Approaching from Eighth Avenue dressed in jeans and a blue turtleneck, James Naughton, one of the stars of Michael Frayn’s new play, “Democracy,” arrived at the stage door of the Brooks Atkinson Theater accompanied by his 2-and-a-half-year-old schnauzer “Mike.” It’s just coincidence that the breed originated in Germany and that Mr. Naughton plays a former West German chancellor.

By 12:30 p.m. before a matinee, the two had clocked in for a workday that would last until 11 p.m. But after three plus decades in show business, the Connecticut native and two-time Tony Award Winner (1997 for his performance as Billy Flynn in “Chicago” and 1990 as Stone in “City of Angels”) knows the ropes.

The 59-year-old actor and director settled into his dressing room just off a landing in a warren of backstage staircases and passageways. The room was furnished with a white, slip-covered sofa, a wingchair tucked in a corner, and a large makeup mirror. Two white towels hung on a rack beside a small sink, and a cupboard held clean glasses and a few bottles of wine.

As refrains of Roy Orbison’s “Crying” wafted down the staircase, the actor removed his sweater in the over heated dressing room, revealing a Planet Hollywood T-shirt. “The natives are restless,” he said, pointing upstairs, and referring to the background music.

Calling “Democracy” “a fascinating story that Michael has told in a time when we are all cynical about our politicians’ motives,” Mr. Naughton said of his character, “It’s heartening to know that this guy did something because he thought it was a good thing to do – not because it was expedient.”

The real life Willy Brandt, a left-leaning politician elected in 1969, played a large role in setting the stage to bring down the Berlin Wall 20 years later.

“The only part of German history that seems to arouse much interest abroad is the Nazi period,” says dramatist Mr. Frayn in “A Note from the Playwright.” Calling the half-century or so that followed “a time of peaceful but dull respectability, with the Federal Republic characterized by nothing much except material prosperity,” Mr. Frayn, an Englishman who worked as a journalist in Germany during Willy Brandt’s ascendancy, writes, “To me, that material prosperity, that peacefulness, even that supposed dullness, represent an achievement at which I never cease to marvel or to be moved.”

“Democracy” emerges as his ode. New York audiences know his play “Copenhagen,” which arrived on Broadway in 2000 (a film version aired recently on PBS) as well as “Noises Off,” a 1983 import revived in New York in 2001.

Mr. Naughton began his stage, film, and television career with a 1971 New York Drama Critics Award for his performance as Edmund in Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” His resume includes feature films such as “The Paper Chase” and directing stints like the 2002 revival of “Our Town” starring Paul Newman.

Asked what it takes to succeed as an actor, he said, “Well, talent helps. But Stella Adler used to say, ‘It takes the skin of a rhinoceros, the tenacity of a bull dog, and a good home to go home to every night.'” Mr. Naughton and his wife of 36 years, Pam, (they met when he was a freshman at Brown and married in 1968, a year after graduation) make theirs in Fairfield County, Connecticut.

“A large part of what I do for a living is to try to manage disappointment – how to live with it, cope with it, so it doesn’t wear you out. For every job an actor gets, there are 10 to 25 he doesn’t get. We all have stories about the big fish we had on the line that got away.” Asked if he could think of any, he replied, “I can think of lots: leading roles in TV series; jobs that were promised that went away.

“Making a living is important,” he continued. “In some cases, there are artistic disappointments or disappointments to one’s ego. In many, many cases, it’s not about ego – it’s about feeding one’s family.”

The first of three children (his brother David is an actor; he also has a sister) born to James and Rosemary Naughton, who were both teachers, Mr. Naughton conveys the boyishness and confidence of the high school and college athlete he was. (Brown recruited him for soccer and baseball.) Asked what his parents taught, he quipped, “‘students.’ That’s what my father would say. That’s his line.”

“My father had done a few college productions,” he said, when asked if they had an interest in theater. “My mother encouraged me. They were aghast when I decided to pursue it.”

“I didn’t do it in college until the end of junior year,” said Mr. Naughton, “In November of junior year, on my way to the library,” he said, recalling his wandering into an audition. “Someone said, ‘Who’s next?’ She literally did this,” he said of a friend who was there to try out, pointing to himself as if he were sitting in the next seat.

Mr. Naughton made the cut but “couldn’t be in the show,” he said, because of an NCAA tournament he was in. “When soccer is over,” he said, he’d give it a whirl.

A theater professor at Brown took an immediate interest in him. “You know, Jim, I think you could do this,” he recalled James O. Barnhill saying. “Here’s where you belong. You take my class – three hours every afternoon. In a year and a half, when you graduate, you go to Yale Drama School.”

“I just got a letter from him,” the Broadway star said, jumping up from a chair in his dressing room to locate it. “Look at the handwriting,” he said, with awe at the penmanship of an earlier era.

“I’ve always been grateful to James O. Barnhill,” he said, amazed that his former teacher, now in his 80s, had tracked him down and was planning a trip from Providence, R.I., to see the show.

He followed Mr. Barnhill’s advice and went to Yale Drama School. “I graduated after three years and joined the company,” said the tall, slim actor. “They took two out of my class. The other was Henry Winkler.”

Both of Mr. Naughton’s children are in the arts. His daughter, Keira, has the role of Lucy in “The Rivals” at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater and sings in the band “The Petersons” which appears at places like Joe’s Pub. His son, a musician who has also played Joe’s Pub, fronts a group called “Greg Naughton and the Stark Naked Sole.” He also founded and ran the Blue Light Theatre.

Mr. Naughton said that in “Democracy” Michael Frayn is “painting a very complex picture of the political process.” He depicts “people in all their complications.”

Mr. Naughton’s Schnauzer embodies the antithesis of complication. He is, according to his master, “the easiest dog in the world,” proving it by playing happily with a Christmas tree chew toy, not protesting when it is taken away, and then reclining on the green carpet while his master answered questions during an interview.

Ever faithful, he waited in the wings, as his master, playing Willy Brandt, took on the world.