BACK
STAGE WEST
February
19, 1998
ACTORS'
DIALOGUE : Kingsley Leggs & Mary Gutzi
Reporting
by Rob Kendt
Call
them Ragtime's replacement killers. Eight shows a week at the Shubert Theatre
in Los Angeles, Kingsley Leggs and Mary Gutzi go out and knock 'em dead in
roles first played by Brian Stokes Mitchell and Judy Kaye, who are now with the
show on Broadway. Leggs plays the proud, passionate pianist-turned-terrorist
Coalhouse Walker Jr., and Gutzi plays a pivotal historical character, the
anarchist Emma Goldman. Both have been with the show in its Toronto and/or L.A.
incarnations for the past year as ensemble members and understudies.
A
native of St. Louis, Leggs is making his L.A. debut. He starred as John in the
Broadway, Canadian, and touring companies of Miss Saigon, and in the Chicago and
Japan companies of Forbidden Broadway. Regional stage credits include The House of
Martin Guerre, Cry, the Beloved Country, and Annie Warbucks. A native of Detroit,
Gutzi starred in the Broadway production of Les Miserables and understudied
Diahann Carroll in the Vancouver production of Sunset Blvd., in addition to working
on national tours of Cats and Pump Boys and Dinettes. Off-Broadway credits
include Tapestry: The Music of Carole King and Jule Styne's Song for a Saturday.
In
Ragtime, Leggs and Gutzi only have one song onstage together (the
brilliant, Brechtian "He Wanted to Say"), but they've bonded
backstage. They met recently at Campanile to discuss life in the theatre and
life on the road, and to rave about Ragtime, in which they'll next
perform in Vancouver after its L.A. run closes Apr. 11.
Kingsley
Leggs:
I did Miss Saigon for a long time, on and off, but this is the longest I've ever
spent in one project. I find it interesting that it still feels really fresh at
this point. It's a wonderful journey to take every night as a performer. This
guy Coalhouse, he goes everywhere--he feels every emotion, and he's at the
height of these emotions every time. It's draining as hell, but it's really an
incredible thing to have the opportunity. That's the challenge for me: if I can
really completely lose myself and just really live through it every night.
Mary
Gutzi:
It happens, though. It is an incredible journey, and part of the journey is a
gift that's been given to us by the craftsmanship of this piece. It's written
so beautifully. The words roll out of your mouth, the lyrics and the music cry
out to be sung. I know it sounds dramatic, but it's the honest-to-God truth: I
have never struggled with a single moment of this text, with a single moment of
the music, and I've sung Lloyd Webber and everybody else, and I can't say the
same from those other experiences. So when those nights happen that you just
believe and this character takes over, it is the most exciting thing in the
world.
Kingsley: It takes you. I find
that even if I'm not feeling well or feeling less than 100 percent, it takes
you away. Last night I was really hurting; my body was just like really
tightening, my legs were hurting, I was sore, I was thinking, My God, I just
feel awful here. But once you get going, you're gone.
Mary: I notice at the end of
the show when I'm back in my dressing room, I have to sit for a second or two.
If I have people who come to see me and they want to talk, I'm not coherent--I
sort of babble, and I can't get my brain back in gear for a while, because this
piece just sort of wraps itself around you.
Fighting Labels
Kingsley: I don't like labels. I
really do love musical theatre, and I'm proud to be a musical theatre performer;
when it's done well, it's an enriching medium, and you can't get from anything
else what you get from musical theatre. But I certainly like to be considered
for more than that. I mean, my first background was with a repertory company in
St. Louis, and we did six shows a season, two musicals and four straight plays.
But once I really started working in musical theatre--I can't remember the last
time I did a straight play.
Mary: Right, I know. I can't
either.
Kingsley: If they see you and
know you to be a strong musical theatre performer. . .
Mary: And the irony is that
in order to do musical theatre really well, you have to be a good actor,
because you're taking it totally out of the normal realm of reality. Like the
townspeople all get together every week and learn these songs? It's totally
surreal. So in order to make it real and breathe life into these characters in
a surreal situation, you've got to be a good actor.
We
studied the classics. We did Shakespeare. But once you start becoming known as
a musical theatre performer, the business will pigeonhole you.
Kingsley: And this show and the
way these roles are totally fights against that. Because they are demanding in
a way that most musicals are not. The essence of these roles is acting and
telling the story. I think when people see us doing these parts, they would be
more likely to see us as just actors.
Mary: Let's hope, yeah.
Kingsley: We can only hope.
Stepping In
Mary: The first time I went
out as Emma, I had about 15 minutes' notice, and I hadn't had a rehearsal in
about 11 weeks. You just have to get out there and do it.
Kingsley: Often, you've never
actually even worked with the other actors onstage. I had a rehearsal with most
of the key players that I come in contact with.
Mary: But the first time you
and I sang together was onstage. We never rehearsed.
Kingsley: It's just the nature of
the beast. It happens. You start the rehearsal for a show and everybody gets to
know each other, and then you become this family and it's just happy, happy,
happy--and then other companies start, people get tired, and little by little
the family starts to spread out and different people come in. . . It's like its
own little show on the side.
Mary: When I was doing a
national tour of Cats--you know, with the elaborate makeup, you can't really see
who's behind that makeup, and it's a specific design so that character always
looks that way. People were coming and going in this company because it had
been on the road for six years, so you would be in a scene with a completely
new person--and you didn't know they were new because it was the same face.
"The voice sounded a little different--who was that?"
Road Warriors
Kingsley: I've had a long life on
the road. I plan to settle here eventually.
Mary: I want to go a little
farther west: I want to start a theatre company in Hawaii. Seriously, that's my
goal. The island of Oahu has two really lovely theatres, Diamond Head theatre
and Manila Valley, and there's a wonderful pool of talent there. And I don't
think it will be a very tough job to get actors to come from the mainland to
perform in Hawaii.
Kingsley: I don't think so.
Mary: If I called you,
Kingsley, and I said, "I don't have a real lot of money, but you can stay
on the beach and do this groovy play"?
Kingsley: I'm there.