By Tom Nondorf
02 Sep 2009

	Kevin Smith Kirkwood

DIAL 'K' FOR KEVIN
Note to any teachers out there: If there is one constant among the many performers I have spoken to, it is that they tend to remember the teachers who pushed them to pursue dreams they might not otherwise have gone after. Kevin Smith Kirkwood is no exception. Raised in a rough area in Toledo, he was given a chance to attend a Jesuit High School there, where one priest gave him the encouragement to act and sing, which led to Kirkwood studying theatre at Fordham and eventually making a go of it as a musical performer. Currently he is acting in a funky new Off-Broadway Blaxploitation satire musical called Dial 'N' For Negress, which bows Sept. 10 at the Clurman.

Q: You came up with the concept for Dial 'N', so tell me what you were going for with it or what inspired it?
Kevin Smith Kirkwood: The team that created the show [including Travis Kramer and Tom Oster] is a bunch of friends from college and high school, actually. We've been friends for a long time. We created a show five years ago called Karate Kid the Musical, and we took it and gave it a sort of gay, edgy, 2000s slant. It was fun to do, and we liked working together as a team, so we looked toward the Blaxploitation genre. And I thought, "What if Prince could have played Shaft?"

Q: Do you like being in things in which you have such a key role in the creation of the show? Is that pretty rewarding, a little scary or both?
Kirkwood: It's definitely all of the above. It doesn't get scary until right up until those last rehearsals, which is right about now. It's been the most rewarding thing ever to work on something that I helped create from the ground up and that is expressing ideas and things that I want to express. And you get to work with friends who you know and trust, which is an awesome feeling.

	Kevin Smith Kirkwood in Dial 'N'

Q: With Karate Kid and Dial 'N', it seems you have a taste for spoofs and satire.
Kirkwood: Oh definitely. We love the idea of being able to comment on something, which is what the best spoofs are able to do. Not just making fun of it but have something to say about it. That genre also gives you a chance to be a little more outrageous and edgy and fun.

Q: Checking your résumé, it looks like you've done a variety of shows. What are some of your favorites?
Kirkwood: Well, of course, Spelling Bee because it was a great show, and I love William Finn's music, so that was awesome to do, and I've gotten to do some concerts with him since, singing more of his awesome music. Godspell the tour, which was one of my first jobs, was really awesome to do. It was a great young cast; we were all just kids having a great time. I got to play Angel in Rent last year at the Weathervane Theatre up in New Hampshire—a small theatre, but the production values they have there are really great for a small regional theatre, and it's really about the work, and you get to stretch your wings over the course of a summer in like seven different shows.

Q: And you do some cabaret shows as well.
Kirkwood: I do, yes. I've done a show at the Duplex with a friend of mine named Ritter Hand. I did a solo show called "It's Me, Baby, It's Kevin," which is a chronicle of my life. And last September, Ritter and I joined forces again to do a show at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, which is called "Comme Tu Veux," which again is about getting together, creating something of our own, putting it together and performing it. It feels really awesome.

[Dial 'N' For Negress is at the Clurman Theatre, located at Theatre Row at 410 West 42nd Street. Call (212) 279-4200 for tickets, or for more information, go to DialNforNegress.com.]

HITHER AND YON
Lots to talk about this month, which marks my lucky 13th year in NYC…Original movie musicals featuring Broadway talent are hard to come by these days, so "Clear Blue Tuesday," screening at the SVA Theater (333 West 23rd) on Sept. 10 at 7 and 9:15 PM is pretty exciting for that reason, and the trailer on Youtube looks pretty intense. The film, directed by Elizabeth Lucas, features original music written by the cast, which is a cool approach for a movie dealing with the emotional effects on New Yorkers in the years after Sept. 11. Associate producer, Julie Miller, told me, "Basically the cast went through a series of improvisational meetings, and out of that, grew the script — sort of like the process for A Chorus Line, but turned into a film instead of a theatre piece." Among the cast are Asa Somers, Becca Ayers, Greg Naughton, Jeremy Schonfeld, Julia Murney, James Naughton, Kelli O'Hara and Christian Campbell. Go to www.clearbluetuesday.com for further info. . . . My predecessor at this column, Wayman Wong, continues spreading the Leading Men spirit by producing the wonderful Leading Men concert series benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Leading Men IV was held back in May, and the DVD will be available at the Broadway Flea Market on Sept. 27, so if you are attending the Flea, keep an eye out for the DVD. Past editions will also be available. If you can't attend, fear not. The DVDs will be available through BroadwayBeat.com thereafter. LM IV was hosted by John Tartaglia and featured Nick Adams, James Barbour, Jim Caruso, Mickey Conlon, Michael Kadin Craig, Kevin Earley, Jonathan Groff, Norm Lewis, Paolo Montalban (whom we'll be talking to soon), Tony Yazbeck and others. More on the DVD next time. . . .The wonders of the internet never cease. Who would have thought one could see footage from the long-lost collaboration between John Phillips, Michael Bennett, and later Andy Warhol called The Man in the Moon? There is a two-minute video clip of a performance of the song "Plastic Bouquets" on www.dangerousminds.net that gives a clue at just how charmingly odd the show was. Check that out while you can. . . .Speaking of Warhol, the lovely Merrill Grant informed me that she's been cast as the lead in the NYMF dance musical Andy Warhol Was Right written by Sammy Buck with music by Dan Acquisto and choreography by Daryl Gray, Darren Lee and Shea Sullivan. Giovanna Sardelli directs this mixture of dance, music and pop art that opens Sept. 30 at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center. Go to www.nymf.org for details. . . . Sept. 11 and 12, St. Bart's has a fundraiser, a staged reading of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. David Pasteelnick, Chazmond Peacock, Marc Strauss and Michael Vannoni are the dudes in the cast. Call the box office for reservations: (212) 378-0248. St. Bart's is at 109 East 50th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues. . . .Okay, that's a wrap. Look for me at the Broadway Flea!

Tom Nondorf can be reached at tnondorf@playbill.com.