Doug Kreeger: Entering 'ROOMS'

Anyone who watches The Discovery Channel with any regularity is familiar with the chameleon These members of the lizard family are capable of changing their colors to fit in with their surroundings. Television programs show how they morph from the greenest green into a nondescript brown simply by a change of their locale. They can also become striped and spotted depending on their environment. Their transformations are fascinating to watch.

Human beings are often called "chameleons" when they have changeable dispositions or habits. To call a boss or co-worker a "chameleon" is unflattering, but to apply that appellation to an actor and you are according him the highest form of praise. Doug Kreeger is an actor who has been displaying his chameleon-like gifts to the various roles he has played on New York's stages.

Kreeger first came to the attention of theater-goers when he essayed the role of Richard Loeb in Stephen Dolginoff's musical THRILL ME. In that musical, Kreeger was the brilliantined half of the Leopold and Loeb team who killed a youngster just for the sport of it. Kreeger was sensual and seductive in the role and was singled out by both the New York Times and the New York Post described as "compelling" and Rex Reed called "riveting". He was the personification of oiliness under the surface of debonair charm. Later on Kreeger appeared in NYMF's production of the musical YANK!, where he played Stu, a naïve GI, and was the epitome of innocence under an enlisted man's haircut. In reviewing that production, BroadwayWorld singled him out by saying, "As an actor, Kreeger is so skilled that his silent moments on stage become his most effective times for conveying emotion and motivation. He is a pleasure to watch."

Currently Kreeger is starring in Paul Scott Goodman and Miriam Gordon's ROOMS: A ROCK ROMANCE at The New World Stages. In it he plays Ian, a Scottish songwriter who becomes romantically involved with his lyricist played by Leslie Kritzer. This character is about as far removed from Loeb or Stu as can be imagined, but Kreeger brings him to life with stunning effectiveness. His Ian has a completely different body language and hairstyle from the other characters-and a fully convincing Scottish brogue. Other successful actors in musical theater, like Patrick Wilson and Craig Bierko, give excellent performances in different shows but they always look like themselves in these roles. That's not the case with Doug Kreeger. He is certainly the chameleon of musical theater.

Chatting with Kreeger by phone on a recent afternoon found the actor to be relaxed and amiable. His easy laugh often punctuates his conversation and his intelligence is evident in every sentence. When he learned that his interviewer was in a mood described as, "old, tired and cranky." Kreeger describes himself as "young, rested and optimistic" as he prepared for a performance in ROOMS which which opened on March 16th to very satisfying reviews. 

The New York Times singled out the actors by saying "Ms. Kritzer is funny and fabulous as she negotiates the various musical forms. And Mr. Kreeger deserves credit for staying just low-key enough to let her dominate while still having his moments (for instance, in "Clean," a delicately rendered song about sobering up). Both of them have solid voices, and Mr. Goodman gives them some songs that are quite listenable"

This is Hawaiian-born Kreeger's first New York appearance since he made his Broadway debut as Jean Prouvaire in the revival of LES MISERABLES; a production in which he understudied and went on in the role of Marius.

When asked how he prepared for the his role in ROOMS, Kreeger explains that he goes to the text first, looking for key words and phrases that give clues as to who this character is and how he is perceived by others. Once there, the actor often comes up with animal images to capture the physicality of the role he's playing and in this particular instance, worked with dialect coach Doug Honorof to get the Scottish inflections in place. To the pleasure of audience members, neither Kreeger nor his co-star are using wholly authentic Scottish brogues. Were they doing so, American audiences would be hard pressed to comprehend any of the dialogue.

Kreeger's involvement in this project came about in the most usual of ways: he auditioned for it. His agent told him there was a two-person musical that was aimed at an Off Broadway production but would first be done in Washington, DC and then in Rochester, NY. Kreeger was excited about the prospect of working with director Scott Schwartz (son of WICKED composer Stephen Schwartz) and after doing a little research about Paul Scott Goodman, the actor was eager to work with him as well.

