Actor Michael McGrath’s Broadway comedy had just started previews when the stagehands’ strike began – and now he’s taking bows in his family’s New Jersey kitchen.
McGrath, 50, who was nominated for a 2005 Tony award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role as Patsy, the coconut guy in “Spamalot,” left that show in September to take a role in “Is He Dead?” by Mark Twain.
“We got two previews in before the comedy door slammed shut,” McGrath said yesterday. “It’s a little disconcerting. Everybody looked at the first day as being a theater snow day, but it’s starting to weigh on everybody a bit.”
The good news is that “I get to spend a little more time with my daughter, which she’s enjoying,” he said of 12-year-old Kathleen.
Tuesday night, the actor took over the starring role in the family’s kitchen to whip up some spaghetti and meatballs for Kathleen and his wife, Toni.
“They loved it,” he said. “My wife said it was the best batch I ever made. I think it’s because I had a little extra time. I let it simmer longer.”
Every evening, McGrath heads to the Lyceum Theater, where the cast checks in with the union rep at 7:30 p.m.
“We’re not crossing the picket line, but we need to log in that we’re there in order to receive strike pay from our union,” he said.
McGrath said everyone in his show is “aching to get back” to put on the play based on a lost 1898 work by Twain that a scholar found five years ago in the library of the University of California.
“I have more time at home during the evening, but that’s the trade-off of not having an income, and it’s a tough time of year not to have an income,” McGrath said.