Queer Voices
Queer Voices
September 25th QUEER VOICES: Kurt Perry from PETER PAN
This episode will only be heard on the podcast, and it features musical comedy actor Kurt Perry being interviewed by BROADWAY WORLD writer Brett Cullum. Kurt is coming to Houston with the Broadway tour of PETER PAN which runs at the Hobby Center on October 1st through the 6th.
Tickets can be found at:
https://houston.broadway.com/shows/peter-pan/
What happens when a timeless tale like Peter Pan gets a wonderfully modern twist? Join our conversation with the very hilarious and handsome Kurt Perry, the remarkable actor bringing Smee to life in a reimagined production of Peter Pan. Director Lonnie Price and book writer Larissa FastHorse have infused this version of the classic story with Indigenous voices and stronger female characters, creating a vibrant new rendition. Kurt shares his initial unfamiliarity with Peter Pan and his enlightening journey through rehearsals, working alongside a dynamic cast, including Nolan Almeida's intriguing portrayal of Peter and Cody Garcia as Captain Hook, adding a delightful layer to the performance.
Kurt also opens up about the nuances of his career in comedic character acting, emphasizing authenticity and freshness in his performances. From his rich musical upbringing to his professional evolution in musical theater and classical music, Kurt offers invaluable insights into his artistic journey. Furthermore, he candidly discusses his personal exploration of gender identity, embracing both "he" and "they" pronouns and the sense of liberation it brings.
Queer Voices airs in Houston Texas on 90.1FM KPFT and is heard as a podcast here. Queer Voices hopes to entertain as well as illuminate LGBTQ issues in Houston and beyond. Check out our socials at:
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https://www.instagram.com/queervoices90.1kpft/
Hi, this is Brett Cullum, and today I am joined by Kurt Perry. Kurt is an actor who is starring in the touring version of Peter Pan as Captain Hook's sidekick Smee. Kurt brings the role to life with hilarious results. He's done so many roles in addition to this, including Uncle Fester in the Addams Family. He was in Hair, he was in South Pacific we're talking bona fide classic musical theater guy and he even did a role that we have in common.
Speaker 1:Both Kurt and I both portrayed JC Squires, the top tenor and the barbershop quartet for the Music man. So there you are. Weird connection. He's done television but, from what I can tell, mainly a stage guy. So welcome to Queer Voices, kurt Perry. Well, good afternoon. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, we're excited to have you. Now I noticed that this Peter Pan is directed by Lonnie Price and I was like I know that name from somewhere and then I realized he was in the original 1981 Merrily we Roll Along and he also directed the Sunset Boulevard revival with Glenn Close back in the 20-teens, I think, like 16, 17? Yeah, something like that. So tell me about what makes this version of Peter Pan a little bit different than what we've seen before?
Speaker 2:Most of my professional life, peter Pan was unproducible Because of the way that JM Barrie and the original book writers handled the Indigenous characters. That was sort of. That was like that I. The one time I remember seeing it being produced, I said to a friend of mine who was in the show I was like what, what's going on? And they were like like, yeah, it's not great. So the number one thing that I and I and and is I'm so extraordinarily proud of this with the work that lani has done and the work that larissa fast horse has done, our new book writer, is they've really not only have they sort of taken out the the racist stuff, but they have given an opportunity for Indigenous voices to be heard loud and clear by Indigenous actors. And not only was Larissa capable of doing that, but she also took advantage of the opportunity to elevate female voices in the show.
Speaker 2:In the original version of Peter Pan, wendy doesn't have a song. Tiger Lily also does not have a song. It was considered a dance track. You know, looking back on that in 2024, you're like but Wendy's the main character, like Wendy's our POV, like what you know, you know. So we have been very lucky to have the opportunity to elevate both Indigenous voices, marginalized voices and female voices within this version of Peter Pan.
Speaker 2:I like to say it brings Peter Pan into the 21st century, where the sensibilities have shifted and also the pacing of the way that we do theater is different, and one of the biggest changes, of course, is Nolan Almeida, who is our Peter. Peter is being played by a young man. When I came into this audition process I had no familiarity with peter pan whatsoever. I knew I won't grow up. I knew that song, but other than that I was completely unfamiliar. After I started getting to rehearsals with the full cast, I decided to watch the recorded kathy rig version and it is very interesting to see the change in dynamics between Wendy and Peter when it's played by a young man versus a woman.
Speaker 1:I would imagine. So I mean it's funny because I grew up with that version. Kathy Rigby is Peter Pan and I remember doing productions of it where they would they would cast a woman to fly around and do the whole thing it's so interesting because I come from the classical music world yes, you do so.
