For five years, Cause Celeb has been highlighting celebrities’ works on behalf of specific causes. To celebrate the anniversary, we went back to the beginning and re-interviewed our first celebrity, actor David Hyde Pierce.

When we first interviewed Pierce he had already worked with the Alzheimer’s Associationfor 10 years; now five years later, he is still hard at work for the association. The Alzheimer’s Association provides support, knowledge and awareness to those suffering from or caring for people with the disease in addition to raising money for research. On Sunday, Oct. 23, the Alzheimer’s Association will be holding the Walk to End Alzheimer’s at Riverside Park and Hyde Pierce will be participating in.

Pierce is probably best known for his role on the television show “Frasier.” He has also appeared in movies including “Wet Hot American Summer” and “Sleepless in Seattle” as well as appearing in numerous Broadway shows including “Monty Python’s Spamalot.” Recently he made his directorial debut with the musical “It Shoulda Been You.”

Interview by Jesse Strauch

Q: What is your involvement with the Alzheimer’s Association and has it changed over the years?

Pierce: Over the years I’ve gotten more and more involved with the Alzheimer’s Association. I started out I think almost 15 years ago just showing up as a celebrity at their memory walk in Los Angeles back when I was on “Frasier” and I got more and more involved. I went to Washington and testified for more funding for research for Alzheimer’s, went around the country doing that. I became a national board member for eight years, now I’m an honorary board member. I’ve been to Washington a lot and most recently I’m a member of an advisory council that’s part of a National Alzheimer’s Project Act, which is a federal law that was passed the end of last year unanimously by both houses to make the fight against Alzheimer’s a national priority in the same way that HIV/AIDS and heart disease has been.

Q: In your 15-plus years how has public perception changed towards Alzheimer’s?

Pierce: Certainly there is more awareness. I think partly because of the work of the Alzheimer’s Association, partly because there is many more appearances in the media on television and film, you start to see characters that are dealing with Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately there is a lot more awareness because there are a lot more people with the disease; there are well over 5 million now and those numbers are growing and the people who are taking care of those people numbers are growing. I would say over the years we have been making progress in research and awareness and taking care of people. But the disease itself is making more progress than we are in the number of lives it’s taken.

Q: Do you think the future looks brighter for ending Alzheimer’s?

Pierce: I think it’s entirely up to us. If we don’t make more rapid progress than we are currently making then we’ll go from 5 million people now to 16 million people by the middle of the century, and that doesn’t account for all of the people who are taking care of those people and the stress and illness and the mortality rate of those people. It’s a particularly devastating disease for those family members and caregivers.

We have now before us a great opportunity with this National Alzheimer’s Project Act. It is an opportunity for us to confront this disease and make the kind of progress that has been made with HIV/AIDS and heart disease and cancer in the past years. Ultimately, though, it is up to us, to all of us, to the American people and to their representatives about whether we face the challenges and make all the effort necessary or if we ignore it and just let this sort of tidal wave crash over us.

Q: What would help us defeat Alzheimer’s? Are there new medicine and treatments coming or do we still need a lot of research? What would help us move forward in the best way?

Pierce: Right now funding for most major disease is in the billions of dollars. Federal funding for research, federal funding for Alzheimer’s is in the millions. Alzheimer’s at this point — this is a change in the last five years since I first talk to you guys — has advanced to become the sixth-leading cause of death in the country. So we’re in a time where people are not interested in the government spending more money and there’s great concern about the deficit, there’s great concern about health care and the cost of health care and social security, Medicare and Medicaid. All of those concerns will be effectively wiped out if we don’t focus resources, our attention and also finance resources on more research and more access.

We already know great ways to help take care of people to help make their lives easier when they have the disease and to help their family’s along but there’s an astonishing number of people in this country who have no access to this, who aren’t aware. It’s such a lonesome disease if you don’t know about the resources of the Alzheimer’s Association, the support groups and the outreach, and the referral services they have. I’m shocked that working so many years on this that it is still such an isolated disease that so many people aren’t aware of what it is and what treatment and services are available. That to me is not a huge expense. We still need billions of dollars for research. We can only fund about 25 percent of the proposals that we get now.

