Jon Cryer's Broadway Nightmare: Falling Asleep Onstage in Unforgettable Debut
Jon Cryer, known for his role in Two and a Half Men, shares a nerve-wracking tale from his Broadway debut in 1983 Falling asleep on stage during a performance of Brighton Beach Memoir, he unveils the intense fear he experienced, offering a glimpse into the challenges of live theater
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Jon Cryer’s first appearance on Broadway didn’t quite go according to plan when he accidentally fell asleep during his performance.
“I like to consider myself a professional actor, but it seems that may not be entirely accurate,” the 58-year-old actor admitted during an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show on Wednesday, January 10. “One of my earliest roles was in a Broadway production called Brighton Beach Memoirs… and there was a scene where my character had to fall asleep.”
During his time as Eugene Jerome in the 1983 Neil Simon production, Cryer shared a funny story with Clarkson. He revealed that his character was supposed to head upstairs and go to sleep in his room, but Cryer turned this direction into a humorous mishap by falling asleep on stage. "You have not experienced terror until you've realized that you fell asleep during the Broadway show you're starring in," he joked to Clarkson.
While Cryer was sleeping, his costar Patrick Breen woke him up, revealing that Cryer had fallen asleep during the play they were performing together. Breen's expert acting skills fooled Cryer at first, but his urgent and intense wake-up call jolted him awake.
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After suddenly waking up, Cryer admitted that his "muscle memory" from all the rehearsals helped him deliver his monologue and continue the show. Clarkson jokingly remarked that Cryer should have felt "fresh" from the nap.
Cryer didn't suffer any consequences for dozing off, but he joked that he was let go from the production for a different reason. "I was actually Mathew Broderick’s understudy for a while ... well, not for very long because they let me go," he recounted. "It was my first job, I was 18 and I was really scared, and Matthew is an amazing actor."
Broderick, 61, made his Broadway debut in the same show and had originated the role that Cryer briefly took over. His performance in Brighton Beach Memoirs earned him his first Tony award and propelled him into superstardom.
“They fired me right after he won the Tony,” Cryer admitted. "I think they wanted someone more well-known than me to take over the role."
Cryer wasn’t the only one to fill in after Broderick left. Fisher Stevens, Doug McKeon, Robert Sean Leonard, and Jonathan Silverman all took on the role of Eugene at different times. While Cryer was devastated to have lost the job, he acknowledged that it was a “formative experience.”
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“And I did the most constructive thing, which was to vow revenge,” he joked.
Following his Broadway debut, Cryer went on to become a movie star and eventually snagged his own breakout role in the 1986 movie Pretty in Pink alongside Molly Ringwald.
