INTERVIEW: Patrick Bringley finds new ways to appreciate ‘All the Beauty in the World’
Photo: All the Beauty in the World stars Patrick Bringley and continues at the DR2 Theatre. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus / Provided by KSA with permission.
When Patrick Bringley left the journalism profession and decided to live out his dream of becoming a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he must not have known that this turn in his life would inspire so many people in the years to come. But that’s exactly what happened.
Bringley, who changed things up in order to heal from his brother’s death, stayed at the Met for a decade and then wrote down his observations of that chapter in his life in a bestselling book called All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me. Now the bestseller has been adapted to the stage, and Bringley is performing in the piece at the DR2 Theatre on East 15th Street in Manhattan. Performances have been extended through May 25.
For anyone who has changed professions, for anyone who has walked the majestic hallways of the Met, for anyone who has had to deal with the death of a loved one, All the Beauty in the World can prove helpful and transformative. These stories and commentaries help audience members appreciate the power of place and people, according to press notes, and theatergoers have responded in kind, packing the DR2 Theatre and hearing Bringley’s unique tale.
Recently Bringley exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox; he opens up about the play’s success, what he feels when visiting the Met today and how acting is a family tradition. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
How have the performances been going at the DR2 Theatre?
They’ve been going well! In an intimate space like DR2 I very much feel the presence of the audience and can tell when they’re along with me on the journey. It feels like something very real, immediate and magical is happening on stage, and I’ve been approached by so many kind people who wait for me after the show.
When you originally wrote the book, did you envision the story would become a play one day?
No, it wasn’t until I started giving book talks, primarily at museums, that I had the idea to create something more ambitious and lovely than a PowerPoint lecture, and there just seemed to be something very natural about a one-man show about a lonesome figure like a museum guard.
Were you surprised by the success of the book and how many weeks it remained a bestseller?
Yes, it has all been surprising. As I’m an unknown author, the book didn’t have a huge release, but momentum has grown and grown.
What are your thoughts today when you visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art?
I love returning, as I have so many old friends there — my former colleagues of course, and in a sense the artworks too. I also miss being a guard. I have a lot of items on my to-do list these days, and miss having eight- or 12-hour days just standing watch in someplace so beautiful.
Would you say the art at the museum helped you contemplate life and heal, or was it the visitors and your fellow colleagues?
It was all of that. Part of the reason I called the book All the Beauty in the World was to gesture to the many different strains of beauty. Sometimes it comes on pedestals and in frames, and sometimes it’s much messier or unexpected.
What was it like watching your mother act on stage?
Wonderful. I watched her play Emily Dickinson in a one-woman show, The Belle of Amherst, when I was 8 years old, and without that experience I doubt I’d be where I am today.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
All the Beauty in the World, written and performed by Patrick Bringley, continues through May 25 at the DR2 Theatre on East 15th Street in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