It’s unbelievable, we would never in a million years go to fight a war and say, “hey that’s great but we’re only going to pay for about 25 percent of it, we’ll just hope it turns out OK.” But in terms of loss of life and devastation to the economy this is a war with a lot of collateral damage and I’m very hopeful that because the disease is so terrible and because it is so widespread and because we already started to make breakthroughs in early diagnosis and better care for people with Alzheimer’s, the country as a whole will start to see that there is hope and see that there is potential, that there’s a chance to turn Alzheimer’s into what polio now is. It was at one time the scourge of this country and now is a disease at least in this country we don’t really talk about or think about. That is the potential, that is the hope but as with polio we have to as a nation face it together and do what must be done.

Q: Is there anything you’d like to add?

Pierce: Just that all over the country we have the Walk to End Alzheimer’s, which is a national fundraiser that happens different times with different chapters. It raises money locally to help support services and research. It helps raise awareness, it bring people together to get information about clinical trials and the support services that are necessary. This Sunday I’m going to be doing the New York City Walk to End Alzheimer’s but I would encourage people to look for that in their area and support it if they can. You don’t have to have had someone in your family who has had Alzheimer’s to be a part of this because the sad statistics are, that you one day will, if we’re not able to slow it down or stop it.

Post Frasier with David Hyde Pierce

Tom Alvarez
Indianapolis Performing Arts Examiner
August 1, 2011

Ever since “Frasier,” the hit NBC sitcom in which David Hyde Pierce played prim and proper psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane, went off the air in 2004, the Emmy-winning actor and comedian has not let any grass grow under his feet.

On Saturday, Aug. 6, Pierce will join renowned musician and entertainer Michael Feinstein for the opening-night celebration of the Tarkington Theatre, the last of three venues built at Carmel’s Center for the Performing Arts.

The Tarkington will become the home of the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre and other performing-arts groups.

In 2005 Pierce originated the role of Sir Robin in the Broadway production of “Monty Python’s Spamalot”. In 2007 he won the Tony Award for his role as Lieutenant Frank Cioffi in the musical comedy “Curtains.”

Most recently, he appeared in the acclaimed London and Broadway production of David Hirson’s “La Bete.”

Currently Pierce stars in “The Perfect Host,” a film that was released on July 1.

Speaking recently by phone, Pierce, who last appeared with Feinstein in a 2009 holiday show at Feinstein’s at Lowe’s Regency in New York City, talked about his upcoming Tarkington appearance and some future projects.

They include his directing debut in “It Shoulda Been You,” a musical that opens at New Jersey’s George Street Playhouse in October, and an acting assignment in Manhattan Theatre Club’s “Close Up Space,” which begins rehearsals in December.

Have you and Michael performed together since the 2009 holiday show at Feinstein’s?
No. Since then I’ve been away. I went to London to do a play last year and then I brought it back to Broadway and he’s been on his own, so this will be the first chance we’ve had to reunite.

A New York Times review of that show referred to the two of you as “refined musical clowns,” comparing the two of you to Penn and Teller. You as introvert and Michael as extrovert. How would you describe your chemistry?
I would say, smooth as silk. That’s how I would describe our chemistry, because it was really effortless. We have been longtime friends. Then, besides our collaboration on stage, there was our collaboration in putting the whole show together, which took several months of research, working on different songs and coming up with what seemed to be the best program. It was just amazing and so much fun. I think what the audiences in New York and the critics responded to was that infectiousness – that feeling of fun.

Are you performing any of that same material in the show for the Tarkington opening?
Yes, there are some real great standards by Cole Porter, and also I’m going to sing a song called “Penny in My Pocket.” It was a song Jerry Herman wrote which was cut from “Hello Dolly.” And I’m also going to sing a song [“You Won’t Succeed on Broadway”] I originated on Broadway in “Spamalot.”

Prior to knowing Michael, were you a fan of the American Songbook?
It’s probably too much to say that I was a fan. I certainly appreciate that music and knew it somewhat, but when you get to be a friend of Michael’s – along with that you get an incredible education in the American Songbook. Not just the most popular songs but also the most obscure and everything in between. And as you all well know he is an incredible font of knowledge about that entire repertoire and I would say I became a much bigger fan and a much better educated fan after having met Michael.

