Zoneboy
02-09-2010, 10:20 PM
http://www2.tbo.com/exposure/ar/405/0/2010/02/03/31764_kline-wicked.jpg
Richard Kline says his sinister Wizard is much different from the benign bumbler in the classic 1939 film “Wizard of Oz.”
Link (http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/feb/03/kline-takes-long-not-so-yellow-road-wicked/)
TAMPA - Richard Kline is surprised when people recognize him as Larry Dallas, the skirt-chasing wannabe playboy from the TV comedy "Three's Company."
"That was 25 years ago and I look nothing like I did when I had that Afro haircut and those 1980s clothes," says Kline, who is in Tampa appearing in "Wicked" at the David A. Straz Performing Arts Center.
He says his sinister Wizard is much different from the benign bumbler in the classic 1939 film "Wizard of Oz."
"He's more complicated and darker," Kline says. "He's a con man who gets in power and wants to control everything."
The musical "Wicked," which debuted in 2003, tells the back story of the friendship between Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba the Wicked Witch and how a corrupt government shaped their lives.
Kline says although there are many references to the 1939 film as well as some of the same characters, "Wicked" is about a government that silences dissent and controls its citizens through fear.
The play debuted in a post-9/11 America with George W. Bush in the White House and seemed to resonate with audiences as a cautionary tale. The book the play is based on was written seven years before 9/11 and the author has said his wizard was inspired by Adolf Hitler.
Kline doesn't play him that evil, though. "It's a musical, and he's not that malevolent," he says.
Kline, 65, lives in New York where he teaches acting classes. He also has extensive stage experience. On Broadway, he has appeared in "November" and "City of Angels," and has appeared on the national tours of "Do I Hear a Waltz?," "Oliver!," "Jake's Women" and others.
His directing debut in 1990 won him the Los Angeles Drama Critic's Award for Noel Coward's "Present Laughter." Since then he has directed for stage and television, including Burt Reynolds, Bruce Davison and Billy Connolly in their respective series. He also does commercial voiceover work.
He has appeared in numerous television shows dating back to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and continuing through "Gilmore Girls," "Judging Amy," "That 70's Show" and "ER."
"But even the youngest cast members will say 'Oh, I saw you on cable last night' because 'Three's Company' is still being shown just about every day somewhere in the world," he says.
For eight seasons, from 1977 to 1984, Kline played the womanizing best friend to John Ritter's Jack Tripper, an aspiring chef who was pretending to be gay so he could share an apartment with two attractive young women. The stuffy landlord wouldn't allow a heterosexual male to live there because he frowned on male-female premartial cohabitation.
"That concept seems so tame now but back then it called 'jiggle TV' because the women were in shorts or short skirts and tight outfits," Kline says. "The critics didn't like us either and there was a religious group that campaigned against us."
The American Family Association claimed the series promoted an immoral lifestyle.
Joyce DeWitt and Suzanne Sommers played Jack's sexy roommates Janet and Chrissy. Sommers left the series after five seasons. Although the show had a lot of sexual innuendo and double entendres, there was no sex. "It seems innocence compared with what is on TV today," Kline says.
Kline has fond memories of the cast, especially Ritter, who died in 2003 from heart failure.
"He was nicest, funniest person to work with, and it's a shame he died too young," Kline says.
Richard Kline says his sinister Wizard is much different from the benign bumbler in the classic 1939 film “Wizard of Oz.”
Link (http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/feb/03/kline-takes-long-not-so-yellow-road-wicked/)
TAMPA - Richard Kline is surprised when people recognize him as Larry Dallas, the skirt-chasing wannabe playboy from the TV comedy "Three's Company."
"That was 25 years ago and I look nothing like I did when I had that Afro haircut and those 1980s clothes," says Kline, who is in Tampa appearing in "Wicked" at the David A. Straz Performing Arts Center.
He says his sinister Wizard is much different from the benign bumbler in the classic 1939 film "Wizard of Oz."
"He's more complicated and darker," Kline says. "He's a con man who gets in power and wants to control everything."
The musical "Wicked," which debuted in 2003, tells the back story of the friendship between Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba the Wicked Witch and how a corrupt government shaped their lives.
Kline says although there are many references to the 1939 film as well as some of the same characters, "Wicked" is about a government that silences dissent and controls its citizens through fear.
The play debuted in a post-9/11 America with George W. Bush in the White House and seemed to resonate with audiences as a cautionary tale. The book the play is based on was written seven years before 9/11 and the author has said his wizard was inspired by Adolf Hitler.
Kline doesn't play him that evil, though. "It's a musical, and he's not that malevolent," he says.
Kline, 65, lives in New York where he teaches acting classes. He also has extensive stage experience. On Broadway, he has appeared in "November" and "City of Angels," and has appeared on the national tours of "Do I Hear a Waltz?," "Oliver!," "Jake's Women" and others.
His directing debut in 1990 won him the Los Angeles Drama Critic's Award for Noel Coward's "Present Laughter." Since then he has directed for stage and television, including Burt Reynolds, Bruce Davison and Billy Connolly in their respective series. He also does commercial voiceover work.
He has appeared in numerous television shows dating back to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and continuing through "Gilmore Girls," "Judging Amy," "That 70's Show" and "ER."
"But even the youngest cast members will say 'Oh, I saw you on cable last night' because 'Three's Company' is still being shown just about every day somewhere in the world," he says.
For eight seasons, from 1977 to 1984, Kline played the womanizing best friend to John Ritter's Jack Tripper, an aspiring chef who was pretending to be gay so he could share an apartment with two attractive young women. The stuffy landlord wouldn't allow a heterosexual male to live there because he frowned on male-female premartial cohabitation.
"That concept seems so tame now but back then it called 'jiggle TV' because the women were in shorts or short skirts and tight outfits," Kline says. "The critics didn't like us either and there was a religious group that campaigned against us."
The American Family Association claimed the series promoted an immoral lifestyle.
Joyce DeWitt and Suzanne Sommers played Jack's sexy roommates Janet and Chrissy. Sommers left the series after five seasons. Although the show had a lot of sexual innuendo and double entendres, there was no sex. "It seems innocence compared with what is on TV today," Kline says.
Kline has fond memories of the cast, especially Ritter, who died in 2003 from heart failure.
"He was nicest, funniest person to work with, and it's a shame he died too young," Kline says.