Max Von Essen Quotes

“For casual wear, I'm obsessed with Onassis in Soho. Hip-preppy and well priced.”

— Max Von Essen

“I keep this crazy notebook of song ideas.”

— Max Von Essen

“If I had been born in Paris in the early 1900s and lived through World War II, I feel like my DNA would've been Henri Baurel.”

— Max Von Essen

“'La Vie en Rose' is just about my favorite movie. Marion Cotillard, I'm so desperately obsessed with her work.”

— Max Von Essen

“My career hadn't rocketed to the top of anything, but I've worked consistently and done things I've loved.”

— Max Von Essen

“My favorite app is, without a doubt, Instagram. It's such a fun way to share photos and life's captured moments with friends, family and fans.”

— Max Von Essen

My obsession with James Franco borders on the unhealthy.

— Max Von Essen

My work is literally my voice.

— Max Von Essen

“Honestly, I wish I'd known just how hard it is and how competitive the acting world is. I took my time; I went at my own pace. That's been helpful over the years, but also, I didn't quite realize how incredible everyone else was going to be: the level of competition and everyone's skill.”

— Max Von Essen

I grew up with the movies of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire and Judy Garland - these are the kinds of shows and the kinds of numbers in shows that I dreamed of being in and doing when I was a kid.

— Max Von Essen

“I hate to be general, but I rely on Andrew Keenan-Bolger for all things music. Every season, he releases a mixtape on his blog of the most incredible and current music. I download it instantly, and it gets me through the season and keeps me educated musically.”

— Max Von Essen

I liked being in a smaller theater. I love doing shows of all sizes, but sometimes it's nice to be in a smaller space and to strip away some of the music so that you can be a little less than larger-than-life; you can be a little more naturalistic.

— Max Von Essen

“I love Bill Finn's stuff. It's so rewarding for an actor. It's conversational but intricate. He writes some beautiful, simple songs and melodies, but he also writes this cacophony for people.”

— Max Von Essen

“I was a handyman in an office building across from Penn Station for two entire summers while I was still in school and the summer after. I had to wear a big, gray jumpsuit kind of thing that had the name of the company in a big patch on my chest, and I was sent to fix things and didn't know what I was doing.”

— Max Von Essen

“I'm the youngest of four, and they were all very into sports. I was the first one to express an interest in the arts. I took piano lessons and singing lessons, acting lessons. So it was all new to them, but my parents were great.”

— Max Von Essen

“If I don't get a TV show next year because someone looks up my Wikipedia and it says 'openly gay,' then it's worth the risk because I've had so many years being openly gay and proud of myself as a role model.”

— Max Von Essen

“My environment is important to me. I'd rather give up other things in my life - I might not take vacations or spend a lot of money on clothes - so that I can live in a home I feel really good about.”

— Max Von Essen

“My passion was to be on Broadway and to be part of this community because I saw what it was like from the outside as the young kid in and around New York, and I would see things like the 'Easter Bonnet' or 'Broadway Bares,' things I would sneak into.”

— Max Von Essen

“When I'm working, I try to be serious and rest where I can. I just mark in rehearsals. I still train. I warm up. And I still take lessons from this unbelievable teacher in New York, Joan Lader. I try to be stretched and ready to go.”

— Max Von Essen

“It's a crazy soprano, and singing as a man as a woman. But for many years, I was on the road in Chicago as Mary Sunshine, so I can do that. I didn't think there was any way I was going to get it - it was so far out of my comfort-zone.”

— Max Von Essen

My role is almost a sight-gag. I have to be a woman to sing the lyrics "I am a man" to have it be a joke. I start the lyric in a male-register and a whole coloratura up into a soprano. And other points in the show ... like the guy who likes to be treated like a baby and wear a diaper!

— Max Von Essen

I want to get a handle on the music. There's only so much you can do alone. I want everyone else there. I can't wait until we feel we've got it down and we can really figure out what it's all about! I can't wait to meet Harvey Keitel, too! I'm so used to working with musical theatre people ... I'm really curious how he works. He's the only one that doesn't sing in the show - he acts and weaves himself through the show as the ring-master. I hope I learn something from him.

— Max Von Essen

“I've worked with Emily Skinner and I've seen Linda Balgord's work. I saw Harvey Keitel at the call-backs. But generally I don't know many people. They're not only good performers; they're really good singers! This show is for people who have more of a history in reading music. From what I already know about the ensemble, it's going to be great. And I can't wait to meet the rest of them. They're the real deal.”

— Max Von Essen

The music director, Stephen Oremus, was telling me: "I hope you've done your work." We only have ten days rehearsal. The music is no joke. My solo singing is not that hard. But the stuff I have as part of the choir or as a "Dead Guest" in the second-half ... I'm singing some really incredible chorus stuff that I haven't done in a long time. It's extremely difficult.

— Max Von Essen

But if you get a kick out of "The Jerry Springer Show," you're going to love it! The idea of hearing these lyrics and profanities - like the chorus at the top of the show - the idea that we're going to hear it in Carnegie Hall is just genius. It's been written with real care! It's not some crappy little musical that somehow found its way off-Broadway with vulgar-intentions. This is really beautiful, operatic music. It has a place in Carnegie Hall.

— Max Von Essen

“For instance, my friend would never go on the show to air her dirty-laundry. But Tremont is outrageous! I've been watching a lot of clips of "The Jerry Springer Show" on YouTube (I can't tell you how many clips there are!) I get to witness these men going through the process to become women and what they're sharing. My character is pre-op. She's had the breast augmentation but still got "the goods" down there.”

— Max Von Essen

, I have a friend living as a woman. But she's almost too "normal," to be quite frank. I'm not relying on her, because "The Jerry Springer Show" has such huge characters. I'm trying to come up with a little more dysfunction than that.

— Max Von Essen

“There's was no pressure on it for me - I just went in and had fun. Whatever Jason Moore, the director, asked me to do, I did it! I ran around the room acting like a crazy guest on "Jerry Springer" and yelling at the audience. I just went for it.”

— Max Von Essen

“I'm a New Yorker. I'm liberal and open-minded. Things don't really shock me. But I was reading the second-act today and thinking that if you're religious, you could be. But you shouldn't be! You can be extremely religious and have your faith and still be open-minded to art. Because this is art. That's part of the excitement. It literally is "The Jerry Springer Show" on-stage set to beautiful operatic music. That's what's so incredible about it!”

— Max Von Essen