Who are some of your favorite composers
Well certainly Cole Porter is up at the top. Jerry Herman in a completely different way is a favorite, but I would say Cole Porter would be my first choice.

Knowing Michael, I presume that you are aware of his role as artistic director at the Center for the Performing arts as well as the Michael Feinstein Foundation headquartered the Palladium?
Yes, I think it’s just amazing and not surprising. Michael is endlessly generous and always looking for ways that his talent and his expertise can find new outlets and new ways of being creative. I think this is just an example of his ability to do that.

What do you know specifically, if anything, about the Tarkington, the theater where you are performing for the grand opening?
Well I gather it’s gigantic.

Did you know it’s going to be the new home of the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre as well as others?
No I didn’t realize that. It’s an on-going theatrical institution that is going to live at the Tarkington?

Yes. The Civic is a community theater. I know that you started acting in high school. Did you perform in community theater when you were younger?
I did not do any community theater, but my dad – this was before I came along – my dad wanted to be an actor. He wanted to be a professional actor, and when he got out of college it was the Depression, and so instead of going to New York to be an actor, he went to work in his dad’s insurance agency and ultimately met my mom and then became an insurance agent.

He fulfilled his dreams by acting in community theater a lot in my hometown in upstate New York, Saratoga Springs. At one of my recent performances on Broadway, a women’s group that my mom had belonged to came to the show, and they brought with them a folder of reviews of my dad from all of his shows that he had done, and this was back in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s.

So you can appreciate why this is so special – that this theater will be the home of one of the oldest community theaters in the country?
Yes, I think that’s just great. You know, what’s amazing is during these economic times, when arts are usually the first to go because there are so many places in this country where people don’t understand or appreciate the arts – not just as entertainment, but they are really important in people’s lives. How thrilling that in the middle of the country that you have found a community that has embraced the arts, they have said, “No, we believe in this, we believe this is going to make our community a better place and a more attractive place for people to come and play and to come and work.” I think that’s very exciting.

Other than your appearance here, you have some other exciting projects coming up. Are you looking forward to directing “It Shoulda Been You?”
Boy, you did your research. I’m actually in the middle of it right now, because even though we don’t start rehearsals until September, we’ve all the pre-production of doing the casting of the show, meeting the designers. We’re going to have a workshop reading next week, so I’m already in the thick of it. It’s a great challenge, but so far I’m taking to it, so we’ll see what happens when the curtain actually goes up.

Was it your decision alone to cast Tyne Daly and Harriet Harris?
Well, I would say everything is a group decision. As a director, the buck stops with me, but Harriet I have known forever. She’s an old friend – we’ve worked together many times – and Tyne I knew through business, but we hadn’t worked together. But they were both perfect for the roles, and in fact Harriet is playing a role that was written for her.

It’s about an inter-faith couple right?
Yes, it’s a Jewish family and a WASP family. It takes place at the wedding of the daughter of the Jewish family and the son of the WASP family.

Is it a big musical? How many people are there in the cast?
There are 13 people, so it’s bigger than a little chamber musical but smaller than a large musical. It’s what you call a “book musical” – meaning it’s not a lot of big production numbers, so it’s more about the story.

Do you anticipate special chemistry between Daly and Harris?
Oh yes, because they are both really strong performers and unique performers. Tyne brings an incredible kind of earthy power to the role of the Jewish mother, and Harriet brings this kind of wackiness, slightly off-kilter energy to the tipsy WASP mom. I think those two coming together will be something to behold.

I also read that your partner Brian [Hargrove] wrote the book for this musical. What’s it like, working with your life partner on a show like this? Does he give you input in terms of making changes? How does that play out?
That was a big question, whether the relationship would survive the production. The reality is – as long as we’ve been together, which is nearly 30 years now, I’ve advised him on the scripts that he has written, he’s advised me and given me notes as an actor on the roles that I’ve been given. So this is really just a heightened version of something we have been doing all our lives together, and yes, it’s already been a great collaboration.

