John Lithgow talks about Broadway's new play 'Hillary and Clinton'

If a passionate theater fan, Hillary Clinton, was to meet at the John Golden Theater this season on Broadway, she may not find the kind of reception she was used to. The former presidential candidate and her former husband as president are the pseudo-subjects of playwright Lucas Hnath and director Joe Mantello. Hillary and Clinton, starring Laurie Metcalf as Hillary and John Lithgow as Bill. While the 90-minute play begins with the warning that all the action on stage takes place in another reality, it also takes place in New Hampshire 2008 during Hillary Clinton's primary campaign against Barack Obama. He stages imaginary conversations between Hillary and Bill – and invitations from Obama (Peter Francis James) and chief strategist Mark Penn (Zak Orth) – in camera, many of them being of less and less flattering.

Speaking with Vulture last night at the opening of the series, Lithgow admitted he thought it would be a "tough" theatrical night for the Clintons. "I think it would be a difficult night for them," he said.

An argument between Mark and Bill, for example, echoes the strategist shouting to the former president that the world will only remember him for "kissing". Hillary later adds that Bill will be remembered for his personality, and a pretty ugly thing to remember. "

"It's a lot of the tensions of a wedding, especially a wedding under the intense pressure of a political campaign," Lithgow said. "A wedding with a history of everything that happened there – it's not like they have more secrets from each other. And yet, they are indispensable to one another; they are devoted to each other. "

Lithgow himself is a "big fan" of the Clinton, whom he has met during his previous Broadway outings, "a truly warm and wonderful opportunity". He even campaigned for Hillary's candidacy in 2008 and 2016. "I was devastated when she lost the last election," he said.

So during Hillary and Clinton Perhaps a stimulating play for his inspirations from the real world, Lithgow says they "could still be satisfied. It's certainly a very good game and it's beautiful. I think the real problem would be the audience sitting around them … The public brings all its information about the Clintons to the event, and we're just, in a way, surprising them by making our version. "