Gilles Chiasson
Who he plays: Corporal William McEwan, a Union soldier who must leave his young wife, Sarah, to fight for the cause.
Why you should know him: Created the role of Armand in The Scarlet Pimpernel; best known as an original cast member of Rent, singing the wrenching “Will I” solo.
On seeing Rent for the first time: Since he’d been involved in every workshop of the show, Chiasson didn’t actually see it from the audience until the first national tour began in Boston. “Doing the show was so hard at New York Theater Workshop,” he remembers. “They let friends of Jonathan [Larson, the composer, who died before the first preview] in for free to sit on the stairs. Every night there would be people curled up, sobbing. We went through that, but on stage; we were on a mission to represent Jonathan’s show to the world. When we saw it in Boston, we had a catharsis that we’d been denied. I don’t remember the show at all. I just wept.”
On starring in Pimpernel, post-pans: “We had this horrible two months after the reviews came out where we were doing rip-roaring comedy and nobody would laugh. They hated us because they had bought tickets early and then read the bad reviews.”
Little known fact: Chiasson actually writes letters on stage to co-star Irene Molloy. “I send them to her once a week,” he explains. “It’s part of the process I came up with. I play a man who’s in love with a woman that he sees for maybe 30 seconds on stage. It’s important that I keep a connection with Irene somehow.”
Irene Molloy
Who she plays: War wife Sarah McEwan, who pines for her man while being forced to become an independent woman.
Why you should know her: Molloy created the lead role of Swallow in Hal Prince’s aborted pre-Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down the Wind. Also known for having the same name as a character in Hello, Dolly!
How she’s different from her character: Offstage, Molloy has spiky, bleached blonde hair with dark roots. She would seem to have more in common with the artists in Rent than with Sarah and her plain fashion (which Molloy calls “prairie chic”). In fact, she’s a musician with a love for Liz Phair and dreams of recording her own album.
On the process of a new musical: “With Whistle, we rehearsed it, blocked it, and put it up. Hal [Prince] and Andrew [Lloyd Webber] were off working on other things, and they just kept saying, ‘It’s fine. It’s a hit.’ Then they wrote a letter saying the show was closing. It was like having the carpet pulled out from under you. With The Civil War, we are constantly changing things, and I like that. At one time, after Jerry Zaks came in, I had all this new material but it wasn’t working ’cause it messed up the story with me and Gilles. So it’s been cut back.”
Little known fact: After the shock of the Whistle closing, Molloy became a waitress at various Greenwich Village restaurants. “Waitressing was the best way to let go of that ego thing,” she says. “I couldn’t go back home and listen to everyone say, ‘You’re not an Andrew Lloyd Webber star anymore!'”
Cheryl Freeman
Who she plays: Bessie Toler, a proud slave who spends the course of the musical searching for her man, Clayton, and singing rousing spirituals.
Why you should know her: Cross-dressing lead in the Twelfth Night/Ellington musical Play On!, which managed only a brief run on Broadway two years ago; best remembered for her outrageous work as the Acid Queen in The Who’s Tommy.
On the Tommy/Civil War connection: “Now, this is really weird. Both shows have the same opening night [April 22] at the same Broadway house. And I auditioned for them both in the same room in California. It’s like, ‘Whoa.'”
On her hilarious Acid Queen: “It wasn’t comic for me. That woman was a combination of three different men from my life; that’s why she was so spooky. You can ask the stagehands [at the St. James] what I was like. I was a total bitch when I walked down the stairs in character.”
On getting nominated for this year’s Outer Critics’ Circle Award: “I was shocked. I got the call and I just said, ‘What?!’ We’re working so many hours every day on the show that I’m not thinking about awards and things. I’m just thinking about the work that has to be done. Besides, I had to do my taxes. Who can think of theater awards when it’s tax season?”
Michel Bell
Who he plays: Clayton Toler, a slave who attempts to reunite with his wife Bessie after they’re separated at a slave auction.
Why you should know him: Just before The Civil War, Bell concluded a transcontinental five-year run as Joe in Hal Prince’s production of Show Boat, which earned him a Tony nomination.
On jumping from Show Boat to The Civil War: “I was just finishing the London run on August 10 and I wanted to take a break, but Frank Wildhorn called me and said, ‘Will you do the part? Rehearsals start August 11.’ It was hard, but I’m so glad that I did it. This is such a moving piece for a performer.”
On hearing his big song for the first time: “I was doing Show Boat in Chicago when Frank first sent me ‘Father, How Long?’, which I still sing in the show. I played the song and my wife and I just sat there, crying. She ran over and got Kleenex and we just kept crying after the song ended. I don’t know what it is about Frank’s music. It goes straight to the source.”
Little known fact: In the 1970s, Bell was a member of the renowned pop group The Fifth Dimension.
