Two BU Alums Take on Same Role in Leopoldstadt, Huntington Theatre Company’s Latest Production
Mishka Yarovoy (CFA’23) (left) plays two members of a cultured Jewish family in Europe during the first half of the 20th century in the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of the drama Leopoldstadt. His understudy is former CFA School of Theatre classmate Jacob Schmitt (CFA’24). Photo by Jackie Ricciardi
Two BU Alums Take on Same Role in Huntington Theatre Company’s Leopoldstadt
Mishka Yarovoy stars in Tom Stoppard’s Tony-winning drama; his understudy is former CFA classmate Jacob Schmitt
This story was originally published in Bostonia by John O’Rourke on September 16, 2024
When BU alum Mishka Yarovoy, cast in the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of the drama Leopoldstadt, learned that his understudy would be former classmate Jacob Schmitt, he was delighted.
The two had never appeared in a play at the same time, but had done scene studies together in their first acting class as School of Theatre freshmen and admired each other’s work.
“Jacob was such a comforting presence to work with as an actor, because you feel very taken care of and that’s incredibly important,” says Yarovoy (CFA’23), who graduated from the program a year early to pursue stage work. “Jacob has an ability to go for things on this very impulsive, large scale that I always wanted to pull from and learn from. During my time at BU, I was really hesitant to let anything be big. Yet I was able to see this very bold work from Jacob that always felt connected to truth.”
Schmitt (CFA’24) is equally effusive about Yarovoy’s talents. “One of my favorite things about seeing Mishka is how different all his roles are,” he says. “He’s almost unrecognizable in every part, but I also see the essence of him in each. There’s no pandering to the audience. It’s exactly what the show calls for, but also exactly how Mishka would do it. And that’s something I’ve learned from watching.”
Tom Stoppard’s sweeping, Tony Award–winning drama Leopoldstadt chronicles two branches of a cultured bourgeois Jewish family in Europe from 1899 to 1955. Their destinies are shaped by the two World Wars and the growing antisemitism that produced the Holocaust.
The play, while not directly autobiographical, draws on Stoppard’s own life. He was in his 50s when he fully discovered his Jewish heritage and learned about family members who had died in concentration camps. In the play, the character Leo Rosenbaum Chamberlain serves as something of a stand-in for the playwright. Leo, also a successful writer, finds out about his family history when he’s in his 20s, after a chance encounter with a cousin he hadn’t known existed.
The Huntington production of Leopoldstadt is the play’s first original American staging. (The 2023 Broadway show, which won the Tony Award for Best Play, was a transfer from London.) The cast has been halved, from 41 to 19, so both Yarovoy and Schmitt perform multiple parts.
Left photo: Mishka Yarovoy (left) plays Jacob Merz, a World War I veteran. Right photo: Yarovoy (center) as Leo Rosenbaum Chamberlain. Photos by Liza Voll
In addition to his role as Leo, Yarovoy plays Jacob Merz, a wounded World War I veteran from another branch and another generation of the sprawling clan.
Leopoldstadt isn’t the first time Yarovoy has played dual roles. He won an Elliot Norton Award, Boston’s highest theater honor, for his portrayal of Adam, a successful young actor, and Leo, a down-on-his-luck prostitute, in SpeakEasy Stage Company’s 2023 production of The Inheritance.
For Schmitt, the play represents an even more daunting challenge: besides understudying Yarovoy’s two roles, he is understudy for Joshua Chessin-Yudin, who plays Zac Fischbein and his son, Nathan Fischbein, an Auschwitz survivor. Schmitt sees it as a tour-de-force opportunity to stretch as an actor.
“The challenge has been, how can I keep them as different as possible,” he says, “with their own unique histories and ways of working… It’s been fun to dive into the history of it all and get to learn how much these characters have been shaped by the culture of the time.” As understudy, Schmitt has to be ready at a moment’s notice to go on for an ailing actor, which in this case means being always at the ready to play four separate roles.
He says that understudying an actor he’s worked with before makes his job easier. “I trust him,” he says of Yarovoy. “Especially for understudy work, it’s great to have a relationship there to begin with. There’s so much work you don’t get to do in the rehearsal room.”
Both actors credit the training they received at the School of Theatre with helping them land such demanding roles in a high-profile production. The BU faculty, Yarovoy notes, ground students in a number of techniques and methods, which has been invaluable.
“At CFA, they always talk about how BU gives you a toolbox, and you get to look through your instruments and sort of pick what works, pick what is going to help you,” says Yarovoy, who has appeared with a number of prominent local and regional theaters. “That idea of the toolbox never fully clicked for me until after graduation, when I realized, oh yes, I was exposed to so many different techniques and so much different material in my years at BU that I can choose what works.”
Schmitt agrees with that. “You draw on movement work based in dance and physical expression, but also deep vocal training,” he says. “You learn how to really tune the instrument of your body to where, no matter what text or material you’re presented with, you can bring the full realization of yourself to that.”
Throughout the rehearsal process, the two actors have been struck by how much the plot of Leopoldstadt mirrors current global events, marked by wars in Europe and the Middle East and the rise of right-wing nationalism and antisemitism.
“The thing about this play is that it’s incredibly relevant right now,” says Yarovoy, who has family in Russia and Ukraine. “Given how much war is happening in the world now and how many people are affected by it, I really hope that Leopoldstadt will create a sense of connection for people, that people can connect and engage with the play.”
“It’s so important to realize the history surrounding the play,” Schmitt adds. “But I don’t have to imagine a world in which all of this is going on because it is going on right now. And I think it’s really important for audiences to realize that what happens in Leopoldstadt isn’t isolated or a complete work of fiction. These characters could easily exist today.”
At the same time, the two are trying to savor the opportunity to be part of such an ambitious project.
“It’s been a whirlwind—it’s exciting,” Schmitt says. “I still can’t believe it. I feel like every day that I walk into the theater, it’s my first day of class again.”
The chance to work with the Huntington Theatre Company has special meaning for Yarovoy. “This was the first theater whose work I saw in Boston,” he says. “I came to tour some schools and I saw Romeo and Juliet at the Huntington. I remember seeing it and thinking wow, this is so brilliant. This is so fantastic. It would be such a dream to work at a theater like this. It’s been amazing. I feel so immensely grateful every single moment of every day that I’m here.”
Leopoldstadt is at the Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston, through October 13. Tickets start at $29 and can be purchased online or by calling 617-266-0800; $25 tickets are available for full-time students for all performances. Use promo code DISCOUNT to access student pricing. Valid ID required.