Broadway on the Cape – John Riddle headlines ‘Waitress’

 

[SPIRIT] Growing up gay in the Midwest, what role did theater play in understanding your identity?

 

[RIDDLE] I knew when I was four years old that something was up, but I didn’t have the language for it. The Midwest isn’t as liberal as other parts of the country, but I was very lucky. My aunt and her wife got together the year I was born, so I always saw them and identified in some way but I didn’t know how. I got called gay because I did theater and as a singer I was a boy soprano before my voice changed. I was a target and I was deeply insecure about it, yet it was this talent that I was getting paid for. I think what draws people to the theater, especially LGBTQ people, is that it’s an escape. I didn’t come out until the end of high school, but I was always surrounded by queer community. … I also grew up near Oberlin college, and I remember driving with my grandma and saying, “Why is that man wearing a tie-dye, floor-length skirt?” She said, “You can wear whatever you want, and some people express themselves differently.” I remember that vividly. I was dealt a very lucky hand.

 

[SPIRIT] In other interviews, you’ve said you love playing villains. Why?

 

[RIDDLE] I think I’m a bit of an optimist in life. I try to find the joy and focus on the good. So I think what attracts me to those characters is that it’s a departure from myself. As a kid I was always dressing up like the Wicked Witch and making potions. Or Captain Hook. I was drawn to them. When I was doing “Frozen the Musical,” I read that when people are vengeful, spiteful or any of those things that make a villain, it usually stems from some sort of heartbreak. I think they’re interesting characters to play because you can find the human thing underneath that causes them to act that way.

[SPIRIT] “Phantom” is a legacy show, but the success of “Titanique” came out of nowhere. Did you expect that?

 

[Riddle] In the weeks leading up, we had no idea where this could go. Then, all of a sudden there was all this buzz around our little show. At that time, we were in the basement of a grocery store that is now demolished, infested with rats and mold, all crammed into one dressing room. But it didn’t matter because it was one of the most joyful times I’ve ever had in the theater. We got to be clowns on stage and people came in droves to see it, like old-school downtown New York theater. … It was an embarrassment of riches that year because I got to open “Titanique,” which became this huge thing, and also closed “The Phantom of the Opera” after 35 years. I felt like one of the luckiest actors in New York City.

 

[SPIRIT] “Waitress” on the Cape is part of that great theater tradition of summer stock. How does it feel to perform in that way?

 

[RIDDLE] There’s a really romantic and homespun aspect to doing summer stock. It reminds you why we do this: to make theater, entertain people and bring them together. A lot of the time on Broadway we forget about that because there’s a whole commercial aspect, which is also a beautiful and important thing. But it brings out the kid in me that simply loves theater, and being on stage, making stuff where there’s not time to get bored or worried about critics. That all goes out the window. It’s freeing to be in a space making theater the old-fashioned way. [x]

by Scott Kearnan
BOSTON SPIRIT