{"id":374328,"date":"2026-10-15T23:44:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T23:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/374328\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T23:44:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T23:44:43","slug":"interview-shamelesss-cameron-monaghan-takes-the-stage-in-the-new-groups-rope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/374328\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Shameless\u2019s Cameron Monaghan Takes the Stage in the New Group\u2019s Rope"},"content":{"rendered":"

From child star to teenage sensation to adult actor, Cameron Monaghan has impressed audiences with his many on-screen performances, most notably as the resilient Ian Gallagher in Showtime\u2019s long-running dramedy Shameless and as the twins Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska, who serve as origins for\u00a0the Joker on FOX\u2019s Gotham.<\/p>\n

Now, Monaghan is starring as Garrett Stern in the New Group\u2019s production of Gordon Greenberg\u2019s Rope<\/a>, adapted from Patrick Hamilton\u2019s play (which became a famous Alfred Hitchcock film) about two beautiful, brilliant, and bored lovers who throw a dinner party on the same night that they\u2019ve murdered a fellow classmate, whose body they\u2019ve hidden in a trunk in their apartment.<\/p>\n

TheaterMania spoke to Monaghan about his renewed love of theater, how he views the morality of his character, the preparations he\u2019s undertaken for the role, and his memories of co-starring in the 2003 TV version of The Music Man.<\/p>\n

\"CameronCameron Monaghan
(\u00a9 Serge Nivelle)<\/p>\n

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.<\/p>\n

You started as a child actor in Florida doing community theater. Now, over 25 years later, you\u2019re making your way back to the stage. Has this been an important goal for you?
I\u2019ve wanted to do theater for the past decade, but it didn\u2019t end up making sense with all my different filming schedules. But after Shameless ended in 2021, it became my priority. I began training in Los Angeles with a small theater group, and I studied Shakespeare at RADA in London. Last year, I did a very short run of Clifford Odets\u2019s The Nursery\u00a0at the Flea; it was my first dip back in the water and, after that, I was fully addicted. So, I talked to my team about finding me a play and finally this show came up, although I originally auditioned for another role.<\/p>\n

What is it about Rope that made you want to do this play?
When I first heard about it, I knew it was based on some older material that I had tangential knowledge of\u2014I am sure I saw some clips of the Hitchcock film in college\u2014but everything about that film\u2019s script seemed pretty dry to me. It just didn\u2019t seem all that exciting or visceral. When I read this new script, however, I was amazed how Gordon had revitalized the work, and how all the ideas in the script were bold and in the forefront. And the way Scott Elliott is directing this piece is incredible. I love the audaciousness of this piece so much!<\/p>\n

How do you view Garrett? Is he amoral, immoral, or just living by his own code of morality?
I see him as a pragmatist. He views the world through the lens of eat or be eaten, kill or be killed. So, he feels he has to be the predator. He also has both a huge amount of self-confidence and insecurity, which is fun to play. Ultimately, he becomes this hyper-controlling person who is turned on by power, because he probably didn\u2019t feel in control in other parts of his life.<\/p>\n

\"CameronCameron Monaghan
(\u00a9 Serge Nivelle)<\/p>\n

What kind of preparation have you done? Did you actually read Nietzsche (which is referenced heavily in the script)?
Yes, I read Beyond Good and Evil. And then Gordon suggested I read this book London Falling, which is about an English boy who poses as a Russian oligarch but ends up dead at 19. In many ways, that book became central to my interpretation of my character. Garrett doesn\u2019t see himself as a monster. He\u2019s the kind of guy who if you met him on the street or at a party, you\u2019d instantly like him and find him magnetic and very interesting. In fact, he exerts a more insidious kind of control over people because he convinces you that his control is for your benefit.<\/p>\n

Physically, the part seems very intense. Did you have to change your lifestyle?
Being onstage is physical, just on its face. And I have made lifestyle changes in the past few years that kept me ready for stage work. Still, I know Garrett cares a lot about aesthetics, so I\u2019ve been running 5 miles a day and doing some body-weight exercises. I also stay away from drinking in my free time, in part because Garrett probably wouldn\u2019t want to give up control or alter his personality because of alcohol.<\/p>\n

Your first big break was the 2003 TV version of The Music Man with Matthew Broderick and Kristin Chenoweth in which you played Winthrop. Do you have specific memories of that project?
I was 8 years old at the time, and the ensemble was very sweet; they made the whole experience feel like playtime. And both of our leads were so kind. I remember Matthew would do this thing where he made me like a ventriloquist\u2019s dummy, and I loved that. It was a beautiful primer for everything I\u2019ve done since; I learned you can be professional and still find the playfulness in the work.<\/p>\n

Do you know what\u2019s ahead career-wise?
What I would love to do is work that I find challenging and out of my comfort zone, like Rope. If it means being on stage more, that would be lovely, but doing more film or TV is great also. The most important thing for me is that I get to work with artists who have something to say.<\/p>\n

\"261002The company of Rope
(\u00a9 Serge Nivelle)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From child star to teenage sensation to adult actor, Cameron Monaghan has impressed audiences with his many on-screen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-374328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}