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Ethan Slater has a officially left Oz and has found a home at Classic Stage Company, where his new play, Marcel on the Train, is currently running. Not only did he write the show (with director Marshall Pailet), but he also plays legendary mime, Marcel Marceau.
History remembers Marcel Marceau as the world’s greatest mime. But before the spotlight, he was a young man in Nazi-occupied France, guiding Jewish children to safety with nothing but courage and imagination. In the shadows of World War II, Marcel on the Train reveals the man behind the invisible mask. Co-written by and starring Tony Award® nominee Ethan Slater (SpongeBob SquarePants, Wicked), this inventive new play shows us how, sometimes, the loudest resistance begins in the most quiet places.
“It’s a hard show! Theres big themes and it’s a moment of trauma for the people on stage. And yet… its about finding the joy and the delight and remembering to smile through that if you can,” he explained to BroadwayWorld’s Richard Ridge. “That means we’re together as a company of people having a wonderful time, telling a difficult story at a moment in the world that’s really difficult. We are facing the world together just like the characters in the show and its a really beautiful thing.”
Watch in this video as he shares more about how the play came together and why he’s happy to be back at home onstage.
Slater is a writer and actor best known for playing Spongebob in Broadway’s SpongeBob Squarepants (for which he received a Tony Nomination and won the Drama Desk award), and for playing Boq in movies Wicked and Wicked: For Good. He was most recently onstage in Spamalot on Broadway, and at CSC playing The Balladeer/Lee Harvey Oswald in Assassins. His musical, Edge of the World (written with Nick Blaemire) also had a sold out one-night only concert at CSC, making Classic Stage feel very much like an artistic home. Similar to Marcel Marceau, Ethan’s work on film and on stage has been greatly inspired by two things: physical comedians and being Jewish. So when Marshall called to tell him of the birth of his first child, Ethan couldn’t wait to add to that joy with the idea for this play (see Marshall’s bio for his side of the story). Selected other Film/TV/Theater: “Gen V” (Amazon), Lost on a Mountain in Maine (dir. Andrew Kightlinger), The Designer (upcoming, dir. Em Johnson), “Elsbeth” (CBS), “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon), “Fosse/Verdon” (FX), Who’s Your Badghdaddy (Off-Broadway dir. Marshall Pailet), PEMDAS (OYL Theater Company, dir. Ianthe Demos). Graduate Vassar College.