He’s had some terrific ideas, directorial ideas that I have found very useful and I will definitely use, and I’ve been going over the script and making things clearer or making things stronger or whatever. I think we work really well together, and what I’ve tended to do as a director is put together a team of actors and a team of designers who all work well together and who are all willing and able to collaborate.

My experience over the years working with the best directors, I’ve seen how the best shows can also be the most fun to put on. I don’t see any reason why you should have to choose between having a good time and having a good show, so that’s my goal.

While working with the fine directors you mentioned, did you consciously try to absorb their style and technique?
No, not only was I not consciously absorbing. I didn’t ever want to direct. People had asked me to direct for years, and I never was interested. It wasn’t until this script came along and I’d seen it in several workshops. They were looking for a director, and it’s the first time I looked at something and thought, “Oh, this is the thing I think that I can maybe have something to contribute to.”

But now that I am in the process of directing, I’m finding that both consciously and unconsciously, all of the advice I had been given as an actor, all the directives, good and bad, I have worked with, I can now put to good use. It’s like Richard III, where his past comes back to haunt him on the eve of the battle. They all come back and talk to me, all the people I have worked with, and give me ideas about the way to talk to actors, the way not to talk to actors, how to get the best out of people.

As far as your next acting engagement “Close Up Space,” tell me about the literary editor character you play.
He is clearly a mess; he’s very strict and very particular. And he’s also at a very difficult time in his life because he’s become so uncompromising in his role as an editor that he has driven away a lot of his office. Not only has he driven away his office, he has alienated his daughter, and the play is about how all of that works itself out, how his daughter, who has been shunted away to a private school, returns to confront him and how they work through their relationship. It sounds very serious – it’s got serious undertones – but essentially it’s a comedy.

It’s been a while since your stint on Frasier. No doubt you will be forever identified as that role of Niles – so how would you describe your personal relationship with that character now?
I think of him as an old friend, and like any old friend whenever I stumble upon him I’m happy to see him. So I think of him very fondly, and although our lives have taken different paths, whenever we do cross paths, whenever I catch a re-run of Frasier, it’s always great to see him again.

What’s been the oddest place you have and seen a re-run of yourself?
Well … probably at the gym. Someone was on one of those Stairmaster or something like that, and they had a television screen and they were watching a Frasier episode. I had to walk by, and it was one that I really liked, and of course there was no sound because she was wearing a headset. I just stood there four feet behind her in the middle of the gym watching the Frasier episode. Fortunately, I don’t think anyone saw me, because I think it would have looked extremely egotistical, but I was just caught up because I was having a good time.

Do fans who only know you as Niles ever confuse you the actor with that character?
I don’t have a problem with it, but it doesn’t happen that much because people are very sophisticated and understand that you are an actor and that you play a role. Frankly, what happens is people just come up – it just happened in the grocery store yesterday – this woman came up to me and said, “I just want to say I love you.” The only way she knows me is from Frasier, but that’s not a hard thing to embrace. That’s a pretty nice thing to have happen to you.

Tell me about your work with the Alzheimer’s Association and how it was that you became involved. Do you have a family member or a friend with the disease?
Yes, I have had family members affected with Alzheimer’s. My grandfather had Alzheimer’s, and my dad had dementia at the end of his life, which was probably also Alzheimer’s, so I have had personal experience with it.

I’ve had personal experience seeing the devastating effect it has, not only on families, but also their spouses who care for them. I’ve been working with the Alzheimer’s Association now since the mid-’90s, doing everything that I can to help out. I help with fundraising. I’ve been an international board member for eight years. I’ve worked a lot in Washington with members of Congress.

It’s a very important issue to me personally, but it’s also one that’s becoming more and more critical to the country because of the aging of the population, so we’re really trying to get the word out to let people understand it’s serious.

With the passing of the same-sex marriage bill in New York, can we expect to hear wedding bells for you and Brian?
We’re already married. We were California residents and married in the window when it became legal there [prior to the passing of Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage]. Friends of ours are getting married in New York. We are very happy for them and pleased to live and work in a state where our right to be married is recognized.