"The only thing that almost kept me from not auditioning for the show was the fact that I didn't play guitar and that was something that was a requirement. I went into the audition very honestly saying, ‘Listen, I played the guitar very, very briefly for TIMES ARE A-CHANGIN' when I did that out of town. However, when they cut the guitar for that, I basically put it down and never went back to it. All I really had was a couple of weeks fiddling with the guitar. I could only semi-sufficiently play three songs on it.' They said, ‘Okay. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it'. I got a callback and they had a guitar there and I sort of fumbled through four chords and said, ‘Sorry, this is all I've got and they then took a chance and called me back again. It was two or three days later and they said, ‘We need you to play something. We need you to learn a song and play it for us on the guitar' So I went to YouTube and found a clip of Natascia Diaz and Jeremy Kushnier doing a song at the Virgin Mega Store when the show was in the NYMT Festival.

I had a friend of mine come over and help me figure it out without music or anything. We just figured out the chords and I went in there and played it. As far as I know, that was one of the reasons I got the job. They were very impressed that I had gone out and learned something from the show, that I obviously really wanted it and was a quick study." At the time, Kreeger was down in DC in Kander and Ebb's THE VISIT and he was set up with a guitar coach there. "So basically, before we opened in DC with ROOMS, I had only about a month of guitar to my credit" This is hard for the average person to believe because in ROOMS. Kreeger seems very proficient in his guitar playing.

"Well, now it's been nine months since I've been with the guitar," Kreeger says with a smile in his voice. "I bought my first guitar when I was in Rochester, so it's become something that I can now put on the ‘special skills' segment of my resume!"

Incidentally, this wasn't the first time that Kreeger acquired a special skill for a role he was playing. When he did the NYMF production of YANK!, the role required tap dancing. He auditioned with a single tap class under his dance belt and wound up stopping the show when he and Jeffrey Denman performed a number called "Click!"

Audiences for ROOMS have varied in their reaction to the show as the production played in its different venues. "The DC crowds are enthusiastically quiet," notes Kreeger, "They were always with us and their responses were always fantastic at the end, but we didn't get a lot from them throughout the show. In Rochester, Geva Theater is fantastic but they're still building their audience for the small space where we performed. As a result, the audiences were pretty light throughout and it's the kind of show where, if you have a light house, there's not going to be much response during the show. On the flip side, in New York, not matter what the size of the house is, we're getting a great response. Technically, the Jewish jokes land better because there's a larger Jewish contingent in this city than there is in Rochester or DC. Somehow I think New Yorkers are excited about something like this because it's sort of raw and gritty simple but effective. New York audiences may be the toughest audiences to please but their also the most enthusiastic when they see something good."

Very little re-staging has taken place in ROOMS as it moved from venue to venue. "There was a little bit," recalls Kreeger, "When we went from DC to Rochester we had to re-tech the show and everything. There was a little bit of re-staging going on there but not much. Basically what we did was to fill the space a bit differently. Here in New York, any differences have been because we have a different actress. Oh, there are few things added to the show that we didn't have last summer and a few things were taken out, so there was a little bit of flexibility going on.  Really, when we came into New York, the show was working as it was. In bringing Leslie into the show, we were sort of treading that fine line between plugging a new actress into something that was already working and letting her explore the material. She had a week of rehearsal before I came in and when I did come in, it was basically play time. I got a chance to reinvestigate the role and the show while figuring it out with a new energy and a new co-star, which was really exciting."

Kreeger has nothing but praise for his co-star, Leslie Kritzer. "I'm learning from Leslie," he remarks, "I'm acquiring a whole new level of energy and a new level of trust for certain moments in the piece. We're very open as actors, always talking backstage as to how we're doing and keeping ourselves on the same page. You know, we have a solid professional relationship."

