Michael Reflects:

"I often hear, 'Why aren't YOU playing this role or that role?  Why aren't YOU in the starring role?  Why are you the understudy?'  Thank you all who say it!  The answers are many and varied, and MOST of them are valid.  But again, the important thing is that I'm still working!  As my wife is fond of telling people, Sally Field hadn't worked for three years before playing "Norma Rae."  It was the role that won her an Academy Award... and for which she was paid $50,000.  Imagine: an Oscar for fifty grand!  My friend Nancy Anderson was up for an Olivier Award in London for her Bianca in "Kiss Me, Kate"!  A year before that she couldn't afford makeup.  I'm lucky enough to be able to say, though I have been poor, I've never gone three years without a job!  (Thank you, God!)  And someday my time may come.  In the meantime, it's about 'the work.'  And it's the work I love!

              
"I took a different path than most.  I DIDN'T run off to New York right away.  I didn't really know what to do with my life.  I tried business, several times, with varying degrees of success and failure... mostly the latter.  I tried to be 'sensible' -- get a 'real job.'  But I wasn't just unfulfilled, I was miserable!!  I think performers (especially live performers) can relate to other addicts well.  An audience's applause is the most amazing drug on earth!  We perform because we HAVE TO!  If we don't, we're just not alive.
                   

"So I settled down in my old college town in Michigan because I felt at home there... and it is the home of an historic theater where I've done MANY of my roles.  I love that old building.  Heck, I even did the detail painting of the auditorium and lobbies!  And although I haven't performed there in a while, it's still my second home.  The place I "grew up" as an actor.  It gave me more experience in more varied roles than most actors get in a lifetime.  If college prepared me to BE an actor, that old opera house MADE me one.  Given my recent experience, it did a pretty fair job.  Nobody's quite sure how I can live there and still have the career I have.  That, in itself, is my success."

Michael's Roles

Broadway: THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, Phantom, Jeweler, Andre.

National:  KISS ME KATE -- Haberdasher, understudy for Fred/Petruchio and Gen. Harrison Howell, Fight Captain.  101 Productions (Michael Blakemore director, Paul Genignani music director)

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, the Phantom, Andre, Auctioneer, Passarino, Lefevre, and Buquet working with the original production team of Hal Prince, David Caddick and Gillian Lynne.

(2 of) HELLO, DOLLY! with Carol Channing, working with Gower Champion's assistant, Lucia Victor, as well as Jerry Herman and Peter Howard.

Regional Theatre: Billy Bigelow in CAROUSEL, Sweeney in SWEENEY TODD, Cervantes/Don Quixote in MAN OF LA MANCHA, Julian Marsh in 42ND STREET, Fredrick in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, The Wolf & Cinderella's Prince in INTO THE WOODS, Juan Peron in EVITA, Ravenal in SHOWBOAT, The King in THE KING AND I (twice), Cornelius in HELLO, DOLLY!, Michael (He) in I DO! I DO!, Sid in THE PAJAMA GAME (where he met Betsy, his wife, who played Babe), The King in BIG RIVER, Zach in A CHORUS LINE, Fred/Petruchio in KISS ME KATE, Bill Sykes in OLIVER, Capt. von Trapp  in THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Emile in SOUTH PACIFIC, Harry the Horse in GUYS AND DOLLS, El Gallo in THE FANTASTICKS, Salieri in AMADEUS, and Prince Paul in THE ANASTASIA AFFAIRE (formerly THE ANASTASIA GAME), working closely with writers Robert Wright and George Forrest (KISMET and GRAND HOTEL), for Judy Dow Alexander (associate producer of the Broadway SWEENEY TODD).

Stock Tours: ANNIE GET YOUR GUN with Florence Henderson; John, the Stage Manager and understudy for Larry Kert (as Nicky) in FUNNY GIRL with Juliet Prowse.

Stock Theatre: MUSIC MAN with Tony Randall, KISS ME KATE with Robert Goulet, PETER PAN with Tovah Feldshuh and Ken Mars, FLOWER DRUM SONG with June Angela, Johnny Yune and Pat Suzuki at the St. Louis Muny Opera;  THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN with Karen Morrow in Dallas.

Author/Lyricist: an original musical, A DRAGON'S TALE (performing the role of The Wizard)

Producer (Actor):  THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE (the Pirate King); GUYS AND DOLLS (Sky Masterson); KISS ME KATE (Fred/Petruchio); a mystery train and corporate parties.

TV & Radio: Announcer for four of Olympic Figure Skater Brian Boitano's TV specials for NBC and USA Network Television, and a lot of commercial, industrial & print work in Detroit, Toledo and nationally.

College: Woody in FINIAN'S RAINBOW, Nat Miller in AH, WILDERNESS!, and JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS, to name a few.