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THE LEADING MEN: The Marc of Excellence
By Wayman Wong
01 May 2003
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Marc Kudisch with Zoey.
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| photo by Ben Strothmann | "Tra la, it’s May, the lusty month of May," a lovely month when everyone does Broadway or cabaret. Or so it seems when we chatted with these three amigos: Marc Kudisch (Thoroughly Modern Millie), Jonathan Dokuchitz (The Look of Love) and pop singer-songwriter Tom Kitt.
KUDISCH: HE’S NO ‘MILLIE’ VANILLA
With his looks, charisma and booming baritone, Marc Kudisch is one of Broadway’s top leading men by most everyone’s standards, except his own. The 6-foot-2 native from Hackensack, N.J., really sees himself as a supporting character actor. In fact, last year he scored the Triple Crown of nominations — Outer Critics, Drama Desk and Tony — for Best Featured Actor as Trevor Graydon in Thoroughly Modern Millie.
As Millie’s delightfully upright boss, he’s sensational polishing off a patter song about floor wax, set to Gilbert & Sullivan, or exploding into ecstasy with "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life." Earlier this year, the 36-year-old Kudisch took a leave to tackle Count Carl-Magnus in A Little Night Music at New York City Opera in March, and now he will play Mike Robinson in Encores’ No Strings May 8-11 at City Center and return to Millie May 13 at the Marquis.
But whether he’s playing Jackie in The Wild Party, Jeff Moss in Bells Are Ringing or Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie, he infuses his larger-than-life characters with humor and humanity. Currently dating an "incredible actress," Kudisch shares his home with Zoey, an adorable three-year-old Doberman-German shepherd mix.
Question: You’ve been involved with Millie [by Dick Scanlan, Richard Morris and Jeanine Tesori] since its earliest readings four years ago. What do you enjoy most about the show and your character?
Marc Kudisch: The charm of Millie to me is playing it straight. Graydon has to be played straight to be funny. He’s an operetta character caught in a musical. He is a Victorian man being engulfed by a modern world. The fun of it is watching him become undone. When he falls for Dorothy, you see the five-year-old boy in the man. I also really enjoy this cast. Everyone truly loves one another.
Q: Last May, you got your first Tony Award nomination for Millie. How did that feel, and how was your Tony night?
Kudisch: It was amazing to be nominated with those guys, and a lot of them are my friends. Every one of them — Shuler [Hensley], Brian [D’Arcy James], Norbert [Leo Butz] and Gregg [Edelman] — gave a great performance, as well as other people who weren’t nominated. But Tony night was wonderful and terrible. It was a joy because my mom and sisters were there. But it also sucked because it was a competition [between Millie and Urinetown]. This is stupid. Ewwwwww. I was thrilled that Millie won Best Musical, but I also love my friends at Urinetown. It’s unfortunate our business judges things by hype and awards.
Q: Speaking of your friends, I hear you’ve got a Sunday tradition called "Game Night." What’s that?
Kudisch: Some of us from Millie, like Gavin Creel, and a couple from Urban Cowboy, Urinetown and other shows get together on Sunday nights and play games like Running Charades, Celebrity and Mafia until two in the morning. Neil Patrick Harris is the ringmaster, and it’s a riot.
Q: You took a leave from Millie to do A Little Night Music. What was that like, and how was it working with Jeremy Irons [as Fredrik]?
Kudisch: Terrific. I’m operatically trained, so I’d always wanted to work at City Opera. And Jeremy is such a great actor and good guy. God bless him for doing as well as he did. He’d say to me in rehearsals: "Please don’t get any better." He was a fantastic Fredrik. He’s very funny and had a cheesy sense of humor. He was like a child with ADD [Attention Deficit Disorder]. It was such a great company.
Q: Besides Millie, you’re doing No Strings at Encores and The Broadway Musicals of 1960 on June 9 at Town Hall, singing songs from Bye Bye Birdie. And you’ve got an Off Broadway musical this fall, right?
