Exit
studies followed a cross-borough
regimen — “tightrope three times
a week in Brooklyn, jump rope
three times a week in Manhattan,
and roller skating three nights a
week after rehearsal,” Carlyle said.
A photograph of Chaplin learning
to walk a tightrope for the first
time, on the same day he shot his
famous highwire scene in The Circus, is now a totem for McClure.
He hasn’t said “no” to a challenge,
according to Carlyle.
Still, certain stunts are out of
McClure’s ken, due to Chaplin’s
genius for special effect. In
Chaplin’s first act, McClure rolls
actual footage of the movie Pay
Day to show his half-brother
Sydney (played by Wayne Alan
Wilcox) how running the tape
backwards makes him appear
to be catching bricks with ease
rather than throwing them. The
moment doubles as a demonstration for the audience, of what the
production is up against in translating film to the stage. “Chaplin
could throw his hat on the back
of his chair, and do it once, and
that’s a take,” McClure said. “We
had to come up with tricks that
are impressive but that I can do
eight times a week.”
Working together in the same
THEATER
HUFFINGTON
09.09.12
configuration, McClure and Carlyle originated the musical in 2010,
under the title Limelight at the La
Jolla Playhouse in California. For
its Broadway incarnation, Carlyle
aimed to cover Chaplin’s life from
birth to death by filtering the story’s biographical passages through
homages to Chaplin’s films.
Intercutting the drama with
hoops for McClure to jump
through was Carlyle’s strategy
All I was thinking was,
‘Really, how do I do this
without killing myself? And
how do I make it look easy?’
for casting a spell over audience
members who hold Chaplin in
the highest regard as a performer.
Once dazzled, they might believe
McClure’s character throughout.
“In the scene where Rob becomes the Little Tramp, the final piece of that puzzle is a cane
tossed from the side, and as he
looks to catch it, a bright light is
shining in his face,” Carlyle said.
“It’s a series of impossible tasks,
but when you add them up, you’ve
created someone who’s
extraordinary.”