Curtain Cutie: Kieran Campion

During the first scene of the Broadway play The American Plan, Kieran Campion -- the all-American cutie with a smile begging to be cast in a Colgate commercial -- climbs out of the water dripping wet with only a pair of swim trunks on. Who says there’s nothing for the younger generation on Broadway these days -- great abs are for all ages! And the sexual undertones don't stop there, (The play is after all written by Take Me Out book writer Richard Greenberg) but you'll have to see it for the rest of the action.

Set in the early 1960s, The American Plan is one of my favorite plays I've seen this season. I loved the cast, which also includes Mercedes Ruehl as a shrewd German-Jewish mother, and the set design -- which I usually don't go crazy for -- by Jonathan Fensom really gave the feel of the hazy days and cricket-filled nights of summering in the Catskills. Definitely a giant step up from Manhattan Theater Club’s last production this fall at the Friedman Theatre, the short lived and horribly reviewed, To Be or Not to Be.

An old pro (American Plan being his fourth Broadway show), Kieran took some time out before a show to chat with me about his lovely-sounding wife (sigh), their dog and his starving artist days.

Where are you from?
I grew up in a little town in New Hampshire. I had an interview today with a guy from my hometown newspaper out of the blue and he’s doing an article on kids who went into the business from my high school and are successful.

When did you get into theater?
I started acting somewhat in middle school in drama class and things like that but I really began to take it seriously in college. I went to Colgate University and it’s a liberal arts school not a conservatory or anything. I actually got here with no connection whatsoever.

So what did you do when you first moved here with no job?
I did the starving actor thing where you send out mailings, and I was a waiter -- I’ve done pretty much every job in the restaurant industry. My foresight is not always there, but in this respect, I was like you know, if I’m going to be a waiter in New York I better practice, so when I was in high school that was my summer job in New Hampshire. But yeah, I waited tables, I bartended and actually the last real job I had was canvassing for Green Peace. I did that during the day while I was doing a show at night

Where did you live?
God where haven’t I lived. When I first got to the city I crashed on somebody’s couch for a couple of months and then moved out to Fort Greene into a great place. I don’t know how we got it for the money we were paying, and that became apparent when they jacked the rent up. I now live in Westchester with my wife. It’s different, but I love it.

Oh sad -- you’re no longer an eligible Broadway bachelor. Is your wife an actress too?
She’s not and I’m very fortunate in that respect. She’s a designer and designs strollers for Maclaren baby strollers, so she has a very different perspective on life which is refreshing.

How did you two lovebirds meet?
When I did Our Town, my first Broadway show in 2003. There was a party for the stage manager and she was a friend of a friend who got dragged over. She was actually living in London at the time and she was only in town for a week during Christmas. We kept in contact over email when she was back in London. She was only there for about three months.

Did you visit her?
I wasn’t financially stable enough to hop across the pond to say hello to some girl I’d just met, but it was kind of romantic. We had this kind of correspondence romance. It was nice.

Have you done much film work?
I was in The Good Shepherd, but blink and you’ll miss it. And I actually just did a movie called Children of Invention, which was at Sundance, about a Chinese immigrant family trying to make ends meet. I played a social worker. And then I did this movie that may never see the light of day which is fine. It’s called Stick it in Detroit -- it was a lot of fun to shoot that’s all I’ll say…

I feel like it was a porn!
[Laughs] No no. It’s an American Pie style comedy about four friends living in Detroit post-college. It was another one of those shoe-string budget kind of things, so I was in Detroit for like five weeks or something living with these guys in a house. It was actually great and it was so much fun to shoot but I don’t know what happened to it. It was four years ago.

It’s going to come back to haunt you…
Quite possibly, but could be worse -- I’m not completely naked in it.

Do you prefer stage work?
I prefer to work. No, I love the theater. I love being on stage and the rehearsal process and I love the bond that develops with your cast, crew and director. In film, you’re in your trailer and you sort of rush on the set and you never really know the other people. You could be in a movie with someone and never meet them, but I would love to do more film and TV. It’s a great way to exercise different muscles, and not to mention, it pays much better when it really comes down to it. You’ve got to pay the rent.

So how did you get involved with The American Plan?
I first read this play over a year ago. They did it in San Diego last spring. I was originally considering the role of Nick in San Diego, and I read the play and I loved it, but it was not the right time. I had other things going on and I didn’t want to go that far away, so I ended up not doing it. But I loved the play and I had sort of heard a rumor that it was coming here when I was doing Pygmalion, also directed by David Grindley. He did Journey’s End as well so this is the hat trick for me and David Grindley. He’s been my patron saint for the last couple of years. So it’s been in the back of my mind for a while that I’d really love to do this play and do it here and I was lucky that the cards fell.

Do you sing and dance as well?
Only if it’s meant to be funny. I do have a little ditty in this play but I have the disclaimer beforehand. I can carry a tune but I will never be a Broadway song and dance man. There are many people who are far better at it than I am so I will just leave it to them.

What’s the most difficult thing you’ve had to do on stage?
Well this play that I did last spring…it was a good part and I think it has potential but the whole thing just didn’t quite come together as we had hoped. There’s this one moment in the play where my character -- who is a self-described gym rat -- is on stage in his underwear and he’s miming squats on stage and it’s in this tiny little theater at the Soho Playhouse – like 99 seats and you can see everybody in the house and the front row is like three feet away.

What kind of underwear was it?
In the stage directions it says white briefs, but I got them to go boxer briefs -- so it’s a little bit more modest. But it was still still pretty revealing and it’s really not so much the – but I never quite understood why it was in the play. I don’t have problem with doing it but it just never felt justified to me. I don’t really have a problem being naked per se, but… that was my most difficult on stage moment and it was hard because the crowds were less than full.

That’s probably something you are going to have to deal with more and more with many shows closing and less people able to afford the theater.
Theater needs to be re-focused I think in finding a younger audience.

How do you think they should do that?
I think ticket prices are a big issue. I think there should be special student discounts and young people discounts, pay what you can days -- things that they do off-Broadway could be brought to Broadway. I think that the choice of material can sometimes be a turnoff to younger theater-goers but it’s a huge financial risk and I understand why producers go to what’s safe and what’s known. One great thing about MTC is that they have this huge subscriber base that can keep things afloat -- but that can also handcuff you if you start to program to your subscriber base instead of to the larger public.

On a lighter note- what do you do in your spare time?
I don’t have a lot of spare time right now but I play a lot of hockey. I walk my dog, a Tibetan Terrier. I should go to the gym -- I do occasionally but it’s hard to motivate.

You strip down to a swimsuit for the first part of this play and you don’t look too shabby. You really don’t go to the gym?
I got in shape for the underwear play last spring and summer. I shouldn’t call it the underwear play -- it’s a good play otherwise I wouldn’t have done it -- but it’s not my favorite play. So I got in shape for that and I just kind of played a lot of hockey since then and I go to the gym every once in a while. I’m trying to maintain and eat healthy but it’s 1960 so I shouldn’t look like steroid case.

The American Plan is playing an open run at the Friedman Theater on W. 47th St.