Speaker 2:Like the concept of pants rolls is not foreign to me, but it was. It was so interesting with this one in particular. I was like oh. But then I saw it with a young man and I was like, oh, okay, I get it. I got it now it's, it's a very, it's a very, it's a very, it's the. The energy is very different.
Speaker 1:Well, it's definitely a story that's been told multiple ways over the years. I even saw a version. A friend of mine, damon Dietz, who is a filmmaker, did a version of Peter Pan on film where Captain Hook was basically a leather daddy and the Lost Boys were all like young twinks and Tinkerbell's fairy dust was like drugs they were selling at a club you could do all of these things.
Speaker 2:What's interesting about Peter Pan is that because it's such an iconic story, it's been interpreted so many different ways and the adaptations or so sort of have been reinterpreted over and over and over again.
Speaker 2:Speaking sort of strictly about sort of the mainstream adaptations you have even what's what's what. What I sort of love about it is just talking about the mainstream adaptations. You have an opportunity to like pass them down from generation to generation. You know what I mean Because you know, like your grandpa, your grandma saw it on Broadway in 1952 with Mary Martin, and then your, you know, your dad grew up with the movie Hook and the Disney movie and you know whatever adaptations and live-action versions Disney has put out recently. And it's such a opportunity, it's such a unifying force. And then, once you get into the darker interpretations or the more less mainstream interpretations of the text, it is fascinating how universal the story is. One of my very favorite adaptations, which you might be familiar with, ryan Scott Oliver did an adaptation called Darling. I have known Ryan for many years and it's so interesting to see how different people interpret the same story. It's very cool.
Speaker 1:It's a universal story and it's one that's been kind of taken down almost like fairy tales. It's lasted for a long time and been a bunch of different things. But tell me a little bit about this tour and let's lighten the mood up a little bit. What is the most fun part about being on this tour?
Speaker 2:Peter Pan. I am privileged to step on stage every night with my scene partner, cody Garcia. They are truly one of the funniest people I have ever met and one of the finest comedians I've ever met. And he's. What role do they?
Speaker 1:play. I'm sorry, cody Garcia plays Hook.
Speaker 2:Okay, good, just making sure that Smee's not singing with somebody else. Smee's just hanging out with Tiger Lily. Cody is our Hook and my favorite part of the whole night is making my first entrance and the first scene that I do with Cody. The joy in this production is also one of my favorites. So the end of Act 1, we have a brand new song that Amanda Green did the new lyrics and it's a song called Friends Forever and just the. I remember the first time I sat and watched the show was like two weeks ago. We were in portland and I had taken a personal day and I was like, oh, I'll go see the show, I can get a cheap ticket. And I remember, at the end of act one, just being so overwhelmed by the amount of joy on the stage of my colleagues and these performers and seeing these kids in the audience, just like enraptured by what was happening on stage. It's just a lovely jewel box of a show that I am so proud to be a part of.
Speaker 1:What has the reaction been like as you've gone across the country? Has people really been receptive for this new interpretation, and what have you been hearing back and forth?
Speaker 2:One of the things that I think we've done really well is that we have managed to sort of update everything that needed to be updated. But at the core of Peter Pan, neverland hasn't changed. We haven't messed with it too much. We have brought the sort of 2024 sensibilities, but all like the flying and the magic and peter and you know. None of that has changed. That's all there, because that's at the end of the day. That's the heart of the story. You know what?
Speaker 1:I mean? Well, it's a special effects heavy show, as you mentioned, the flying yes, and our special effects team is incredible.
Speaker 2:Because when you're, when you're watching it as an actor sort of from because you watch the show from the side more than you watch from the front when you're an actor I sort of was like I think, oh, wow, this is a great show. And then when I stepped out of the house I was like, oh, this is a beautiful show. Art design teams have really outdone themselves, especially, in my opinion, the flight to neverland. That's like my favorite part to sit and watch.
Speaker 1:Well, I can't wait to see it, but have you ever been to Houston before? That's my next question. Where are you from originally?
Speaker 2:So I have not been to Houston before. Originally I'm from Portland, maine.
Speaker 1:Very different.
Speaker 2:The only time I've been to Texas was I was doing like a really sort of small scale Christmas Carol tour, really sort of small scale Christmas carol tour. And we were. We went through Amarillo, texas, and oh, what's the one with the Dickinson Festival down on the coast Galveston, galveston. We were in Galveston, we're in Amarillo. So that that's the only time I've been to Texas and we were there for like one night. So I'm excited to get to explore Houston. We have a couple other Texas states too, so I'm excited to like to explore Houston. We have a couple other Texas states too, so I'm excited to get to spend some time in Texas.
Speaker 1:It's an interesting state, Very different than Maine, I'm sure. Just first of all the weather it's hot Already.
Speaker 2:I'll take a dry heat. We're not dry. Why do you have to tell me that?
