How ‘The Guys’ revived Off-Broadway after 9/11 with sellout performances

‘We all smelled the smoke and heard the sirens.’ – Marlo Thomas

By John Moore

Originally published in The Denver Post on Sept. 5, 2002

NEW YORK – On Sept. 10, an off-Broadway TriBeCa theater called The Flea had five plays running in repertory, and 17 performances scheduled for that week. The previous week, 95 percent of the seats were filled.

In the first month after the terrorist attacks, attendance dropped to 3 percent of capacity. If The Flea was going to be saved, it would have to save itself.

“We were going to close permanently,” said artistic director Jim Simpson, who had opened his classy, 100-seat theater in 1996 just a few blocks from what is now known as ground zero.

The Flea was one of four theaters inside an area police either closed off or subjected to curfew. “The entire neighborhood closed and all our activities ceased,” Simpson said.

For the next four weeks, while Simpson struggled for ways to keep his tiny theater alive, nothing short of a New York miracle was taking shape uptown.

Columbia University professor Anne Nelson was approached by a fire captain for help writing eulogies for eight of his men who died Sept. 11. It was the improbable start of a poignant collaboration with a noble cause: to find the right words for each of these men who shared heroism in death and deserved individual goodbyes.

Another unlikely meeting brought Nelson and Simpson together at a dinner for The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. Simpson suggested that Nelson, who had never written a play, dramatize her experiences with the fire captain she would call “Nick.”

The first draft of the script was complete just a week later. On Dec. 4, 12 weeks to the day after the attack, “The Guys” opened to capacity houses at The Flea.

The theater has been sold out ever since.

Somehow, The Flea not only managed to survive and thrive, but it also brought to life the first public performance of a play about Sept. 11. It has been universally praised as a cathartic and healing experience for firefighters and their families, who have a standing invitation to use 20 seats that are set aside for them each night.

“The Guys” opened as a staged reading with Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver, Simpson’s wife, in the play’s two roles. Since then, the cast has included Tim Robbins, Helen Hunt, Anthony LaPaglia, Swoosie Kurtz, Marlo Thomas, Susan Sarandon, Tom Wopat and Carol Kane in performances in New York, Los Angeles and Edinburgh, Scotland. The play will soon open in Chicago and Cincinnati, and on Wednesday’s one-year anniversary will be performed by Weaver and Murray at New York’s Lincoln Center. Next week, a film version starring Weaver and LaPaglia will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

‘Most theaters responded with our work. It was not abstract. Just showing up and working was a response.’ – Jim Simpson

After a recent performance, Thomas said that participating in the production in some ways restores the nobility of her profession.

“This is a way to get it out for all of us, the actors and the audience, to have this community experience,” she said. “Doing this play in New York is the definition of community theater. It happened to this community. We all live here. We all smelled the smoke and heard the sirens, and saw ground zero in different stages. There’s almost nothing I say in this play that doesn’t have a resonance for me.”

Simpson said he could never have predicted the phenomenon that “The Guys” has become, but that it is the purest form of artistic response to the tragedy.

“Most theaters responded with our work,” he said. “It was not abstract. Just showing up and working was a response. When we finally were able to reopen, there was still smoke, major rescue work, restrictions and the pall of grief – which is still enormous.”

John Moore was The Denver Post theatre critic from 2001-12.

‘The Guys’ performed in Denver

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and to mark the event, Vintage Theatre is hosting a reading of ‘The Guys,’ with all the proceeds  benefiting The Denver Actors Fund, which has made $865,000 available to Colorado theatre artists in medical and COVID need. Streaming or in-person viewing options.

• 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 11
• Vintage Theatre, 1460 Dayton St.
• Featuring Andrew and Kelly Uhlenhopp
• Tickets $12
• Streaming or in-person tickets: 303-856-7830 or go to vintagetheatre.com