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Michael Cerveris of ‘Cymbeline’ Has Hair, Beautiful Hair

Martha Plimpton and Michael Cerveris in Cymbeline.Photo: Paul Kolnik/Courtesy of Rinaldi Publicity

Is it just us, or is the hair in the Lincoln Center production of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline completely out of control? Picture male ponytails and ringlets and crimping run amok. It’s as if Twisted Sister invaded a Renaissance fair. Martha Plimpton’s adorable pixie cut, for example, appears to have been eaten by that horrid blonde wig Winona Ryder wore in Edward Scissorhands.

“It’s a very wiggy production,” admitted John Cullum, who plays Cymbeline) and wears a ponytail wig almost entirely obscured by a nine-pound crown, at the play’s opening night last week. His evil queen, Phylicia Rashad, even got saddled with a wig that looks exactly like her real hair: “After they made me a wig, they said, ‘Oh. Well, you didn’t need a wig. Why did we make this?’ And I said, ‘Because you wanted to!’”

While most everyone refused to complain about their faux tresses, only baldy turned Fabio Michael Cerveris seemed truly pleased. “It only takes twenty minutes to turn me into Daniel Day-Lewis in Last of the Mohicans!” he told us, excitedly. (Not that we think this is actually a good thing, mind you.) Cerveris tells us he not only likes his flowing brown locks but actually insisted the wig designers give him more. “The longer the better, as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “I tried not to show just how starved I was by fondling it and flipping it all the time, but it was a big temptation. It’s been a long time since I’ve had that kind of hair.” —Jada Yuan

Michael Cerveris of ‘Cymbeline’ Has Hair, Beautiful Hair