Broadway performer Michael McGrath (“Monty Python’s Spamalot”) has spent a lot of time at his family’s home in West Yarmouth this summer, but unlike most Cape visitors, rest and relaxation have not been on his agenda. McGrath is currently starring in “Born Yesterday” at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, where he also appeared last month as Groucho Marx in “A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine.”
“Working on the Cape is fun. It’s like having a paid vacation. I come out the stage door after the show every night and see people I haven’t seen in 30 years, not to mention extended family members,” McGrath said recently by telephone from New York. “My parents, Shirley and Pat McGrath, live in Worcester where I grew up, but spend summers at the ‘McGrath Compound’ in West Yarmouth. And my sister, Susan, and brother-in-law, Bob, live year-round in South Yarmouth.”
In “Born Yesterday,” the Garson Kanin comedy first produced on Broadway in 1946, McGrath plays Harry Brock, a short-on-manners, long-on-bluster business tycoon who brings his blonde bombshell girlfriend to Washington, D.C., where he hopes to buy himself a few Congressmen. Originated on Broadway by Paul Douglas, opposite Judy Holliday, the role was played most memorably by Broderick Crawford in a 1950 feature film adaptation which also starred Holliday, and by John Goodman in a forgettable 1993 remake with Melanie Griffith. A 1989 stage revival, which played Boston’s Shubert Theatre prior to Broadway, starred Ed Asner and Madeline Kahn. Despite its various revivals and remakes, McGrath acknowledges knowing little of the story before Cape Playhouse Artistic Director Evans Haile cast him in Dennis
“I was not familiar with the show at all. When I told my wife they were interested in me, she immediately said ‘For the Broderick Crawford role?’ And I said, yeah, that’s the part. It caught me off guard that my own wife would immediately think of me for this particular part since, in the very beginning of the play, the character is described as a big, dumb gorilla. I decided right then that I would play him as a not-so-big, dumb gorilla with plenty of style and attitude.”
McGrath earned 2005 Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations for the role of Patsy in Spamalot, which he played on Broadway for over two years, and was also featured in the recent revivals of “Wonderful Town” with Donna Murphy, and “Little Me” with Martin Short. This past season, he appeared in the acclaimed but short-lived “Is He Dead?” opposite Norbert Leo Butz. McGrath spent 1985-88 in the now-closed Boston company of “Forbidden Broadway” at the Terrace Room in the Park Plaza Hotel. In the musical parody of all things Broadway, and all kinds of Broadway legends, McGrath played everyone from Richard Harris in “Camelot” and Kevin Kline in “The Pirates of Penzance” to Anthony Quinn as Zorba the Greek.
One of McGrath’s co-stars, Toni DiBuono, went on to become his wife. McGrath and DiBuono have been married since 1993 and have a 13-year-old daughter, Kathleen.
He may have made his name in show business with musicals, but McGrath says he is ready to take his career in a new direction.
“I'm getting too old to do musicals,” says the 50-year-old with a laugh. “I like to think of myself as an actor first, singer second, and dancer third.”
Until this weekend anyway, McGrath is getting his wish and taking on a character like none he has played before.
“For Harry Brock, money talks. And Harry has a lot of money. He doesn’t always do the right thing, but he’s always ready to spend some money to get what he wants. It's a real departure for me and I'm having a blast.”
Joining McGrath in Dennis is fellow Broadway performer Leslie Kritzer — seen this season in “A Catered Affair” and previously in “Legally Blonde: The Musical” and “Hairspray” — who plays the role of Billie Dawn, the businessman’s mistress who falls for her tutor. Like McGrath, the 62-year-old “Born Yesterday” is all new to Kritzer.
“I didn’t even know this character existed. Once I heard about this opportunity, I watched the Judy Holliday film, but only once as I didn’t want to copy her work.”
Kritzer, a performance artist known on the New York cabaret circuit for her impersonation of Broadway legend Patti Lupone, liked what she saw.
“Billie is a very playful person with a big heart. She’s simple, for sure, but she is also very kind. She’s always wearing minks, but she would be just as happy with an uncomplicated life. She’s a very easy character to like.”
Michael McGrath and Leslie Kritzer are starring in “Born Yesterday” at the Cape Playhouse, 820 Main St., Route 6A, Dennis, through Saturday, Aug. 30. For tickets and information, visit the box office, call 508-385-3911 or go online at capeplayhouse.com
