Mr. Beaks Chats With Danny DeVito About THE NIGHTMAN COMETH Tour And Season Five Of IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY...!

Last week, we learned that the IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA "gang" of five - Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney, Kaitlin Olson and Danny DeVito - are planning to take their delectably tasteless show on the road in the form of a rock opera. For fans, it's the chance to see Charlie's THE NIGHTMAN COMETH performed live in all of its deranged glory; for those unfamiliar with the show, it's an excuse to get familiar. Speaking as someone who just finally got around to sampling the show (which begins its fifth season on September 17th), I think you want to get more than familiar; I think you want to get touched by this strangely amiable half-hour comedy that gets away with standards-flouting murder on FX. Much like SOUTH PARK, every episode is an occasion to wonder whether anyone at the network is monitoring the show's content. The pilot episode contains enough anal sex references to merit an R rating from the MPAA, and it only gets coarser from there. For a show that appears on the surface to be little more than your standard issue workplace sitcom (three best friends own an Irish pub!), it's shockingly depraved. You can get a taste of the rock opera here... ... and for more on the live show (which is already selling out across the country) and what to expect from this season of IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY..., here's a chat with the series' not-so-secret weapon, Danny DeVito.

Beaks: So with the rock opera, are you trying to draw new fans or play to the base?

DeVito: The rock opera was something we always talked about. Years ago, I wanted to put TAXI on the boards. The first year of TAXI, the actors went out on strike, and we were all sitting around with our thumbs up our asses. I thought it would be great to do as a live show in some little theater. That was a short-lived wish because the actors settled and we went back to work. But this year, Rob, Glen and Charlie were talking about [the rock opera], and I thought it was a great idea. Last year, Charlie wrote THE NIGHTMAN COMETH, and, coincidentally, they had a friend playing at The Troubadour, so we just thought we'd go over and do a couple of songs. But then we got together and decided to do the whole show as is, with the songs in it and the costumes and the story - where Charlie writes this love letter of sorts to this waitress. And we had such a great time. The fans were so into it. We did two nights, and we kept saying backstage, "Let's do this somewhere else!" But then we went to work. In the meantime, Live Nation came at us with this idea, and we jumped at the chance because we're all guys and girls who like to be on stage. And now we're in! We're doing Boston, which I just heard this morning is sold out. New York is sold out. Philadelphia sold out in fifteen minutes. San Francisco and Seattle are on their way, and may be sold out. It's going to be a great experience because we're getting a bus. We're going to travel from Boston to Philly in a bus. (Laughs) It'll be a hoot.

Beaks: You'll find out how well you can stand each other.

DeVito: I'll just make sure they understand that I'm from New Jersey, and I don't hold anything back - including the wind. (Laughs)

Beaks: That's what I was wondering. That can escalate pretty quickly. And that's like a nuclear war: no one wins.

DeVito: It'll be "The War of the Winds"! On the road with the cast of IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY... (Laughs)

Beaks: Hopefully, you'll get video of that.

DeVito: Yeah, we'll try to get the sound working.

Beaks: How intense has the rehearsal period been? And how elaborate is the stagecraft going to be?

DeVito: It's pretty elaborate for guys and girls who've been doing television shows. We have a couple of dance numbers. We try to add things for the folks so they get a feeling of live theater. We have sets, we have costumes, we have... pretty much what was in the show. But when you put it on its feet, it grows a little bit. It's a lot more fun. Matt Shakman is our director, and... it's cool. We choreographed it pretty much ourself, so it's not like you're seeing Bob Fosse stuff. (Laughs) You're getting the guys from the bar - and Kaitlin [Olson], Mary Elizabeth [Ellis] and Artemis [Pebdani]. And we have a couple of surprises.

Beaks: Going into your new season, I'm just wondering if there are any taboos left to be trampled.

DeVito: Are you kidding? We've got taboos galore! We're human beings! Look at us! Look at the world we live in! Oh, my god, the world is our taboo oyster!

Beaks: I guess every time you think you've seen it all...

DeVito: Yeah, something comes running around the corner at you and rears its ugly head. It's all out there happening on a big canvas for us to look at. We go into the bailout this year. And there's an intervention show. There's all kinds of cool stuff coming up in the next season. We have a really fun two-parter that we're going to release on DVD at Christmas time, where we show we can really pull out all the stops. We have no boundaries on DVD. TV still has a few boundaries that we haven't been able to break through.

Beaks: Well, I'm glad you saved it for Christmas.

DeVito: Yes, we put it in the old yuletide spirit!

Beaks: (Laughing) I love a good Christmas episode.

DeVito: Oh, this is a good one. You name it, it's in there, baby!

Beaks: I'm sure my mom will love it.

DeVito: I think your mom is going to really like it. I have a special offering in there that... (Laughs) Oh, god.

Beaks: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you've directed an episode of the show yet.

DeVito: No. There's so much to do over there. It's a lot of fun, and everybody puts in their two cents. We've had good directors who come in. We do usually five shows at a time with a director, and... we shoot with three cameras. It's very fast-paced. And everyone pitches in in their own way, in terms of blocking and stuff like that. I think we'd be hard-pressed for any of us to take the time to direct the show and be in it. We shoot really fast, and we shoot out of order, so we rely on the director to steer us in the right direction. We have a lot of people working for us that are great. We have script supervisors, and we have great camera people... and they're all into it. Everyone's a big fan. Random people come up and go, "Wait a minute, you had the yellow shirt on." You know, that kind of stuff. And then somebody will say, "You know, the way that scene we did three days ago... we all ended on this kind of note, we were in this emotional state." That's what a director usually does, is make sure that we're kind of randomly in the ball park. There are not a lot of parameters and not a lot of rules. Well, there's one rule: we break all rules.

Beaks: Do you have any features you're developing to direct right now?

DeVito: I've got a couple of projects that I've been working on. I had a film that I was almost shooting, which was called THE TRUE CONFESSIONS OF CHARLOTTE DOYLE. But we had a little problem: Morgan Freeman had a car accident, and we were four weeks into prep. That was last year, so that all wound down. And, you know, getting things going is very difficult, especially independent movies. I still have it, and I still may do it one day. But Morgan is, thank god, better. He was out of commission for almost a year. But I've got of other things that I'm planning. And we start shooting again... this summer. But after the tour, I might take a little time off. I'm working on The Blood Factory, which is my little passion project that I brought to Comic Con. It's a website. I don't know if you've been on it, but you should go on it and see it. It's really cool. We went to Comic Con, and showed two episodes. They're short, Grand Guignol, over-the-top horror films that have a sense of humor. It's the kind of horror that I like. We shoot them on DV and I edit them. John Albo writes them. There are about five movies on there now, and we're putting more on there every month.

For more on THE NIGHTMAN COMETH tour, head over to Live Nation. Hopefully, there are still seats available in your area. And if you can't make it out to one of the shows, take heart that IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA is back on FX starting September 17th. Faithfully submitted, Mr. Beaks