Director Deb Clinton was motivated to find a play that would be a good vehicle for actor Jason Marks and she believes she’s found the perfect one, Zero Hour, the story of actor, comedian Zero Mostel, best known for his roles in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Producers.
It was Marks who mentioned the play to Clinton about five years ago, thinking it would be a good fit for the Jewish Family Theatre at Weinstein JCC.
“I had heard about the show, which dates back to about 2009. It’s written by Jim Brochu, a character actor in New York,” says Marks. “Jim knew Zero Mostel from his childhood. They became friends. Jim wrote this play for himself to perform as a tribute to Zero.”
Clinton was intrigued by the play. “It tells a really good story. I love the idea of an intimate and personal look at a larger-than-life, iconic character,” she says.
Get to Know Zero Mostel
Mostel was a complicated individual who navigated many challenges during his life. He was black-listed in the 1950s (denied employment by American studios because of perceived political bias), and he didn’t work in the film industry for ten years.
“He was like a phoenix that kept reinventing himself,” Clinton says. “After ten years of not working, he came back and won several Tony awards in a row.”
During the ten years he didn’t work, Mostel immersed himself in his art. “It was a marriage of visual and theatrical art,” Clinton says. “It was the idea of creativity and not being stifled. You just have to channel it in a different direction.”
In his career, Marks has played several of the roles that Mostel played in plays such as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and The Producers.
Marks brings lived life experience to the role of Mostel. “I can identify better now emotionally with the things he had gone through such as family loss, loss of parents, etc.,” says Marks, who notes that Mostel died in 1977 and the play takes place a few months prior to his death. “It’s an intense volcanic roller coaster of emotions to bring this role and that man to life. I try to play it truthfully and discover the heart of who Zero Mostel was. I am not playing a caricature.”
Even though he has played so many of Mostel’s characters and has been compared to him in his style of comedy, Marks and Mostel are polar opposites.
“He was egocentric. He felt that a lot of the work he did was too beneath him, that he was destined for greater work. He wanted to be doing King Lear. He loved opera,” Marks says. “He was intellectual, which I am, but my offstage personality is quiet, calm, and reserved. He was a wild animal, a loose cannon – and a lot of that was to hide the pain in his personal life. He hid that in his comedy.”
Marks started memorizing the 90-minute, one-performer show six months ago but has been working on it off and on for a year. “I have never tackled a one-man show before,” he says. “I knew this would be a challenge. It’s a terrifying and exciting prospect. I’m thrilled to be able to do it. I want to do the character and the man justice.”
The show runs from Wednesday, March 29 through Sunday, April 2, at the Jewish Family Theatre at Weinstein JCC. It is appropriate for ages 16 and up. For tickets and showtimes, go here.
