'Tru' Debuts At Bay Street

When it comes to acting, comedian Darrell Hammond is much more than just another funny guy. Seriously.

The man who most of America knows as the stand-up comedian and impressionist with the longest-running tenure of any “Saturday Night Live” cast member is returning to the East End to sink his teeth into the meaty dramatic role of Truman Capote in “Tru” at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor.

Mr. Hammond, who most recently starred as the straight-man bailiff in Bay Street’s production of David Mamet’s “Romance” last summer and as a sexually predatory therapist in Christopher Durang’s “Beyond Therapy” at the theater in 2008, has been champing at the bit to play the flamboyant writer since Bay Street Artistic Director Murphy Davis sent him a copy of the script, he said.

“Murphy called me and asked if I was familiar with the play and would I take a look and consider playing Truman,” Mr. Hammond said during a recent telephone interview. “It was fabulous, really. I said yes before I was 10 pages into it.”

Even though Mr. Hammond got his start in comedy, over the last few years, he has been increasingly drawn to dramatic roles—he has appeared on both “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” he played the role of The Deacon on the television show “Damages” alongside Glenn Close, and has appeared on Broadway as Vice Principal Douglas Panch in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”

It was his work at Bay Street that led to the “Damages” job, Mr. Hammond said.

“They saw me in ‘Beyond Therapy.’ And for whatever reason, they had it in their heads that I could play this part, this sociopath,” Mr. Hammond said. “It was a fabulous recurring role.”

For “Tru,” the actor said that he will definitely not be going for the cheap laughs.

“You gotta play it straight. If anything I might take it back a notch,” he said.

Portraying a real person in a dramatic role has its similarities to comedy, said the man who has impersonated more than 100 celebrities—including Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Donald Trump, John McCain, Regis Philbin, Dick Cheney, Chris Matthews, Phil Donahue, Ted Koppel, John Travolta, Jesse Jackson, Geraldo Rivera and Sean Connery—on “Saturday Night Live.” But playing a person for laughs typically includes a broader portrayal, according to Mr. Hammond.

“There are two directions: exaggeration on the right and accuracy on the left,” he said, adding that Mr. Capote would be easy to lampoon but that is not what he will do with the role.

“The voice sounds like a put-on already,” he said. “It’s so strange, so unusual, you want to make sure people don’t think you’re making fun.”

He added that he will depend on his director, Judith Ivey, to help guide him in the role. “I’m going to let Judith Ivey calibrate how much Truman Capote she wants,” he said.

The play “Tru,” written by Jay Presson Allen, is about a very dark time in the life of Mr. Capote. Set the week before Christmas in 1975, the writer has sunk into a well of despair—trying to eat, drink and drug his way out of the pain—after he discovers that his society friends have turned their backs on him for writing about their lives in “Answered Prayers.”

But the two-act monodrama is not all a downer, there are definitely many comedic parts, Mr. Hammond said.

“This play will end up being very funny because Truman Capote said funny shit,” he said.

Mr. Hammond said that he is basing his portrayal of Mr. Capote on an interview the writer gave talk show host Stanley Siegel later in his life.

“It was 10, or 12 or 13 years later and he had 10, or 12 or 13 years of drinking behind him,” he said, putting himself in his character’s place. “Everything you’ve had is gone. People that used to call you won’t call you back ... He kind of went mad.”

Happily, off the stage the actor has the spoils of Sag Harbor to keep him occupied during the run of the show.

“I’m completely in love with the place. It’s gorgeous,” he said. “Plus there’s every kind of food you want: the Corner Bar, sushi, LT Burger, the pizza place ... I’ve been here two summers in a row for a month each time and I just can’t get enough!”

Despite the sometimes dark subject matter of the play, Mr. Murphy promised that Bay Street audiences will fall in love with “Tru” just as he has. He reported that he first saw the play when it staged on Broadway and has been wanting to mount a production since. The Bay Street version will not disappoint, he said.

“From the very get-go, from the very first read through, everything has seemed to fit in place,” he said. “I think Darrell is going to be extraordinary in this role. He has taken it above and beyond.”

And having seen Mr. Capote in person (as did his fellow artistic director, Sybil Christopher, of whom Mr. Davis said, “Sybil met him and hobnobbed with him a bit in New York City.”) during a reading at Lynchburg College in Virginia in the late 1970s, the artistic director knows of which he speaks.

“Capote came to my college, he read ‘A Christmas Memory.’ It was a seminal moment for me in the world of theater,” he said. “Even now when I talk about it, the hairs on my arms stand up.”

“Tru” opens at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor on Tuesday, May 31, and stages through June 26. For tickets, call 725-9500 or visit baystreet.org.