As mentioned earlier in the conversation, Doug Kreeger was part of the cast in the much-talked about musical THE VISIT, which starred Broadway legends Chita Rivera and George Hearn. In the production the actor played the boy-toy of Rivera. What were Kreeger's recollections of that production? "It was a gifted, amazing experience of collaboration that sort of proved to me why I love what I do. I truly believe that musical theater is the most collaborative art form because you have so many different people coming together to make one product. To see Frank Galati and Terrence McNally and John Kander and Chita and George all collaborating and giving and taking was incredible. To see Terrence realize that something wasn't working and to cut his own words, or to see John add a little bit of music here that made everything flow perfectly was really exciting. It was an honor to be working with that cast and everyone was fully committed to the piece We loved what we were saying, and to be uttering things that we felt were so important at that specific time and in a place so close to the Pentagon and US politics was both exciting, scary and thrilling." 

The actor says it was an absolute pleasure working with THE VISIT's star, Chita Rivera. "She was everything you'd expect and more. The thing that I admire about her is that she loves the work and she loves being there every day. She's the consummate professional and one of the sweetest most wonderful women ever. She could also be as naughty as they come. She would come into the dressing room every night wearing her cheetah print silk robe and razz each of the boys in the dressing room. She loved her dancer boys and would just be ‘Chita'. "

Kreeger hopes that the rumored London mounting of THE VISIT will result in its premier on Broadway. "John Kander himself said that he feels it's his masterpiece and I agree with him. He said that it ended his trilogy of the broken doll/woman that he

And Fred Ebb had been exploring and experimenting with. It started with Sally Bowles in CABARET, then continued with CHICAGO and both Roxy and Velma, ending with with Claire in THE VISIT. They seem to explore the different periods of the broken woman's life. It was exciting to feel that we were part of the end of that trilogy. It's a unique piece of theater."

Kreeger bubbles over with enthusiasm when the he talks about his experiences in the LES MISERABLES revival, playing the role of Jean Prouvaire and understudying Marius, which he went on in about ten times during the production's run. There had to have been an enormous rush of adrenaline as the actor went on as Marius for the first time, right? "Not really," he responds. "I had the flu, but I was going on! I basically just had to get through it. It was not only frightening, but it was also like a blip because the performance flew by so fast. All of a sudden I was taking my curtain call." In this instance, Kreeger had quite a bit of notice because the actor playing Marius was going on vacation. "I had at least a month's notice," comments the actor, "so I prepared as best I could."

Still, the role required him to be onstage almost as much as the character of Jean Valjean. Going on as an understudy is "thrilling and satisfying but not quite as fulfilling as doing a part that you actually create and rehearse. I felt my first performance as Marius was somewhat empty because I hadn't really had the chance to develop the character. I felt like I was going through the motions as an actor. I tried to fill as much as I could with ‘reality' but mostly I felt like I was just being in the right place at the right time and trying not to screw things up for the other actors in my first few performances in the role." After he had gone on in the role several more times, he felt that he was making the role his own to a certain degree.

Playing a French revolutionary is as far removed from portraying a child killer or an alcohol sodden Scottish musician, yet Doug Kreeger transformed himself admirably in LES MIS. Just as the chameleon's length can grow from 6" to more than a foot if it is nurtured properly and lives in a favorable environment, so is Kreeger growing as an actor. He's nourishing himself on choice roles in the milieu of musical theater that he loves and thrives on.

ROOMS: A ROCK ROMANCE currently showcases his exceptional talents, but theater-goers can only anticipate the varied roles that Kreeger will take on in the future. Judas Iscariot? Tommy? The question remains, though: How will Doug Kreeger transform himself when he tackles these roles?

ROOMS a rock romance plays Monday, Wednesday through Friday evenings at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 8pm and Sundays at 3pm and 7 pm. Tickets range from $10 to $69.50 (including $1.50 facility fee) and can be purchased at TeleCharge.com or by phone 212/239-6200. New World Stages/Stage 2 is located in the heart of the theater district at 340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues.

For more information visit www.RoomsARockRomance.com.

Visit Doug's website: www.DougKreeger.com 

Photos by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

To post a comment, you must register and login.