He’s the guy audiences love to hate, and this year, he’s earned a Tony Award nomination as the lying, sexist, bigot Franklin Hart, Jr. in 9 to 5: The Musical. Marc Kudisch is any producer’s go-to guy for seductive bad guys; he’s played the snake in Roundabout’s revival of The Apple Tree, and the devil who turns three lonely women into a trio of beautiful high flying witches in Signature Theatre’s Witches of Eastwick. This time, he’s getting his comeuppance as the predatory boss in the Dolly Parton musicalized version of the popular 1980 movie.
Joel Markowitz sat down with Marc Kudisch in his dressing room at the Marquis Theatre after the May 24th matinee performance, to talk about why he loves playing Franklin Hart, Jr. “One of the worst bosses on the face of the planet”, the journey of the show from LA to Broadway, and working with Dolly Parton and how he handles the physical demands of getting hog-tied 8 times a week.
Marc takes us through the evolution of the play from its first reads with Alice Ripley and Tracey Ullman on board, through the show’s first production in LA. “At first we were just putting the film on stage. There we discovered how to go beyond the film.” Marc talks about his good friend composer Michael John LaChiusa, whose two musicals Giant and See What I Wanna See are playing at Signature Theatre now. Marc starred in See What I Wanna See in NYC and was involved in the first reading with Michael John and read the part that John Dossett plays in the SIgnature production.
Which leads him to think about the significance of Signature Theatre winning the Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre this year on Signature’s artistic director, Eric Schaeffer “He’s brilliant!” and DC as a theatre town. “Signature may be the youngest theatre company to win this award. That’s one hell of an accomplishment. DC is a great theatre scene. DC audiences are smart, and DC has the creative environment to nurture the works that NYC audiences will eventually see”, he says.
Marc is hopeful his next Broadway show will be a new adaptation of the Meredith Willson musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Now in development, he plays Johnny “Leadville” Brown to Kerry O’Malley’s Molly. “I’ll give him a little edge.” he promises.
I went to NYC this past weekend to see 9 to 5 and Blithe Spirit. I’m sorry to say that March Kudisch was missing from the Saturday matinee performance – I also understand that he did not perform in the Friday evening performance either. One of the main reasons I wanted to see 9 to 5 was Marc Kudisch. I hope he’s okay. I still enjoyed the joy, it’s a lot of fun -they also had mechanical difficulties with the stage – it was supposed to move up and down but that didn’t happen on Saturday at the matinee. Angela Lansbury was alive and well (at 83 years young) and performed beautifully in Blithe Spirit. Can’t wait to see Marc in Unsinkable Molly Brown.
Thanks for another great podcast. Marc is quite a character.
I could not agree with him more about the brilliance of
Eric Schaeffer.
“Have a sense of humor, Joel!” cries Marc Kudisch. I’m not saying in what context this arises; you’ll have to listen to it for yourself. This unscripted utterance is typical of the spontaneous nature of the interview. I’m already leaving “9 to 5” behind for Kudisch’s next project: Johnny Leadville in “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” He was born to play that role and talks about wanting to give it some edge. Good move, as I saw the movie version of “Molly” with Debbie Reynolds and Harve Presnell in first run theaters many more years ago than I’d care to admit.