Exclusive Interview: Lisa “D” Denomme of Avon Players’ ‘Laughter on the 23rd Floor’
While the show is almost over for Avon Players’ production of Laughter on the 23rd Floor, the cast and crew have worked hard to bring smiles to those in Rochester Hills, Michigan. This production of Neil Simon’s biting comedy explores the changing landscape of 1950s America through the lens of a writers’ room of a variety show. Nothing in life is guaranteed, and as the television executives and McCarthyism come for those at the Max Prince show, tensions are heightened for all involved. Laughter on the 23rd Floor is as incredibly thought-provoking as it is hysterical, with Avon Players once again providing excellent theater to audiences.
We spoke with Lisa “D” Denomme, who plays Carol in the show, ahead of its opening night. In this exclusive Box Seat Babes interview, Denomme discusses her time in this Avon Players production, how she brings her character to life on stage, and how the show reflects our current society. All that and more are below, so read on and enjoy!
[Note: The interview below may have been lightly edited for clarity. Warning for mild spoilers from Laughter on the 23rd Floor are below!]
Interview with Lisa “D” Denomme of Avon Players’ Laughter on the 23rd Floor
Brian Kiston: Thank you so much for joining me today! So, for Laughter on the 23rd Floor, who are you playing, and how do they fit into the narrative?
Lisa Denomme: So I play Carol, and the play is, you know, it takes place in the 1950s, so even that right there, the fact that I’m a woman, should tell you something. This is, you know, a working group of mostly men. I am the sole woman writer on this comedy show. That part is important, that whole thing of her being a woman. There’s a significant moment in Act Two where she speaks to the guys about being a woman and how she’s never really recognized as a woman. But at the same time, it’s like she doesn’t want to be recognized as a woman.
She just wants to be a writer. That’s what she wants. So she doesn’t want special treatment because she’s a woman; she doesn’t want anything other than being a writer. She says that very line: I don’t want to be thought of as a woman writer. I want to be called a good writer. And I think that is in this huge, hilarious comedy, there’s like, this little, little teeny, poignant moment with her sort of being the champion for equality in that sense.
Brian Kitson: So, what is it like as an actor to have a story like that?
Lisa Denomme: I mean, it’s great. I mean, we’re, you know, living in a society where we still have a little bit of equality issues. So it doesn’t feel like that far-fetched of an idea, but it’s just a great juxtaposition to see that that’s how life is, life is comedy, life is serious, all at the same time, all in the same moment. You can have a little bit of both. And it’s really cool, it’s funny.
I think it’s hilarious that I’m 48 years old, and I play a woman who gets pregnant by Act Two. She’s eight months pregnant, so it’s been 16 years since I was in that place. But it just is this cool juxtaposition of her living her life as a 1950s woman trying to get pregnant. She gets pregnant, but she continues to work up through her eighth month, because that’s what she has to do. She has to fulfill her duties. And she can’t be a weak woman. She can’t be a soft woman. She says the other line is, I’ll be one of the guys, and that’s just how she is, and that’s how they treat her.
So it’s exciting, I think, to pull that off, you know, today, kind of feeling like there’s still a little bit of that that goes on for sure in the world, especially having to have such a strong identity in a room full of men back in the 1950s Yeah, and they’re all very strong personalities. And it would be very easy, I think, for a woman to just shrink back and kind of get lost and, you know, her voice becomes quiet, but the guys in this play don’t do that to her. They treat her like one of the guys. They listen to her, they let her talk, they bring her into the conversation, and it’s a great dynamic to see this woman being, you know, essentially treated like one of the guys, and then her trying also to say, I am a woman. Treat me as both. Treat me as a woman, but remember that I’m a writer and one of you.
Brian Kitson: Do you feel like that’s one of, like, her central motivations in the show?
Lisa Denomme: In a lot of ways, I do. You know, she’s hilarious. She has a lot of her little one-liner quips, a lot of which happen when she’s pregnant and feeling the hormones. But yeah, I think that a lot of her motivation is that she has to be strong enough to hold her own as a writer and still not get her femininity lost in all of it.
Brian Kitson: It reminds me of the monologue from the Barbie movie, about what it is to be a woman.
Lisa Denomme: Yeah, there are so many different ways, and you have to toe that line to be valued. Yeah, absolutely.
Brian Kitson: Do you see Carol’s value ever diminished by these other people in the show?
Lisa Denomme: Not really, not in any real hurtful or intentional way. There might be some digs here and there, but that’s one of those things…I’m a teacher, and I always tell my students this: if I tease you, it’s because I love you. You don’t do that with people if you don’t care about them, like you have to have a rapport and a relationship, if you’re gonna tease somebody or rib them a little bit, so anything that they do with her is all in good fun.
