Interview: Jeff Daniels Won’t Return to Broadway, but He’s Not Done With the Stage

Jeff Daniels’s 50-year career has brought him three Tony Award nominations for his roles in God of Carnage, Blackbird, and To Kill a Mockingbird, a slew of film awards for movies like Dumb and Dumber and The Squid and the Whale, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, for Godless and The Newsroom.

But Daniels’s heart and soul lies in his home state of Michigan. In 1981, he founded the Purple Rose Theater Company in Chelsea, where he still writes and directs plays. His latest, a Christmas-themed comedy titled Office Christmas Party, Grinch in Fight With Rudolph, Police Called is now running through December 22.

TheaterMania spoke to Daniels about the inspiration for this play, the importance of comedy, what he learned from his mentor, the legendary playwright Lanford Wilson — and why he is never returning to Broadway.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What inspired you to write this play?

My mentor Lanford Wilson told me many years ago that the first rule of playwriting is to keep your eyes and ears open. One day, I read this digital headline on a local Michigan website — and the headline was the actual title of this play. While that article was straight off the police blotter, I said to myself, that’s a comedy. And I knew I had to write something funny to lure people back to the theater.

Why did you feel writing a comedy was so important?

I think everyone in regional theater knows — or should know — that post-Covid, we need to find ways to get our clients back in the seats. We don’t want theater to go the way of Kodak and Tower Records. Especially with audiences in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, we have to get them to put down their phones and get off their couches. Everything comes to them, from Amazon to Doordash! But if you write about your own audience and make it funny, you will get people back in seats.

Do you write with specific actors from your company in mind?

I do write with at least three to four actors in mind. Lanford did this at Circle Rep; in fact, that’s how I got cast in Fifth of July. I never said anything during class, because I thought everyone else was so sophisticated. And then he wrote Jed, the strong and silent type, just for me. He would tailor roles for actors. So I find actors I know and then write for them, because I know what they can do best.

Every local company has a Christmas play, but this is hardly A Christmas Carol. Other than the headline, what prompted this piece?

I don’t hate Christmas, however, when the idea of writing a Christmas play hit me, I knew I wanted to turn Christmas upside down. So, you not only have a zany farce about how to save a local family fudge company, which I think my audience can relate to, but I took a run at the idiocy of the internet and threw in some commentary about hatred and racism as well. Let’s be honest, I was never going to write another White Christmas.

As an actor, you have done everything from very silly comedies like Dumb and Dumber to very serious dramas like Blackbird and To Kill a Mockingbird. Do you see comedy and drama as two sides of the same mask?

They should be valued equally. Remember, the Greeks held up two masks at the same time, not one behind other, and that’s what keeps us going. We know life is going to end badly and we will have obstacles to overcome, so comedy is what we need to stay alive. As for performing it, it’s the same as drama really. Except comedy has a smaller target to hit and it really takes precision and perseverance to do it well. I learned a lot from Jim Carrey.

Any chance we might get you back on Broadway?

Nope. I am working on something where I might act here, since I might go back onstage where it’s just a 10-minute drive from my house. But I am done with Broadway. I felt like after To Kill a Mockingbird, that’s enough. Every night when I did the closing argument facing the audience and 1,400 people didn’t move, I realized I can’t ever top this! And I don’t miss half a dozen cell phones going off during a show or having the reviews come in; and I really don’t miss being on stage eight times a week. With all these movie stars coming to Broadway for the first time, I want to see them at a random Wednesday matinee late in their runs and see how they fare. Don’t get me wrong, though, I wish them all the best of luck.