Speaker 1:It's very humid. Well, one of the things I noticed about you is, I would say, that you are a comedic kind of character actor. You're really good at that. I mean, obviously, if you've got Smee on board, what do you think makes a good comedic character actor?
Speaker 2:Rod, I sort of rail against those kind of labels. Sure, I sort of rail against those kind of labels because I think it's limiting to people. Categories are really helpful initially in your career because what it does is it gets you work and when you're starting out that's the job is you have to just start getting credits. But I prefer to portray it as not necessarily that I am a hair, a funny character actor, in that I have a set of tools available to me that I can be very funny and that like that is. And in real life I I like to think I'm funny.
Speaker 2:But it's about a set of tools and a set of skills more than an identity, and I think that one of the things that makes a really strong comedian and someone with a really adept set of skills is an ability to keep things fresh, and not necessarily like changing things, but because you hear the same line every single night for you know, 250 shows you still need to react as if it's the first time you've ever heard it, and that is a skill that is constantly something that needs to be worked on. It's the muscle that needs to be practiced, one of my favorite things to say. I had a coach in college who said this to me comedians make the best tragedians because so much of tragedy is the reveal of things and that initial reaction, sort of comedy. You know, comedy and tragedy, two sides of the same point. I always think that that particular skill is essential in comedians, but also incredibly important, just like all actors, but especially in comedy, to keep everything fresh and exciting.
Speaker 1:We're talking with Kirk Perry, who is an actor, kareem with Peter Pan. I wanted to ask you what got you started in acting? When did you start this whole journey?
Speaker 2:My father's family were all like professional musicians, so music was always around the house and my grandfather played like 12 instruments. My dad plays every saxophone and like every woodwind. My aunt was a professional musician. My uncle was a professional musician, like it was the family business. So I was exposed to all different kinds of music. My dad wanted to be a funk musician in Las Vegas, like that was his dream, and so I was exposed to all these different kinds of music Motown Broadway, classical, pop, rock, grunge. It was very important to them that I be exposed to all different kinds of music.
Speaker 2:Something about classical music and musical theater really just dug their nails into me. I like to say that my dad bought me a Andrew Lloyd Webber compilation CD when I was seven years old and I've never looked back. So I was doing music. Almost as soon as I had the opportunity to participate in like choir, I was there. It was everything. It was the only thing I looked forward to at school.
Speaker 2:As I got into high school, I was doing every opportunity, every, every musical, every play, every like. All state choir, all state band orchestra, all of it. I was there. I was happy to be there and I was excited to be there and I did like my first professional paid gig when I was like a senior in high school and it paid gig when I was like a senior in high school and it was like a reading at this little local theater and I played like ensemble number number four. And then I decided to go to school for classical music, but the whole time I was still doing musical theater and my, my current career is this amalgamation of musical theater and classical music and sort of bouncing them off of each other.
Speaker 2:And that started early. And the first time I walked into like a really professional setting I was doing Romeo and Juliet, the opera by Gounod, at Port Opera, now Opera Main. It was electric. I later that summer I went on to do a show at Maine State Music Theater. This is all I've ever wanted to do. This is what I want to do. I have been very lucky. I've had I definitely had some pretty long dry spells, but I've been very, very lucky that I have been able to support myself doing this, doing this art form. That is the hardest thing in the world. You know what I mean it is so elusive.
Speaker 1:It is one of those things where you've got so many people out there trying to make it and they can't. I mean, if you're making it, you're doing obviously.
Speaker 2:You get to a certain point, and it's not about talent. Everybody's good, Everybody is in that. 0.0001 percentile of you know working.
Speaker 1:Tell me a little bit about classical music and how you bring that to.
Speaker 2:Sure, my undergraduate in vocal performance was a time of sort of developing a set of skills that I'm very proud of a really clear understanding of theory, a really clear understanding of how a vocal pedagogy and how to maintain the voice and sort of what opera singers can be precious about our voices and we can be precious about sort of our bodies in general. And I think that that is sometimes deeply annoying, but sometimes it's a good skill to have, because when you go into these high intensity performing situations which you know, when you're singing balem, you're only doing it two or three nights a week. But then I'm over here doing peter pan, where I'm on stage eight times a night, eight times a week, eight times a night, eight times, eight times a week, and you know, and I'm running around and I'm dancing, I'm jumping and I'm being funny and I'm bending, I'm like so being able to take care of my body and my voice, mind, that skill set.
Speaker 2:A lot of that came from my working. Classical music, the versatility, a really strong technique. My technique is not infallible. I still take voice lessons every time I can, anytime I'm in the city I'm with my voice teacher, ron Raines. To be able to sort of sing anything and not be scared of it, I might need to coach. The style Like pop, rock stuff is always sort of an adventure for me. That took me a long time to get under my you know, get under my fingers. I'm not. I'm never scared that it's too high or too long or too loud or too. That's not a fear of mine and that I do. I do genuinely believe a lot of that comes from my classical training.
