Musical lets bad guy unleash his inner child

NEW YORK -- Actor Marc Kudisch says he likes "roles with edge," which is probably why he found the part of the villain so irresistible in the new Broadway musical "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." But to the delight of family audiences, he only becomes the sinister Baron Bomburst by acting like a kid.

"Right after my audition, I told my agent, 'I want that job,' partly because I grew up with the movie and partly because I'd get to be this childlike man and could run amok. Is there anything better than being allowed to express your inner child?" asks the 38-year-old actor, looking more handsome than scary with his shaved head and trim beard.

Based on the 1968 film, the $15 million musical -- currently a hit in London -- is in previews at the Hilton Theatre before opening Thursday.

"The Baron is not unlike a lot of rulers," Kudisch continues, digging intensely into his antipasto at Bond 45 restaurant. "Childish and selfish and craving toys. Look around you. But I just don't go for the jokes. The comedy comes from the character. I play him as a man who is a child. I don't play a child. The difference is important because the comedy lies in that truth.

"Adrian Noble, the director, told us to play our roles without cynicism, an enormous challenge today when people tend to ridicule anything open-hearted. Innocence has become embarrassing. But you aren't doing your job as an actor if you don't expose your vulnerability."

Kudisch relishes opportunities to portray dark and complex characters. Equally at home on and off Broadway, in straight plays and musicals, he was rewarded with a Drama Desk Award nomination in 2004 for his work in the acclaimed revival of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's "Assassins." He's also won raves for his work in Broadway's "Thoroughly Modern Millie," "The Wild Party," "High Society" and "Beauty and the Beast," as well as "A Little Night Music" at New York City Opera.

"In the past four years," Kudisch says, "I've gone from playing a role of a man in his early 30s to one in his 50s, none of them particularly savory. It's great. It stretches me as an actor."

In the first act of"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," Kudisch, flamboyant in a flashy red and gold uniform and cradling a teddy bear, glares menacingly at the audience and proclaims his absolute control of Vulgaria, a country assiduously kept free of children by a Child Catcher. Citizens must fulfill every whim of his and the kinky Baroness, played to the hilt by Jan Maxwell.

It's not until the second act that impractical inventor Caractacus Potts (Raúl Esparza) and intrepid Truly Scrumptious (Erin Dilly) fly the spectacular antique race car, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, to Vulgaria to save Potts' children. Here Kudisch gets a chance to be the Baron in all his hilarious eccentricity. "I haven't had so much fun on stage," he says, "in a very long time."

It was something Kudisch planned with Maxwell. "At the very first rehearsal," she recalls, "we decided we'd have as much fun as possible with our roles. ... (Marc) has boundless energy and enthusiasm."

Kudisch says he was surprised to learn that in the original 1964 novella, written by James Bond author Ian Fleming as a gift for his son, the Baron, Baroness and Vulgaria did not exist. After Fleming's death, when it was decided to transform the story into a movie musical, author Roald Dahl added an entire section, envisioning the tale as a satire of fascism.

Until Kudisch discovered acting, he says he was a lazy kid. Born in Hackensack, at the age of 7 he moved with his family to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was majoring in political science at Florida Atlantic University when he took his first theater course.

"Suddenly, I became a workaholic," says Kudisch, who made his Broadway debut in 1993 in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." "I liked being on stage and knew I could do it."

In 1990, 2 1/2 years after arriving in New York, he landed a singing role in a national tour of "Bye Bye Birdie" without knowing how to sing. The producers overlooked his lack of experience because of his ingenious interpretation of the lead role of Conrad Birdie, '50s teen idol and rock star.

"I could hardly talk at end of each week," he recalls. Only after the show closed did he begin studying voice.

"The key to good acting is craft," Kudisch says. "Being a good actor isn't only about having a great voice or great instincts. It's also about being aware of your fellow actors. It's about listening and understanding the objective of the play and how your cog fits into the whole machine."

Kudisch, who was once engaged to stage and television actress Kristin Chenoweth, nowadays rhapsodizes about two things: Batman and the Jersey side of Greenwood Lake, where he owns a weekend house with his girlfriend, actress Shannon Lewis.

"I know they'll eventually make a musical of Batman," he says. "I'd kill for the role. That's the kind of mind I'd like to get into. Here's a guy with absolutely nothing super about him and yet he trains for 20 years to be a son of a bitch, through sheer mental will. He's a split personality. This is a guy who when he has a nervous breakdown has to put on the costume. He's not a hero, but an ordinary human being. He shows that we're all capable of extraordinary things, if we only allow ourselves to go there."

Between Kudisch's brief scene in the first act of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and his next appearance in the second, he has 55 minutes to himself in his dressing room.

"I love it," he says. "I get a lot of things done, writing, phone calls that I can't get to during my regular day. I do a little yoga -- Shannon turned me on to yoga -- or listen to classical music or Pink Floyd or the Alan Parsons Project. It's like a home away from home."

After a recent performance, friends brought their 3-year-old son backstage to meet him.

"As soon as he saw me," Kudisch says, "he blurted out, 'I know who you are, you're the old boy.' I thought, 'Cool, he got it.' A 3-year-old. It made my day."