Suzan-Lori Parks’ acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize-winning play Topdog/Underdog debuted Off Broadway in 2001, so it’s a safe bet that a significant portion of the audience at last fall’s limited engagement Broadway revival knew how things would end for the brothers Booth and Lincoln. Those character names alone leave little room for uncertainty.
And yet the gunshot that brings the dark comedy to a close drew gasps. The power to surprise after all these years was made clear, night after night, by the two-man cast of Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Corey Hawkins under the direction of Kenny Leon. The actors are Tony-nominated, as is the revival itself.
Abdul-Mateen II, the actor who won a 2020 Emmy Award for his performance as Cal Abar/Dr. Manhattan in HBO’s Watchmen, first played Booth 16 years ago in an acting class. In the years since, he became a major star of TV and film, appearing in The Get Down, The Matrix Resurrections, Candyman, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Aquaman and The Greatest Showman, to name just a sampling, and he’ll be seen later this year in a reprisal of his role as the ruthless pirate Black Manta in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
And yet Booth has continued to haunt him. In fact, the character was on a list of roles that Abdul-Mateen II had told his reps could entice him into a Broadway debut. When he received an email from them with “Topdog/Underdog” in the subject line, he knew the time had come.
The plot of Topdog/Underdog is as unnerving as it is (seemingly) uncomplicated. Lincoln (Hawkins) and Booth (Abdul-Mateen II), names bestowed as a cruel joke by their father, are brothers living together in a cramped, decrepit apartment. The audience sees no other characters or performers. The two brothers dream of a better life, particularly Booth, who urges Lincoln to put his extraordinary talent at Three-Card Monte to good, or at least profitable, use. Lincoln, though, has sworn off the con, having survived a violent, bloody street incident.
By the end of the play, a never-seen $500 cash inheritance from the men’s mother, stashed away for years, will lead to fratricide – spoiler alert necessary only if the character names don’t already tip the hat.
Deadline recently spoke to Abdul-Mateen II about Topdog/Underdog, his Tony nomination, his film and TV roles and why Booth has exerted such a strong pull throughout his career.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
DEADLINE: Tell me how you first came to know Topdog/Underdog.
YAHYA ABDUL-MATEEN II: Sixteen years ago. I sort of stumbled into an acting class, and we put together a 15-minute presentation where I played Booth. I remember I’d been struggling with contemporary work. I didn’t relate to the work that I’d been presenting. It didn’t feel good, or it felt good but it wasn’t rewarding. I knew that I had more to give, and then I read this play, and I remember something just being unlocked. All of a sudden, I was in a contemporary world that appreciated my own truth and appreciated my lived experience. That was the shift.
I performed 10 or 15 minutes of it, and I remember one of my acting teachers said, ‘Yeah, you’ve got to give acting a shot.’ It was really a gift.
Fast-forward to 16 years later, and having some real-life experience, having some formal training, and my investigation this time around was really about figuring out, or exploring, who Booth had grown into as a man, and who I had grown into as a man. The first time it was really just about relating to the material and being a young person pursuing my dreams, and this time around, it was really an investigation into what happens if your dreams don’t come true, and what happens if I’m not as special as I really think that I am, and what happens if my life is a failure?
So my very first introduction to the Broadway community, to be playing Booth in Topdog/Underdog, was literally a dream come true for me.
DEADLINE: I’m wondering, why Booth? Was there ever a time when you wanted to play Lincoln?
ABDUL-MATEEN II: Booth was the character that I fell in love with from very early on. So, for me, Booth was a matter of unfinished business. The first time I only performed 15 minutes of it, and so I wanted to perform the entire arc. I wanted to learn all the words, and I wanted to say all the words. It was a connection back to my youth and really circling back to have a full circle moment, to complete that unfinished business. I learned so much from Corey’s performance about who Lincoln was, and definitely have a respect and curiosity for Lincoln, but I gravitated to Booth. I had a lot of unfinished business with him.
DEADLINE: How did the Broadway production come about?
ABDUL-MATEEN II: I had told my representation that this was a play I had to do. I gave them a list of plays, and this was the play and this was the role that I knew I would go to Broadway to do. You know, Broadway is a labor of love but it’s not easy. There’s a grind there, and it’s an honor to be in that grind, but it is a grind. So I always knew that if I went to Broadway that it would have to be something that I just absolutely loved. And it also came at the perfect time. I was saying no to everything. I was waiting on the right play, waiting for a piece that could really showcase a broad range of my talent and things that I had to give. After about nine months, I got an email from my representation and the subject was “Topdog/Underdog,” and I knew that I was going to go into this play.
