I went in to record this album\u201d \u2013 What\u2019s Not to Love?<\/a>, which accompanies Mister Romantic \u2013 \u201cI was having a breakdown almost. Maybe it had to do with finding the courage to actually sing on a recording, but I thought, Just start singing, just start doing it, you\u2019ll come around. And, sure enough, that vibration really is almost like a massage for your soul … You\u2019re not tethered to the world any more. You\u2019re part of some larger spiritual universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0St Patrick\u2019s Day: Irish-American actor John C Reilly guest of honour for Dublin paradeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Reilly knows it\u2019s unusual to be drawn to these earlier forms of performance and art musicals, vaudeville, the American songbook. He gestures to a figurine of Oliver Hardy on a shelf behind him. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you ask me, \u2018Why were you drawn to vaudevillian-style performing? Why are you drawn to that kind of heart-on-your-sleeve, obligated-to-the-audience kind of performance?\u2019 it\u2019s because I see myself as a clown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done movies with great dramatic actors \u2013 Daniel Day-Lewis<\/a>, Joaquin Phoenix<\/a>, Sean Penn<\/a> \u2013 and I\u2019ve even said to some of those guys, \u2018Look, I\u2019m a circus performer. You\u2019re concerned with staying in this place that\u2019s so real that you just can\u2019t escape it. To me acting is collaboration and play. What can we find here?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Does he really see himself as a clown? \u201cTo me a clown is a priest. You\u2019re dedicated to the spirituality and the betterment and the joy of the human race, but you\u2019re alone in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the same with an actor doing a play on stage. It\u2019s like a Mass. The lights come down. You try to arrive at some place together, and then you say goodbye and that actor goes back home, prepares for the next day, tries to rest. <\/p>\n

\u201cAbout halfway through lunch the next day he loses his appetite and realises, \u2018Oh, God, I\u2019ve got to do this show again tonight.\u2019\u201d He laughs. \u201cThat\u2019s a monk\u2019s life to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

John C Reilly performs Mister Romantic<\/a> at the Ambassador Theatre<\/a>, Dublin, on Thursday, November 20th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The acclaimed film star John C Reilly is bringing a vaudevillian performance of love songs by the likes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3120,13788,81130,93,61,60,6190,81128,11724,81129,11198,274,59107,74154],"class_list":{"0":"post-140962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-catherine-zeta-jones","9":"tag-daniel-day-lewis","10":"tag-doolin","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-joaquin-phoenix","15":"tag-john-c-reilly","16":"tag-paul-thomas-anderson","17":"tag-renee-zellweger","18":"tag-sean-penn","19":"tag-steve-coogan","20":"tag-tom-waits","21":"tag-will-ferrell"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}