Jesse Tyler Ferguson plays around 40 characters in his broadway show—and Mitchell ain't one

Jesse Tyler Fergusonis best known for being one half of television’s most recognizable duo—and thanks toModern Family’s astonishing 22 Emmy Awards, 1/12 of the most accoladed ensemble group in modern history.

But on Broadway, he’s decided to go it alone.

Ferguson’s one-man show,Fully Committed,about the reservations office at a red-hot Manhattan restaurant, opens this week. It’s a long-awaited return to the Great White Way for Ferguson, who got his big break in 2005’sThe 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

“I haven’t really been able to do anything commercially on Broadway sinceSpelling Beebecause of my short hiatus [onModern Family],” Ferguson said. “I really wanted to do something commercially, and as I was looking at ideas, different revivals and different plays, I slowly realized that the only way this is going to work is if I find a really small play with a very small cast.” And what’s smaller than a cast of one?

The single name onCommitted’s marquee, however, doesn’t mean there’s only one character. In fact, there’s around 40—the snooty maître d’, the overworked celebrity assistant, the pretentious Upper East Side socialite, the celebrity chef whose Food Network fame has gone to his head, to name a few.

They just all happen to be played by Ferguson, in rapid-fire succession for 85 straight minutes . . . with no intermission.

So how does Ferguson do it—“it” being creating dozens of unique characters that can be played by one actor and also are distinguishable to a large audience?

First, the sounds. Ferguson wanted to make sure each one had their own identifiable speaking voice. Dialect coachKate Wilsonasked her students at Juilliard to record their voices for him so he could listen to them on repeat; with that and a throat steamer, he developed a vast vocal library of accents, inflictions, and pitches.

Then, by seeking inspiration for his character’s personalities—from just about everywhere. Like the New York City streets, where he overheard a woman having “this very open, loud conversation with her gynecologist, and I could not believe the stuff she was saying.” That woman became the vulgar and demanding Mrs. Sebag. OrAdele,a singer Ferguson adores so much that he gave the restaurant’s hostess her East London accent. OrThe Jinx’sJeanine Pirro,who became the pretentious Bunny Vandevere. “I just liked her well-manicured nails and her perfect hair and her tight way of speaking,” said Ferguson.

And then there’s the character that Ferguson based a little bit on himself: Sam, the struggling actor who’s juggling calls from all of the above. In the original play byBecky Mode,he’s a twentysomething waiting for his big break. In the current version, he’s re-written to be a 40-something who’s hit a rough patch. “I told Becky that we have to come at this as Sam being a 40-year-old actor, because that’s exactly who I am,” said Ferguson.

If this all sounds like a far cry from Mitchell Pritchett, you may be on to something. Ferguson said it was his intention to step away from them ABC sitcom’s mammoth shadow.

“It’s intense, but it’s sort of what you sign up for,” he said. “I tend to do things outside ofModern Familythat scare me and that push me, and I shy away from things that are colors of Mitch.”

If the opposite of playing Mitchell Pritchett is playing an elderly woman utterly reviled by molecular cuisine, he may have succeeded.

The miniature model of the stage is shown to the producers and the director of the show before it is made. It takes months to make, “Sometimes we have to protect them because they’re so detailed, and so perfect, that we keep them in little boxes with cellophanes over the top so they don’t get stood on, or paint splattered on them. Months of work get destroyed in a second. It’s happened; I’ve seen it.”

By Bob Crowley.

The costumes are “all based on actual period costumes, and you change things, you try not to deliberately copy something—you take inspiration from them,” said Crowley.

© 2014 Angela Sterling.

Crowley said he’s never kept a prop from a set, but he does store the models in his studio, that is, the ones that survive.

By Bob Crowley.

The rack for the men’s costumes is significantly smaller than for the women’s characters.

© 2014 Angela Sterling.

“You don’t really truly begin to know if a show is working in the rehearsal room,” said Crowley, “you know to a certain degree, but until you put it in front of an audience, they're the ones who tell you whether it was a success or not—which is pretty late in the game!”

By Bob Crowley.

A lot of the styles of the period “weren’t designed to be danced in,” said Crowley about using vintage material. “They were designed to be worn, maybe five or six times to a ball or something, a dinner. They certainly weren’t made to be dressed on Broadway eight times a week.”

© 2014 Angela Sterling.

Sketches for Milo’s chic costumes. “Milo is an American heiress on her first tour of Europe and she washes up in Paris, she’s staying at the Ritz, she’s got an unlimited budget. So she’s headed straight to the couture houses. She goes for very strong color, very vibrant, strong, positive colors.”

Illustration by Bob Crowley.

“We look at fashion plates, fashion illustrations as well,” Crowley said about researching the style of the 1940s, “but [illustrations] tend to, by definition, romanticize a look. A lot of the show is to do with real people, in real clothes, and they also have to dance!”

Illustration by Bob Crowley.

Jerry’s costumes. A period-accurate G.I. uniform was made from sourcing khakis. He wears the cream tux to the masked ball, a scene that didn’t appear in the Paris production.

Illustration by Bob Crowley.

“The great thing about the stage show is that it’s not reproducing the film,” said Crowley about the film’s influence on his costumes, “As much as I love the film, it’s a long time ago, and we’re doing something for a different audience, and we’re doing it on stage as opposed to screens.”

Illustration by Bob Crowley

Lise, the sweet love interest of many men in the show, wears costumes that are simple linens, beautiful fabrics, in pastel colors. “There’s a bit of money there,” said Crowley, “They’re not showy clothes. They’re pretty; they’re young. She’s got a natural style and chic quality.”

Illustration by Bob Crowley.

“I usually get a buyer, who goes out and starts sampling, and will come back with hundreds of different swatches of things,” said Crowley about vintage shopping, “And sometimes you see something that’s the wrong color, and you dye it. A lot of process goes into it.”

Illustration by Bob Crowley.

To make the costumes danceable, it’s all about the fabrics. “They’re very floaty. It’s all about movement, so when she dances it just floats around her.”

Illustration by Bob Crowley.

(VANITY FAIR)