Was there a sense of collaboration between the playwright, Joe DiPietro, the director, Christopher Ashley, and the actors?
They were very collaborative. They realized that we had been living with these characters for so long, that they’d come in with a new scene and ask, ‘is it worth going in that direction?’. There have been drafts where Huey has not been liked at all. And then there was a draft where Huey was liked a little too much. I think this one finds a nice in between. Who hasn’t had the experience, where they think of doing something grand, but have to step back. I’ve read that the character is based to some extent on a well-known Memphis DJ of the time. To what extent if any did you draw on biographical material in building the role? There was Dewey Phillips and also some other DJs at the time like Alan Freed, but Dewey Phillips was like the firebrand of the Memphis disc jockey world. He was, in fact, the first DJ to play “race music” — what we call rhythm and blues. He played black music on the white radio dial and right in the center where the frequency was strongest. I heard a 30-second recod
