Andre Royo, a scene-stealer on such seminal television series as “The Wire” and “Empire” and the recently Oscar-nominated film “To Leslie,” is tackling his most daring role to date in the revival of “Drinking in America.” by Audible Theatre. which opens at Minetta Lane Theater on Sunday.
The 54-year-old Bronx native longed to return to his New York City theater roots, but had no idea how strong his first off-Broadway lead role would be.
Written in 1986 by Eric Bogosian, the one-man play centers on 12 drunken men under the influence of everything from heroin to alcohol to power.
Working on the play is deeply personal for Royo, who is currently celebrating a year and a half of sobriety.
“Drinking has always been a part of my life, like everyone else, like when we celebrate, we open bottles, or we’re having a bad day, you have a drink. So I’m not going to say it was always bad. But at one point, he beat me to it,” Royo told The Daily News.
The former Shark Bar waiter had his first drink of Bacardi as a teenager. He said the isolation from the COVID lockdowns had a devastating effect on him. “When I got excited about Trader Joe’s selling Japanese Meikakuna whiskey, I knew I had a serious problem.”
The sudden and unexpected deaths of his close friends, actors Michael K. Williams and Craig “muMs” Grant, compounded the depth of darkness and isolation that he described as “emotional roller coasters.” Royo said that led him to “get ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ for a minute,” referencing the 1995 Nicolas Cage film about a screenwriter who moves to Sin City to drink himself to death.
The actor did not seek professional help for his drinking problem and does not point to a specific event that led to his decision to sober up.
“For the real addicts and all, there’s no bottom, it’s a combination of just hits that you take… There came a time where I had to stop. I felt like I was going in one direction and only one direction. And I didn’t want to go that way. I loved acting too much to throw it all away.”
When Royo told Bogosian that he wanted to find his joy again on the New York stage, the playwright suggested that he star in “Drinking In America.” He was at first hesitant to take on a “heavy job.”
“But I said to myself, ‘I’d rather liquor and drinking be part of my art than in my liver,’” he said.
An alumnus of HB Studio and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan, Royo’s previous stage credits include Off-Broadway productions of “The Tempest” and special Broadway productions of “The 24 Hour Plays.” His most recent stage performance was for LAByrinth Theater Company’s “A View From 151st Street” in 2007.
“I thought maybe this would be my little way of taking all the things I’ve been through, all the things I’ve been through with liquor, and using it,” he said of his return to the stage. “One of the best things about being an actor is that you can use all or most of the stuff you go through and have a place to put it, so it doesn’t sit inside you and start to affect you.”
“So I said, ‘I’m going to go on stage and it’s going to be my way of saying to alcohol, ‘Thank you for the good times and fuck you for the bad times, liquor, say bravo,’ and transform it.” in art.”
Royo, who gained notoriety as crack addict Bubbles on HBO’s “The Wire,” relates to this new role in a very personal way.
“I connect with this because of how he talks about the alienation of modern man,” he said.
“I look at this piece and it reminds me of all the men in my life (like) my father and my uncles and how I never saw any emotion in them,” he continued. “The only thing they projected was to be providers and protectors. I never saw my dad cry. I never saw any of them in a moment of weakness.
“But I saw them suffer. So it seems to me that all of us as men, especially back then, were locked into a stereotype that hurt us because we just weren’t capable of being vulnerable or asking for help. We had the burden, the weight of everything we put on ourselves, and we prevailed or we bowed. So this work is in honor of my dad and my uncles and everyone else to let them know that, ‘I know what you went through, and I’m sorry you couldn’t even ask for help because you thought it was unmanly. It’s ridiculous.”