Speaker 1:Well, how did you get this role in Peter Pan Like? What was the audition process like?
Speaker 2:I love telling this story because I I like to say I worked really hard not to get this job. Oh no, at the time when I got this audition I was in wisconsin and I was doing music man jc squires. I was just very busy with that production. There were a lot of feelings everywhere, and so I got the audition. I was like I was not particularly. It wasn't like one of those things like oh, I gotta get, I gotta get that audition. But I saw Lonnie was attached and Andy Einhorn was attached and LuTaro was attached and Larissa was attached and I was like, oh, look at this team, I can't not try an audition. So I submitted, I got an appointment and they sent me the script and I had two little, two short scenes and they wanted me to sing a song of my own and there was a dance call. I said, okay, great.
Speaker 2:So I filmed, filmed the sides. I had a video of a song that was appropriate that I recorded like six months earlier. So I just I was like, great, I have a song, that's no big deal. And then for the dance part, I I didn't have any space, I didn't have anywhere to do it. So I was like, oh well, you know what? It's fine. So I sent them my dance where I said hey, I'm really sorry I'm doing music, man, right now, I just don't have time to do this. Here's my dance rail, thinking nothing of it, I go well, I sort of sort of bit the dust on that one. Like a week out, like a week and a half goes by and I get a. It's like hey, hey, uh, this is a callback. And I was like oh, okay, you sure. And they're like yep, okay.
Speaker 2:So I do the whole thing again, I still don't have any space, so I still can't do the dance call. And I go here's the answer again. I finished Music man. I come back to New York. I was sitting in my apartment and just sort of surrounded by my luggage, and I get an email from my agent. She goes hey, you got to find a call back for this. And I was like, oh, okay. And she goes. But the casting director says you have to dance this time and I was like yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, Got it. So I go to the final callback. I meet Lonnie I'm terrified. I meet Lauren I'm terrified. I meet Andy I'm terrified.
Speaker 2:Because I know everybody's credits in the room. I'm a big Sondheim fan so I knew who lani was. I knew what you know what lani had done. I knew, like, the work that lauren had done. And andy I worked in broadway theaters. I had seen andy going into carousel.
Speaker 2:I worked at carousel all the time and I did the final callback and I did the dance call and I was talking to, like, the reader and she was like you were really great, I think you got it and I was like a couple. Like a week and a half later yeah, maybe longer, it might be two or three weeks I was walking into an audition for a different national tour and I had put my book down on the piano. I was talking to the pianist and I was like, and I go to turn my phone off and I see that I have the offer for smith. Oh wow. I looked at the casting director behind the table, who I know very well, and I went I'm just go. I just got an offer for another national tour. Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1:Truly, I think it was like a movie moment, like you can't make this stuff up Real quick because I think we're cutting close to our time and things like that. But, kurt, you are a member of the LGBTQIA plus community. I noticed on your Instagram it says he and they it says he and they yeah.
Speaker 2:So my sort of gender interpretation is always sort of an adventure because generally I do feel comfortable identifying as male, but from when I was very young I sort of had this real like sort of chip on my shoulder about feeling like I wasn't man enough and I didn't like masculinity didn't come naturally to me and I really I did not have the words to explain it because I think, you know, I grew up like I was born in 19,. You know, in the 20th century, we'll say, and I just didn't have the language for it. And as sort of our conversation around gender diversity has expanded, suddenly having a way to explain that I'm like, yeah, I am shaped like a man, but like I'm not so rooted in that as I think some other people are. I also I like to say that like this is the way I explained it to my mother when I told her that I was some flavor of non-binary.
Speaker 2:I'm like, if it's a road between, like Mantown and Ladiesville, I'm sort of in a hot air balloon up here, definitely on one side, and I just think and I tell people, I'm like you can use either pronoun, I'm comfortable with both. It's just sort of like once in a while'm sort of like it's, it's a liberation thing. I don't know really how to describe it. I've it's always an interesting conversation. Someone's like, ah, he, they, and I'm like, yeah, it's mostly there for me, but feel free to use it no, I mean that's great.
Speaker 1:That's one of the wonderful things about being in the age that we're in as opposed to the age that we were in that you referenced the 20th century and all of that. I'm totally in touch with that. Well, kurt Perry, thank you so much. We are so excited to see you in Peter Pan as Smee Definitely one of my favorite characters from that story because you get to hang out with the coolest person in the world, captain Hook. I mean, come on, but you don't have to do anything inherently evil like gulk. So there you are, but break legs. We will see you here in houston and I will, right there clapping along to save tinkerbell and to appreciate your performance thank you so much for having me.