Keith Byron Kirk
Who he plays: Radical Frederick Douglass, the only true-life figure in The Civil War, not counting the piped-in voice of President Lincoln.
Why you should know him: Recent Broadway credits include Miss Saigon (playing John, and winning a Jeff Award in Chicago), King David, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Piano Lesson.
On portraying Douglass: “With someone who’s this incredible figure for African-Americans, you hope that everything you find out about him will be glossy and wonderful. Well, he wasn’t either. He was not as forgiving as the history books would like us to believe. But I remain in awe of him and his words.”
On getting up the nerve to sing on Broadway: “Miss Saigon was my first Broadway musical, and I was so scared of that long-form sung-through musical. To get myself ready, I snuck away and did a tour of Porgy and Bess in South America. There were no mikes, and I did fine. By the time I came back, I said ‘I can do Saigon.'”
Little known fact: Kirk had a politically charged childhood in Oakland, California. His mother was a teacher, and his father was at Berkley in the late ’60s – early ’70s. “As a kid, I knew a lot about Frederick Douglass,” he says. “Not to mention the Black Panthers and other activists. I came into this show with a wealth of information.”
Matt Bogart
Who he plays: Private Sam Taylor, a young soldier who fights for the South against his own brother.
Why you should know him: Well, he did play Chris in Miss Saigon for two and a half years on the road and on Broadway. However, Bogart is probably more recognizable to the masses as the hunky centrepiece of the Jockey Broadway underwear billboard that stopped Times Square traffic for most of 1998. “I had to audition for it. I had to drop my pants for this guy at Grey Advertising. I said, ‘Fine, but I’m wearing Hanes.’ He just wanted to see our bodies, our forms. It wasn’t about the package or anything!”
On getting Saigon: “I came to New York after school, got an agent, and told him, ‘Get me an audition for Saigon. I know I can do it.’ Luckily, I got cast in the tour, but I had to wait five months for the tour to start. It was weird; I was selling shoes knowing that I was gonna be playing Chris.”
On his ever-changing character: “Jerry [Zaks] tried to cut away the fat. But I’ve changed the most. I went from Union to Confederate, from living to dying. At one part, my character was seen throughout the show, then just in the first act. Now, my part is mostly in the beginning, so it’s become a shorter journey, but I enjoy it.”
Little known fact: Bogart, who hails from Piqua, Ohio, has three younger brothers (Dan, Dominic and Kevin) who are training to become actors. Look out, Baldwins!
Michael Lanning
Who he plays: Captain Emmett Lochran of the Union Army.
Why you should know him: You probably don’t. Lanning is a musician and songwriter well-known in the music business, but The Civil War marks his New York stage debut.
On his early involvement: “Three years ago, Bobby Paige, a vocal contractor, told me that Wildhorn was working on a new project. I knew his name from Jekyll & Hyde, and I met with him. When he told me he was going to do a musical of the Civil War, I pictured Abraham Lincoln coming out singing ‘Emancipation Proclamation! Emancipation Proclamation!'”
On why he loves Linda Eder: “At the end of ’96, after we’d done a few demos, Frank said, ‘You’re gonna be on the album.’ I thought he wanted me to sing one of the Northern soldiers, but he said, ‘No, we want you to sing, ‘Brother, My Brother.’ They were trying to get Van Morrison, but Linda Eder said, ‘You’re not gonna get anyone to sing it better.’ Frank said to me, ‘It’s gonna be all these famous people on the record…and you!'”
On continuing with musical theatre: “It’s gotta be the right show. I’m not just gonna audition for anything. They keep telling me that I should do Jean Valjean, but I don’t want to be the 15th guy to play it. I love the show and ‘Bring Him Home,’ but no thank you. I want something that will blow me away. But another Frank Wildhorn musical? In a heartbeat.”
Gene Miller
Who he plays: Captain Billy Pierce, who leads the Confederate Soldiers in the rousing “Last Waltz for Dixie.”
Why you should know him: Again, you probably don’t. Like Lanning, Miller is a newcomer to theater, by way of L.A. and Nashville.
On his lack of acting experience: “I try not to think about it. I watched the other actors and asked a lot of questions. [Co-star] Dave Clemmons helped me immensely. The seasoned actors have dedicated themselves to the craft. It’s learning the difference between performing theatrically and stepping up to the mike like I’m used to doing. I just pray and go by my gut.”
On script changes: “Before I did this, I worked as a session singer in the studio, so I would go to work every day not knowing what I was singing. I’d have to learn it on the spot, and somehow make it sound like I’d been singing it all my life. Theater is kind of the same process.”
Little known fact: He’s got Dixie in his blood; Miller’s own great-grandfather was a Confederate corporal.
