Marc Kudisch from "A Minster's Wife" by American Theatre Wing

Episode 321

Marc Kudisch, currently appearing in A Minister's Wife at Lincoln Center Theater, talks about performing in a musical where the transitions between speaking and singing are instant and fluid, how the show, based on Shaw's Candida, focuses its emphasis on the romantic triangle at its core, and the similarities between his character of Morrell and his early role as Conrad Birdie. He also talks about discovering himself as a performer as a senior in high school and then more fully in college; why he has always considered himself to be a character actor and how he defines that term; his performances as The Devil (in both The Apple Tree and The Witches of Eastwick), as comic villains (Franklin Hart in 9 to 5, Baron Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), comic foils (playing Count Carl-Magnus in four productions of A Little Night Music, including the depth he finds in a character described by others as "an idiot") and leading man (as Jeff Moss in Bells Are Ringing); his admiration for directors George C. Wolfe, Tina Landau and Joe Mantello; why he has to work to get himself considered for roles in plays, when plays were what he first did when coming to New York; and the positive and negative uses of a healthy ego.

Original air date - May 25, 2011
Running Time - 1:00:20