Just a little extract from David’s speech at the Alzheimer’s conference last month. Pretty funny!

Go HERE to stream the audio or download the podcast (it’s October 6, Hour 2).

Did you feel privileged to work on the last new Kander & Ebb score?

I did. First of all, I loved working on the show and I was so grateful to be working with John. And I did feel privileged to be working on the last Kander & Ebb show though it turned out to not quite be the last one. They keep coming out with them. There’s The Visit, and now they have Scottsboro Boys …

And The Skin of Our Teeth.

About Scottsboro: I just to have say this, the whole thing is so beautiful, powerful and shocking. I really want to see it on Broadway. Also, The Visit: I saw the last run-through before they went to DC with a beautiful performance by Chita Rivera and a truly haunting turn from George Hearn. It was just gorgeous.

Would you ever consider playing the John Collum role in Scottsboro?

You know what, having John do it, I can’t imagine why I would do it. It’s been done as well as it can ever be done.

Are you going to surprise us in the future with some of your character choices?

I always try to do something different to keep my creativity alive. I love to keep myself challenged.

Could you tell me about the show you’re doing now in London and will be bringing to Broadway in the fall, La Bete?

It’s a farce, it was done in ‘91 on Broadway. It was sort of legendary for several reasons. Ron Silver was the star and dropped out of it out of town. Tom McGowan – who played the station manager on Frasier for all of our run – was the understudy and opened on Broadway in the leading role. Some of the actors received Tony nominations. It was slaughtered by the Times and, subsequently it closed very quickly. It only ran twenty-five performances. It went on to open in London and won an Olivier and was a huge hit with Alan Cumming in the leading role. In the twenty years since [Broadway] it’s been performed a lot. It’s sort of in the style of a Moliere play but it’s also very contemporary. It has deep roots even though it is very funny. The sort of issues that it deals with – ideal versus real-life sort of things – are pretty potent. What we’re in the midst of exploring is how far we can go in each direction.

What are your feelings on 3D sets or computerized projections and the new technology?

I think it doesn’t matter. But, you can kill something with too much money. No matter what the stakes, you have to have something to offer an audience. If the technology helps to do that, then it’s a good thing.

What were your favorite theatre scores as a kid?

I grew up with the records my parents had. The earliest scores I remember hearing were My Fair Lady, the Mary Poppins soundtrack, Destry Rides Again …

What a bizarre choice!

Yes, those were the types of records they kept in the house. We also had Louie Armstrong’s recording of Hello Dolly!

Define collaboration.

[Long pause.] Working with people who challenge you and inspire you to go beyond what you thought possible.

Speaking of collaboration, could you talk about your relationship with the Alzheimer’s Association and working with Harry Johns?

They’ve been around much longer than I have been involved. When I was on Frasier - the Alzheimer’s Association has a Memory Walk – and they had asked me to being at the walk to sign autographs. So, I did that and that was my first contact with the association. I liked the people, and, at that point, I had lost my grandfather to Alzheimer’s disease so I thought this was an especially important cause. And not a very popular one. Not a lot of people were focusing on Alzheimer’s and I think because of that I wanted to personally get involved in the fight. What happened was, they brought me to Washington to testify before Congress to address the need for more funding. I started working with Maureen Reagan who was a powerhouse. Because of her experience as daughter of the president, she knew everyone. She took no prisoners. She was a fierce, fierce advocate for this disease – and a completely bi-partisan one. She was so inspiring.

So it was very personal to you.

Aside from being a cause I could believe in, I also wanted to help. One thing the association has done from me is restore my sense of hope. You know, when you lose someone to Alzheimer’s – I lost my grandfather to the disease and my dad to a form of dementia that may have been Alzheimer’s – when you start working with people in the organization you realize you aren’t alone. You start to realize you are fighting for them and something is being done. There is a sense of hope. The organization is also there for them to provide resources. So, even though the pain of losing a family member to the disease has dulled – that what’s happens at the time so we can move on – the people in the Alzheimer’s Association and their commitment and passion keeps that passion and hope alive in me. So, it’s been a very positive thing to me to be able to help out in anyway they see fit for me.

