the iceman cometh is one of his most powerful plays. .now, two tony winning actors, nathan lane's and brian dennehy, i am pleased to have them at the table. welcome. nathan: thank you. charlie: there is a story i read, you saw this production was take place, and you said this is right for me. you notified the director? nathan: yes, it started with ken branagh and a bar. he said you have to do these great parts. charlie: i've never thought of that. nathan: he said if you do, you will learn a great deal and it will be life-changing, it does not matter what anyone says. i read an interview 10 years later with brian and bob falls, and they were discussing potentially revisiting "the iceman." they had done it in 1990 together. is there an o'neill character that brian has not played? nathan: i think he did. when i heard them discussing brian taking on the role of larry, i wrote an e-mail to bob falls, even though i did not know him that well, saying i would love to play hickey. here is my reasoning, and fortunately he responded , positively. we

tonight in our encore presentation we look at three plays, "hamilton" "the iceman cometh" and "slylight". >> the story of our country's founding is an extraordinary one and to tell it from the perspective of the guy who wasn't born here i think is an-- was my way in, having my parents are both born in the caribbean, both born in puerto rico and came here. may dad came the same age at hamilton speaking not a word of english and you experience a country differently when you come here at a certain age, and that's our way into the story. >> arthur miller who i was privileged to work with, we talked about the differences between a lot of these playwrights and he always said that o'neill was the deepest diver. and that he wasn't interested in-- he was interested in the soul. >> i never read "slylight" and i started reading it. and i read about ten pages and i thought i hope the rest of it is this good. i hope it doesn't get bad. and it just kept getting better and better and better and by the end i was in heaven. >> rose: a look back at the year in theater when we continue. >> funding for cha

"hamlet," and "the iceman cometh." he said ok, you know, we take all kinds in here.ughter] i got up there and i did a ferocious peasant. and i went wild with the eugene o'neil -- and i was really giving it the old gung ho. him stepping on the gas and stuff. it wasn't that good. it was over and he was looking at me and the audience got kind of teary about it. it had a lot of commitment and energy. he said, here's what i would like you to do. immediately, this was the genius with him. he said, i want you to do i want you to do hamlet as hickey from "teh iceman cometh" and hickey as hamlet. i immediately went into it. he was very happy about that. i did not pause. i just switched it. charlie: the character of hamlet and the text of hickey. al: yes. and the text of hamlet and -- charlie: and hickey as the presence he had. al: i learned more that day than i had in my entire life. charlie: and how have you managed to be a star to this day not playing character roles as much as you are playing stars? you are the center of these two films. pacino: again, i am going by what i