Jesse Tyler Ferguson on the 'Rare' Opportunity to Revisit Take Me Out on Broadway After Tony Win
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Jeremy Daniel
Jesse Tyler Ferguson is thrilled to be back on Broadway revisiting his Tony-winning performance in the Take Me Out revival.
"It's great to do another run of this play without any worry about critics and reviews," the Modern Family star, 47, tells PEOPLE of the production, which recently re-opened for a limited run after closing earlier this year.
"We've been reviewed and people have loved the show, and we don't have to worry about will we be nominated for things," he continues. "We've already won a Tony for best revival. And I came into this process with a little bit of imposter syndrome just because Denis O'Hare, who originated this role 20 years ago, won a Tony Award for it, and I remember his performance so vividly. So it's nice to know that according to the powers that be and the people that vote on Tony awards, I gave a valid performance."
Take Me Out is about Darren Lemming (Jesse Williams), a baseball player for the Empires who comes out as gay and deals with the disapproving teammates and fans. Ferguson plays Mason Marzac, Lemming's accountant who is also gay.
According to a synopsis, "Darren is forced to contend with the challenges of being a gay person of color within the confines of a classic American institution. As the Empires struggle to rally toward a championship season, the players and their fans begin to question tradition, their loyalties and the price of victory."
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"It's a rare thing that you get to step away from a piece of work and sort of think about it for a little while," adds Ferguson. "And we've gotten to do that quite a bit with this production. We all came back with such deeper understanding of who these characters are."
In his acceptance speech at the 2022 Tony Awards, Ferguson said, "Twenty-five years ago, I worked at the Theatre Circle gift shop on 44th Street, which happens to be three doors down from the Hayes Theater, where Take Me Out is playing."
"And I would sit in there and I would be folding my Phantom of the Opera T-shirts and watching actors walk by the windows on the way to their half-hour call and I thought, 'Oh God, I hope that's me someday,' " he continued. "So to stand in front of this community I admire and love so much just means so much to me. I cannot believe I get to do this for a living."
As he thanked his parents for letting him move to New York at age 17 and his colleagues in the play, Ferguson also shouted out his husband Justin Mikita: "I have to brag for a brief moment. Justin was part of the producing team that brought Dana H. and Is This a Room to Broadway this season. I am so endlessly proud of you — and you have incredible taste, obviously."
Take Me Out is playing on Broadway until Feb. 5.
