Will Ferrell Is Broadway's New King

By Christopher Moore, Broadway Magazine

In what is surely one of the biggest events on Broadway in recent history, Will Ferrell has made his Broadway debut in You're Welcome America. A Final Night With George W. Bush. Broadway.tv and Broadway Magazine were on hand as stars like Jimmy Fallon, Paul Rudd and Jason Segal, Ana Gastyer. James Lipton, and Demetri Martin braved the cold New York night to be part of Will Ferrell's Broadway debut. Audiences have already made the show a Broadway success, and the opening night critics confirm Ferrell’s achievement in bringing his distinct comic voice to Broadway as former president George W. Bush.

You're Welcome America.
A Final Night With George W. Bush

"I got to tour with him a little, and he's just the kindest, most sane, mellow person on the whole tour," offers Demetri Martin when thinking about what he likes most about Will Ferrell, "He's very classy."

What does Jimmy Fallon like best about Will Ferrell?

"His hands," grins the new host of Late Night.

Speaking of hands, after several rounds of enthusiastic applause, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay spoke with Broadway.tv and Broadway Magazine about the event.

"I held my breath the whole night," laughs Mr. Ferrell.

"It was great," says a justly pleased Adam McKay, "you do a lot of work on these shows, you do all these previews and you tweak and tweak and fix and fix and then finally its done. It's just so much fun to see Will on stage."

"It's just such a cool thing to be opening on Broadway. We really, you know, knock on wood, have yet to have a bad house," said Will after the show, "one of the amazing things is that it's drawing from all sorts of groups. Young and old. People who are politically minded. People who just fans of mine. We're getting just this great, eclectic group, and it's just kind of a fired-up audience."

"I've never had this experience," says Will about the tremendous response of the live Broadway audience, "To be quite honest, Adam and I aren't from theater. We, kind of, don't know what we're doing. So, we just kind of dove in, and it's nice that people are responding."

No doubt audiences will continue to respond for the entire limited run. Given the success of this production, could Will Ferrell think about a return visit to Broadway? We'll see. Let's hope the Tony Voters can get tickets to see the show.

Check out the opening night crowd, and enjoy more candid conversation with Will Ferrell and the stars and audience of You're Welcome America, right here on Broadway.tv.