Michael Shannon and Audra McDonald opened the Broadway revival of “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” with full frontal and simulated sex — and they told us that the Terrence McNally show’s the first on Broadway to use an intimacy director.
“It’s very scary, like when you read this play you think to yourself, ‘I don’t know if I am really up for that?’” Shannon — who’s been nude onstage in past projects — told us at Wednesday’s opening night party at Brasserie 8 1/2. “But then [the intimacy director] sits down with you one-on-one and says, ‘What are you comfortable with? What are you not comfortable with? What frightens you about this? How can I help?’ It’s a beautiful thing.”
McDonald (who hasn’t appeared nude onstage before) added, “This is my first time, so I was scared.” But, “Once the show is going, you don’t think about it, you are playing the characters. It’s an important part of the story.”
At opening night were Christine Baranski, Stephen Flaherty and F. Murray Abraham.
Page Six exclusively reported last year that Shannon and McDonald were in talks to star in the play, that’s previously starred Kathy Bates and Abraham, and Edie Falco and Stanley Tucci. (Falco and Tucci reportedly struck up an off-stage affair as co-stars in the show.)