DEADLINE: You’ve said that when you went out on the stage each night, you approached the performance as if you didn’t know what was going to happen. How did you get into that mental space?
ABDUL-MATEEN II: This play has to be dangerous. It’s not a safe place, and it’s alive. It was never my idea to really even give a performance, you know? I had the mindset that we gave people the chance to come in and to watch a slice of life. I didn’t want to give a presentation. I wanted to walk onto that stage and to try to make my life, as Booth, better, to move his life forward every single night for two and a half hours. I had to sort of become delusional enough every night to think that I could do that.
DEADLINE: To be surprised on stage every night?
ABDUL-MATEEN II: To be surprised, yes.
DEADLINE: I knew what was coming at the end of the play – I’m sure many people in the audience did – and yet when it the gunshot comes it still came as just an incredible, shocking moment. Is that how it felt for you, on stage?
ABDUL-MATEEN II: It was devastating every night. I get emotional even thinking about it right now because Booth didn’t mean to do it. He didn’t know that that was going to happen. It snuck up on him, and to be honest, it snuck up on me every night in the same way that it snuck up on the audience….I had definitely done the work, but doing the work allowed me to let go of it and to leave room for inspiration. That’s one of the tricks of the play – we sort of rocked the audience to sleep, we allowed them to think that everything could work out or that there would be some type of reward at the end of this journey, and then we remind them that, no, this is actually real life. You can’t expect these two characters to work out the huge issues that they’re trying to work out. They don’t have the tools.
DEADLINE: In your mind, does Booth really have that $500 inheritance hidden away in the stocking?
ABDUL-MATEEN II: Absolutely. There has to be $500. He’s poor, he needs this money, but he’s been holding onto it all this time because he’s holding out hope that, some day, his mother will come back and he’ll be able to say, ‘Look, I still have it. I still have this thing that you gave me a long time ago. I didn’t spend it.’ He can have his full-circle moment where things in his life make sense all of a sudden. So absolutely there’s $500.
DEADLINE: In the play, the character of Lincoln is the expert at Three-Card Monte, and Booth wants to be but just doesn’t have the talent. So I’m thinking that you had to learn to be really good at it before you could show us that Booth wasn’t.
ABDUL-MATEEN II: Man, let me tell you about that. I was stubborn. I was stubborn because I’m a competitive guy. I don’t like to look bad. I like to be proficient if I’m learning something, and I told Corey, ‘Look, man, you’re going to have to be amazing because I’m not going to be bad. I’m going to be good, and so you’re going to have to be very, very, very good.
We had a really excellent coach, and we figured out some rhythms, and we figured out a way to let me still be charismatic while doing the cards. In my mind, it wasn’t that Booth was awful at it, it was just that he was sort of innocent, and he really thought that the game was about speed. He didn’t understand that it’s all actually a cheat. He doesn’t have the heart to be a con man.
DEADLINE: Can you compare and contrast Booth with some of the characters you have played on screen. What were you able to express with Booth that maybe you haven’t been with other characters?
ABDUL-MATEEN II: I think you’re really hitting at the reason why I said yes to this play and the reason why I had started saying no to everything else. I’ve had such a fantastic experience on television and film, and I’ve been so blessed to be a part of diverse projects, great projects, but I was also hungry for something.
What I’ve been able to do in television and film, I’ve been able to show dignity, I’ve been able to be comedic, I’ve been able to show a big heart, I’ve even been able to be sort of erratic, like in my first job with The Get Down, you know?
But this project, it really had it all. It demanded that I show a portrait of who I am when no one’s looking, of who I am when I have my privacy, and to really be human and to be flawed and to be vulnerable. It allowed me to just open up my heart and to pour that out onto the stage every single night.
DEADLINE: One last question. What does the Tony nomination mean to you?
ABDUL-MATEEN II: I’m still figuring out what that means, to be honest. The play was…I’ve already won, you know what I mean? I’m sort of hesitant to say that because I don’t know how that comes across, but the play was such a gift, and I relished it. And to be still talking about it [with the nominations] means that the work that we put into it, the honesty, the heart, the vulnerability, it means that the thing that we had to offer, that had landed with the audience, that this gift was well received, and I’m thankful for that. I’m thankful that the play landed with the theater community, and the nomination is a recognition of that. I describe the play as the gift that keeps on giving, and I’m incredibly honored to still be talking about it.