You also have been a fierce advocate for human rights, as your eloquent words on The View a few months ago expressed in denouncement of Proposition 8 in California.

I’m not quite sure what the reaction was …

It was a very positive one. Everyone said, “He’s damn right!”

Before I went on, the producer asked me if I would talk about it and I said, “Fine” … The fight goes on. I think it’s hard for people to understand – one of the great challenges of life is to put yourself in someone else’s shoes… I just read about a gallop poll, they did a poll about gays in the military. The first survey said, “How do you feel about gay people serving in the military?” and a bunch of people said “Fine.” And then they asked “How do you feel about homosexuals serving in the military?” and a significantly fewer number of people were in favor of that. So, it just makes you realize that these chosen words have a great deal power. And the word “homosexuality” has such a long-standing association that goes back through the sands of time – like the word “marriage.” So, that’s the reality we are up against. But, also, it’s an issue of basic human rights and civil rights and understanding that times change and we need to change and evolve – but I suppose it can’t all happen at the same time. We can’t stand for this persecution anymore.

What did winning the Tony for Curtains feel like?

It was something I had never thought about, ever. I hadn’t considered it. I was overwhelmed when it happened. So many emotions. In general, because it was for theatre – which means the world to me – I think certain emotions were heightened. The emotions of being overwhelmed by the honor but also being overwhelmed by the nature of the competition. I thought it was – as it almost always is – it was sort of comparing apples and oranges in terms of comparing performances that couldn’t be compared. To say one was better, you really couldn‘t. It was all of that at once. It was a very confusing night for me. I will also say that a very positive thing was that I went to Carmine’s after the show and the whole cast and crew of Curtains was there and they just erupted. It was then that I thought, “OK, now I can understand this. Now I can accept this.” Because it was for all of us, ultimately. That feeling of what it meant to the company – we didn’t get anything else that night – that sort of pulled me out of my funk. I talked to John Kander about it and he completely understood. He said to me, “I know exactly what you’re going through. It’s a very weird thing, this whole award thing.”

He wasn’t even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song for ‘New York, New York’! What an oversight! It’s shocking.

You know, in the end, will it matter? There will be that song as long as there is a New York. That’s the ultimate thing that happens with a great artist like John.

And you spoke so favorably of Raul Esparza and he of you in the press at the time. They tried to make something out of it that simply wasn’t there.

Like I said, it was absurd to compare those two performances. Or, the others, you know Jonathan Groff in Spring Awakening …

And you’ve all gone on to great things: Groff is on Glee, Esparza is constantly working and so are you. Is it any different to receive a Special Tony? Will you take more pride in this one perhaps?

No, I won’t take more pride in it – but, I’ll tell you, it’s a lot easier being given something and not having to worry and sweat it out and all that stuff. The Alzheimer’s Association means so much to me and the theatre means so much to me so one recognizing the other is just great. As far as my own getting the award, you know, I accept it as something – it’s not what I’ve accomplished because I’ve not really accomplished anything. It’s that I’ve done what I can.

What has helping the association taught you?

We never know what someone else is going through. You see someone walking down the street and you have no idea what is happening in their life. The Alzheimer’s Association helped me understand that you have no idea what is happening in someone else’s life. When you see people and the children of people with Alzheimer’s and what they have to live with – what their day is like, what their life is like, the difference between what they thought their life would be and what this diagnosis has turned it into. The disease just steps into their lives and turns everything upside down. I just think that it’s probably true for anything like this in life – it opens us up to how blind we are to what goes on around us. Certainly I know that one of my main jobs is raising awareness. Letting the people who haven’t gone through what my family has gone through know what’s out there and how terrible this is so they will join the club.

Do you hope to gain anything for the organization with receiving this Tony?

One of the most important things to me about this honor is that it gets publicity and awareness to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association. So, being on BroadwayWorld getting a lot of hits will bring us lots of welcome attention. I thank you so much for that.

And I thank you. Our conversation could not have gone better! We’ll see you in October in La Bete at the Music Box!

Thank you. It was good to talk to you. I’ll see you.

Donations to the Alzheimer’s Association of America can be made at their official website.