Brian Kitson: Marlaina spoke about this group of writers being a family through and through, and what you’re describing sounds like family dynamics.
Lisa Denomme: Yeah, exactly, you know, little brother, big sister, or little sister, big brother, whatever. It’s that same kind of like, you grab them and give them a noogie out of love. It’s very much that.
Brian Kitson: So how do you, how do you as an actor, take the character from the page and kind of develop it as your own?
Lisa Denomme: For me, a lot of it is trying to dig through and find the back story as much as you can. One of the things I think a lot of newer actors will do is they’ll sort of stick to their own storyline, their own lines. But you have to know the play from start to finish, and figure out, okay, who are these other people, and how does she fit into that dynamic.
The fact that she speaks in the first act about trying to get pregnant, and she’s pregnant in that scene, but she doesn’t know it yet. Okay, and we’re in New York, she’s Jewish, so a 1950s Jewish woman just got pregnant, but doesn’t know it yet. All of this sort of backstory has to happen, which you try to pull in. I had an accent in the last show. I have an accent in this one. And I do think voice has a big part in that. You can have affectations, or, I don’t know, just little subtleties in your voice that help you convey certain emotions. When she wants to hit a zinger, she goes more like Jewish Yancy, you know, to drive home a point. So, I tend to do little things like that. And she, because she’s eight months pregnant, I get to do a bit of physicality with it. So I enjoy that part too.
Brian Kitson: What themes from the show do you feel like resonate with you?
Lisa Denomme: Well, a lot of what I’ve talked about. But another thing for me that is particularly interesting now is my character, as soon as she comes in, she’s talking about Joe McCarthy, she’s talking about America being on the brink of a fascist state. The whole, everything old becomes new again. It just feels, in some ways, I don’t want to get too political, but, you know, just for myself, that does feel like just a lot of that kind of theme of, I don’t know, feeling maybe like what direction is the country going in?
Just that that sort of uncertainty of the direction that the country is going in, there is that little bit of fear that Carol feels about this whole idea, and, you know, this sort of almost disgust, in some ways, with Joe McCarthy and the way that he’s treating General George Marshall. And, you know, the idea that you can be blacklisted and censored, and there’s wiretapping and phonetapping that’s happening. And I think a lot of Americans are in that same sort of situation right now, you know? So, in addition to some of the gender aspects of things, I think that’s the thing I’m most resonating with right now. When I say some of those lines, I’m like, yep.
Brian Kitson: And that has to hit quite hard.
Lisa Denomme: Sometimes it does, yeah. And we’re doing it in sort of a funny way, it feels somewhat satirical, you know? And satire sometimes is the best way to get a message across. Make people laugh about it, and then when the humor is gone a little bit, they’re like, oh, okay, I see what’s happening there. And I think that’s a great way to deal with it and see it.
Brian Kitson: Yeah, absolutely. A lot of times, as I’m conducting therapy, I’ll use humor to get a point across, because you can initially laugh, but then they come back, and they’re like, “So I was thinking about that all week.”
Lisa Denomme: Yeah, and to be able to laugh at that, and then it sits there, and it’s a little bit of dark humor, yeah, exactly. And sometimes you can’t do anything but laugh, or you’ll cry. It’s sort of, so how do we deal with it? Well, let’s make fun of it.
Brian Kitson: Absolutely. What are you hoping audiences take away from this production of Laughter on the 23rd Floor?
Lisa Denomme: As weird as it sounds, I really hope that they’ll take away some appreciation for Neil Simon. He’s a brilliant comedy writer, and I think his style of humor gets a bit lost in today’s society of memes and little quick videos. I’m a high school teacher, so my students always ask, “Can I come see it?” And I’m like, Well, you can. It’s technically rated R. I’m like, “I would love for you to come see it, but I wonder if the humor will be lost on you.” You know, generationally speaking. But Simon was just such a great comedy writer, and I don’t think he is going to be appreciated in this generation quite as much as he should be. So I hope people will come away from this and just want to see some of his other pieces.
Brian Kitson: Thank you so much for your time. We’re looking forward to seeing this show!
Lisa Denomme: Thank you so much. It was wonderful to talk to you.
Don’t Miss Avon Players’ production of Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor!
This current Avon Players production is running until March 29 in Rochester, MI, so get your tickets from their website or box office! Have you seen a production of Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor before? Let us know on social media @BoxSeatBabes!
Exclusive Interview: Chris Stepnitz of Avon Players’ Laughter on the 23rd Floor