Kudisch: Yeah, it’s called The Thing About Men, and it’s by Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts. They wrote I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. It’s a great story about a successful account exec with a beautiful wife and two kids, and he’s screwing his secretary on the side. One day his wife tells him she’s been seeing someone too, so he decides to track down the guy who’s been screwing his wife and become his roommate. It’s based on a German film called “Men.”
Q: I know you’re a big believer in craft, so what do you think of "stunt casting" on Broadway [where pop/TV stars with little stage experience are given leads]?
Kudisch: It pisses me off. I’m very old-school. Get on the stage, show me you’ve got the shit. Be here, rock ‘n’ roll. If you don’t have it, get off the stage because some of us take [theatre] seriously and make it our career. It’s what’s wrong with our business. I hate “American Idol,” but my girlfriend and I are hooked on it. I just yell at the TV screen because it accentuates the idea that you don’t need talent to become a star. To me, doing theatre isn’t a lark. It’s a mission.
For more information, visit www.marckudisch.cjb.net.
DOKUCHITZ: FROM BOYS TO BACHARACH
As Jonathan Dokuchitz proved last fall in the Roundabout revival of The Boys From Syracuse, he knows how to sing Rodgers with heart. And now he’s back in another Roundabout show directed by Scott Ellis, The Look of Love, and he’s just wishin’ and hopin’ to give the pop songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David their due.
Dokuchitz’ Broadway credits include Tommy, Into the Woods and Dream, and in January, he filled in for Stephen Bogardus in Playwrights Horizons’ revival of Falsettos and stopped the show with Whizzer’s galvanizing solo "The Games I Play." In addition, he has toured with Liza Minnelli, and his golden tones can be found on the title track of Amanda Green’s new CD, "Put a Little Love in Your Mouth." ("Her songs are so tongue-in-cheek," he quips.) But you’ve probably also heard his glorious lyric baritone in animated movies where he supplied the singing voice for Mel Gibson ("Pocahontas") and John Cusack ("Anastasia").
In fact, in The Look of Love, which opens May 4 at the Brooks Atkinson, Dokuchitz is reunited with Liz Callaway, who sang the title role of Anastasia. Ironically, they don’t have a duet in the new revue. But what the 6-foot-1 actor from Oneonta, N.Y., does get in The Look of Love is a stirring solo of "A House Is Not a Home" and the chance to share the stage with "a diverse group of great singers and incredible dancers. The music is so uplifting. I love the energy of singing with the whole cast."
Dokuchitz, 36, wears contemporary Dolce & Gabbana in The Look of Love, but how did he feel in an old-time tunic in The Boys From Syracuse? He says, "Tom Hewitt, who played my twin, has beautiful legs. I’m not as chunky as Mr. Rocky Horror Show. He was always more tanned than me. I’d say, ‘Stop going to the beach. I can’t keep up!’ But that’s OK. When you get older, humility goes out the door."
Clearly, this actor doesn’t take his good fortune or gifts for granted. Just days before Sept. 11, 2001, he and his partner, Michael Arnold, the award-winning dancer from 42nd Street, found their beloved black and-white puppy, Bucky, in the woods near their cabin in upstate New York, so "Bucky became our instant family." Dokuchitz also recalled that "Michael’s the son of a fireman, so [after Sept. 11] we ran to the store and got bottled water and a million cans of tuna, which I finally threw out six months ago. We called it our ‘9/11 tuna,’ but nobody wanted to eat it anymore. It was unbelievable. It was the best of times and the worst. But hopefully it made a lot of people stronger."
It’s that same sense of community and camaraderie that also informs one of his most recent recordings. A month or so after Sept. 11, he got together with his good friend Anne Runolfsson and recorded Billy Joel’s beautiful "Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel)" for "Jamie de Roy & Friends, Volume 4: Family" CD.
As Dokuchitz puts it, "I remind myself that I’m very lucky to live in this country and be an actor doing exactly what I want to do on Broadway — give or take a tunic." Continued...
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