Jesse Tyler Ferguson on the true story of an icon in 'Tru'

Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson plays the flawed writer Truman Capote in Jay Presson Allen’s absorbing one-man show Tru.

Summary

• Jesse Tyler Ferguson is reprising his Off-Broadway role in 'Tru' at the Menier Chocolate Factory
• Ferguson is known for his long-running on-screen role in 'Modern Family'
• Ferguson's other credits include 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee', 'Here We Are', and 'Jesus Christ Superstar'

Jesse Tyler Ferguson is having a moment in London theatre. The Los Angeles-based performer, who starred in the original Broadway cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and won a Tony Award for Take Me Out, made his London debut in Sondheim’s final work Here We Are at the National in 2025, and then returned this year as a gleefully camp King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar at the London Palladium.

It has been a stellar run for the self-proclaimed Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber fan, who turns up for our interview wearing an (unplanned) Phantom sweater. “I was a kid who did not listen to pop music. My pop music was Phantom of the Opera,” he quips.

But, for audiences around the world, Ferguson is best known as the sarcastic, highly strung lawyer Mitchell Pritchett in beloved mockumentary sitcom Modern Family. “When you’re in people’s living rooms for 11 years on a TV show, they get to know you very well,” he says. “So to surprise them with something totally different has been a real pleasure for me.”

Ferguson’s current project at the Off-West End Menier Chocolate Factory invites audiences to swap their own living rooms for Truman Capote’s apartment in Jay Presson Allen’s one-man play Tru, which he first starred in at a one-night benefit reading in Tangiers, Morocco, before a full run off Broadway earlier this year.

Capote achieved widespread acclaim for the novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the true crime novel In Cold Blood but, as Ferguson explains, he was also someone “who became more famous for being famous”. After publishing secrets about his friends (a group of high-profile women known as the “swans”) in a magazine instalment of his unpublished novel Answered Prayers, Capote was exiled from society. The drama is a “downward spiral of this man in close-up”.

This is not Ferguson’s first time in a one-man show. In 2016 he starred in Fully Committed on Broadway, which saw him play 40 characters and flex his comic chops. “Nothing could prepare me for either one,” Ferguson says. “Fully Committed is like a fast-moving train. With Tru, it’s really a character study and a 90-minute monologue, so you sit in one character and really get to dissect them.”

He continues: “Tru doesn’t necessarily feel like a one-man show in the way that it felt lonely to do Fully Committed. In Tru, I feel like I’m on a stage full of people because the audience is really in my space. They become my castmates.”

The show premiered at Broadway’s Booth Theatre in 1989, and it was revived for the first time this year by Frozen’s Rob Ashford at the unique House of the Redeemer (an Upper East Side mansion apartment). Their goal has been to make the show as immersive as possible, transporting the audience to Capote’s home through highly detailed set design, which at the Menier will include unfinished ideas sat in his typewriter, as well as cushions and ashtrays scattered about the room. “We want it to be a space where people can see authentic pieces of Truman’s life,” he says.

“It’s so intimate — there are moments where I’m a foot away from people telling these stories,” he explains. Off Broadway, this led to more than one spontaneous interaction, from a woman who spilled her drink (Ferguson told her “I have people to clean that, just leave it”) to a man fainting (he cracked the apartment window while they waited for medics). “There are times people forget that it’s a play. I’m asking questions and they want to answer them because they think they’re actually talking to Truman Capote. There have been some really wild, interesting experiences,” he reflects.

Ferguson and the Menier’s artistic director David Babani discussed how they think British audiences will respond to this American writer and his story — and while he was assured that people are aware of Capote on this side of the pond, he doesn’t think prior knowledge is necessary to enjoy the show. “I experienced this even in New York — people who don’t know about him then become fascinated with him through this play.” He likens the experience to his own watching John Lithgow in Giant about author Roald Dahl earlier this year.

As for how he has captured Capote, Ferguson says that initially he didn’t intend to recreate the distinctive, childlike voice, but he quickly realised it was necessary if he was going to fully embody him. Growing up, he read In Cold Blood in school and remembers seeing this “very colourful character” on late-night talk shows. Ferguson rediscovered him again through screen performances such as Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Oscar-winning turn in Capote. But he has to remind himself that “Hoffman got to take a break after seven minutes”, while he has to sustain that iconic voice for 90. Ferguson had to build stamina, working with a dialect coach, as well as movement director Julia Crockett to “figure out how my Truman moves”.

He’s grateful for the abundance of real-life content on YouTube, as it means he can draw from Capote directly, as opposed to others’ interpretations. “He likes to paint the air around him with his hands, he looks away from people when he speaks a lot. He draws people in with his words, but he also talks to you as if he’s on a pedestal,” Ferguson notes. “I want to do my version of that — I want it to be organic to me.”

Ferguson says “it’s incredibly meaningful” to play an openly queer artist, as he is bringing a lot of his own coming out story to the role. While there have been drag interpretations of Capote, Ferguson reflects on the fact that the well-known screen versions have all been performed by straight men. “I think I bring something that innately those actors don’t bring — and that’s life experience of being a gay man, and being someone who has struggled with that.”

Ferguson believes Capote’s story of being cancelled by society has plenty of modern-day relevance, as those in the public eye regularly contend with trial by social media. He says it has made him more protective of his private life. “I have learned to be a lot more careful with what I put out there on social media because tone and context aren’t always something that you can control. Clickbait is very prevalent right now. You do an interview and you have no control over how that’s going to be farmed out to other outlets,” he says, before adding, “but we don’t have to tell everyone everything. There’s something wonderful about keeping some things to yourself.”

Ferguson thinks that Capote would love the access that he would have to people via social media if he were around today. “I think he would be in so much trouble as well. He would be messy on Instagram Live,” he adds, laughing.

So what is his own view of Tru? Does he see Capote as an egomaniac happy to exploit others, or does he have sympathy for this fragile yet dazzling socialite? “I can step back and say he should’ve done things differently,” he says reflectively. “But he does live in sadness. His great tragedy is that he doesn’t know how to take responsibility. It’s a fascinating play.”

As Ferguson continues his fantastic run of shows in our capital city, he shares excitement for the chance to continue living alongside this flawed and complex man. “That’s the beauty of being able to do this again in London — I get to go deeper.”

Book Tru tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

This article first appeared in the October 2026 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Photo credit: Jesse Tyler Ferguson in Tru. (Photo by Johan Persson). Inset: Modern Family. (Image Disney/ABC Television)