Comedian, Rebranded

By JON CARAMANICA
Published: March 3, 2011

WHEN it comes to Chris Rock, it’s the gait above all. Sure, there’s the voice too, a purring rasp that never sounds at peace, and the eyes, which are emphatic and precise. But anyone who’s seen Mr. Rock walk the stage during one of his comedy shows knows his stride cold: the long, slightly jagged steps that seem to eat up the floor beneath him; the mild bop in his strut; the liquidity of his movement, as if he’s engaged in one very long motion, not hundreds of small ones.

So it’s noticeable when Mr. Rock, 46, walks into the Harlem restaurant Sylvia’s with small, quiet steps, as he did last month. A goatee shot out at an angle from his chin, and his head, from which no shortage of outlandish, blue insults have issued over the years, was tucked into a soft hat. This is Mr. Rock in repose.

And in re-evaluation mode too. For the last few weeks he has been learning how to walk a stage that’s not his to roam, in preparation for his Broadway debut in “The ____________ With the Hat,” which begins previews on March 15. In the play — written by Stephen Adly Guirgis and directed by the Tony Award winner Anna Shapiro — Mr. Rock plays Ralph D. , an irresponsible 12-step sponsor dodging his own demons by toying with those of his sponsee. He is a tragicomic character trapped in a maze of misrepresentations, and also a jerk.

“They were like: ‘You can’t play the lead. Not a lot of money. You have to read for it,’ ” Mr. Rock said, slathering his catfish fingers with hot sauce while discussing those who might have preferred that he not take such a sharp left career turn. “I’m like: ‘I don’t care. I hadn’t seen anything good in so long.’ ”

Broadway has beckoned many actors of Mr. Rock’s stature in recent years, but his turn in this play doesn’t recall the celebrity stage-crashing of Sean Combs, a k a Diddy, in “A Raisin in the Sun,” or even the marquee-boosting turns of A-listers like Denzel Washington in “Fences,” or Al Pacino in “ The Merchant of Venice.” Instead it’s in keeping with a recent spate of internal and external reassessments of middle-aged comedians, like Adam Sandler finding undiscovered contours in the film “Punch-Drunk Love,” or Ray Romano delivering quiet tragedy in the ensemble television drama “Men of a Certain Age.”

For Mr. Rock, known for his high-volume tirades on race and sex, it’s an opportunity to slow down, and also to not be in charge. Mr. Rock, committed to a four-month run, described Mr. Guirgis’s dark comedy, his first engagement with the theater apart from the 2007 installment of 24 Hour Plays, the annual stunt theater extravaganza, as “something I can be in, not be.”

That was crucial for Mr. Rock, for whom Broadway hasn’t been a lifelong dream. “There might have been two Playbills in my house, one of them was ‘Purlie,’ ” he said, referring to the 1970s Broadway musical. “I can’t say I looked at it the way I looked at stand-up.”

To make the transition he has needed to learn some new habits. “He paces the stage like a puma,” Ms. Shapiro said. “Now he’s learning to take that wide focus and make it a laser focus. He’s learning that the most important person onstage is his partner.”


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