The Fort Lauderdale-raised Kudisch takes on the title role in the musical "Zorba" for a two-week Reprise! run starting tonight. Anthony Quinn was nearly 50 when he played the same role in film and 68 when he headlined the Broadway revival of "Zorba" in 1984.

Kudisch will turn 40 in September.

"When they called and offered this — and I didn't have to audition — the first thing out of my mouth was, 'What?' " says Kudisch. "I mean when did I become this 55-year-old character guy?"

He then answers his own question.

"Most guys go through a transition. I never went through it," he continues. "I started being this character guy and that's the way my life has gone. I'm not complaining in the least. Come on, dude. I'm playing Zorba!"

The full beard, shot through with intermittent gray, adds a few years. At a compact 6 feet, Kudisch is not a big man, although some of the men he has played (in productions such as "Bye Bye Birdie, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and "Beauty and the Beast") have been noticeably larger than life. The appearance changes, often radically, from role to role.

He went clean-cut and corporate as boss Trevor Graydon in "Thoroughly Modern Millie," and, in Broadway's "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," Kudisch took on Baron Bomburst, the role played in the film by Gert Frobe.

Playing the proprietor in Broadway's "Assassins," Kudisch shaved his head, gave himself gold teeth, a little Hitler mustache and several tattoos. Director/choreographer Jeff Calhoun, who had worked with Kudisch, saw "Assassins" and it took him three days before realizing that he had not seen an understudy.

"He said, 'I didn't know it was you, and I know the way you move. I know the way you are on stage,' " Kudisch recalls. "That is the greatest compliment in the world. I just love that people wonder what I'm going to do."

For the next two weeks, he's going Greek. Far less popular than "Fiddler on the Roof" — whose book was written a few years before — "Zorba" follows the adventures of young student Nikos and his carpe diem-minded older friend, Zorba. The former wants to restore a mine to working order. The latter romances innkeepers and hires belly dancers. The music is by the composing team of John Kander and Fred Ebb ("Chicago" and "Cabaret").

Originated by Herschel Bernardi, the role of Zorba has become inextricably linked with Quinn. Kudisch watched the movie (which earned Quinn an Oscar nomination), but more to study life in Crete than to analyze a performance.

"(Director) David Lee wanted to envision the part in the way you would see Don Quixote stepping out of ('Man of La Mancha') to play Don Quixote. He could be any age," says Reprise! music director Gerald Sternbach. "Marc has a wonderful spirit and a wonderful presence. He's leading the material even though he isn't a traditional leading man."

"I had worked with Kander and Ebb, and I didn't know this musical at all," adds Kudisch. "I think when it originally opened on Broadway, people thought it was a B-rated 'Fiddler on the Roof,' and it's not that at all."

On a recent Thursday afternoon, about a week before "Zorba" opens its two-week run, Kudisch sits during his dinner break adjacent to UCLA's Freud Playhouse. Earlier in the day he learned of his nomination for a Drama Desk Award — his third — for playing a trio of roles in the Michael John LaChiusa musical "See What I Wanna See" at the Public Theatre. "Zorba" forced him to miss the nominees' luncheon, and a possible out-of-town engagement in Puerto Rico may keep him from the ceremony itself.

"Like with the Tony Awards too, it really kind of becomes celebratory, and that aspect is the best part of it," says Kudisch, also a two-time Tony nominee. "And then it becomes a rat race. I'm not into that."

Which is no knock on "See What I Wanna See," Kudisch's third collaboration with composer LaChiusa ("The Wild Party").

"It's a real piece of new theater, and it's the direction theater is really going," says Kudisch. "It's, like, what is it? Is it a play? Is it opera? Is it both? In theater, man, you feel like an actor as opposed to a prostitute."

His sojourn in L.A. is Kudisch's first since the run of "A Little Night Music" for the Los Angeles Opera in the summer of 2004. For that engagement, Kudisch, who lives in New York, shipped his motorcycle out, stayed in Sherman Oaks and had a blast.

He might be out again in the summer. Kudisch feels Broadway may be taking an unwelcome turn, and cable TV is getting more intriguing. The man who likes to keep audiences on their toes has become — he confesses — a Sunday-night HBO "Sopranos" and "Big Love" addict.

"I think the kind of work that I like to do may not be happening on Broadway much longer," he says. "It might be happening off-Broadway, but those are smaller runs and harder to make a living at. I have no idea what comes next in life, and that's OK."

Except maybe Puerto Rico?

"Except maybe Puerto Rico," he says. "That would be playing another whack job. It's all good, man."

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Evan Henerson, (818) 713-3651 evan.henerson@dailynews.com