Interview: Robert Petkoff of MOULIN ROUGE at Ohio Theatre

While on the national tour of the musical MOULIN ROUGE, Robert Petkoff never stops being Harold Zidler, the outlandish owner of the French cabaret. The part is written all over his face.

The musical, which won 10 Tony awards including best musical in 2020, sets up shop at the Ohio Theatre (39 S. State Street) Jan. 2-14.

Petkoff, who has played in everything from Shakespeare to the DAVID CHAPPELLE SHOW, grew an epic moustache and beard to play the over-the-top character.

“It’s weird for me to walk around in the real world, with this mustache,” Petkoff said in a telephone interview from Baltimore. “It presents a completely different version of who I really am to the outside world.”

Petkoff chuckled when he talked about the night when someone approached him in a hotel lobby and said, “You look like Johnny Depp.”

“I only wish. I don't resemble Johnny Depp in any way shape or form,” Petkoff said. “I guess there’s sort of a likeness to Depp's facial hair in PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN maybe.”

Two nights earlier, a family was waiting by the elevator, taking selfies. The father spied Petkoff and said aloud, “That guy looks interesting. We should get a picture with him.”

“They took a picture with me, not knowing I'm an actor in MOULIN ROUGE,” he said with a laugh. “They just thought, ‘He’s a freak show. Let's get a picture with him.’

“I forget sometimes I don't look like the version of the clean shaven me. When I get a different reaction than I expect, I go, ‘Oh right, I look like Harold Zidler right now and not like Robert Petkoff.’”

The hairstyle and mustache help Petkoff bring Zidler, the show’s vainglorious master of ceremonies, to life. Petkoff’s character is desperately spinning plates to keep his beloved Moulin Rouge afloat. His latest scheme is to have his featured performer Satine (Gabrielle McClinton) charm the Duke of Monroth (Andrew Brewer) and thus secure a wealthy patron to help the cabaret stay financially solvent.

The flaw in the plan is Satine falls for poet Christian (Christian Douglas).

“He’s a larger than life character, so he's a lot of fun to play,” Petkoff said. “He's a man with big appetites and that drives him to make bad choices. He’s dancing on the razor's edge, but thinks he can pull it off one more time.

“He's avaricious, but beneath that, he's got a heart of gold and he really does love the Moulin Rouge.”

MOULIN ROUGE is remarkably similar to the 2001 movie of the same name by director Baz Luhrmann. Some songs, “Firework,” “Lady Marmalade,” and “Your Song” are pulled from the pop charts; others snag snippets from the familiar.

Petkoff’s favorite part of the show is watching from the wings of the stage the reaction of the audience.

“It’s just delightful to see people recognize the songs,” he said. “Sometimes I can see them singing along or laughing as they recognize the song and realize how it works for this moment.
“I sing things the audience does not expect me to sing. When they hear the first strains of it, I hear laughter every night as people go, ‘he is not going to sing that one.’”

Like his character, Petkoff is intensely in love with the stage. He was born into an Air Force family that was constantly on the move and theater helped him find a community in different schools.

However, Petkoff never thought it would be his livelihood until high school.

“I ended up at a high school that had an exceptionally good drama teacher,” Petkoff said. “He was the first person to say, ‘you're good at this. If you want to do this, there is a path you can take so you can do (acting) as a profession.’

“Fortunately, I had two parents (Carolyn and Peter) who didn't say, ‘You want to do what?’ They let me know they supported me.”

After studying theater at Illinois State, Petkoff found work as a Shakespearean actor in Chicago and Los Angeles and even landed a role on a TV pilot called MONA, a spin-off of WHO’S THE BOSS?

Acting has allowed Petkoff to perform with an impressive list of luminaries including Kristin Chenoweth (EPIC PORTIONS), Judi Dench and Emily Blunt (THE ROYAL FAMILY), Lynn Redgrave (BEING EARNEST), and Bryan Cranston (ALL THE WAY).

“The common thread among all of them was they were really great people first and really good actors second,” Petkoff said. “People say, ‘Don't meet your heroes,’ but they've all lived up to everything I wanted them to be.”

However, Petkoff didn’t land a role in a musical until 2002 when he starred in SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. He then made his way to Broadway, performing in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF with Alfred Molina and Harvey Fierstein.

“I dreamed about (musical theater) when I was in high school, but I abandoned that dream rather quickly,” he said with a laugh. “I thought, ‘I'm not really a singer. I'm more of an actor.’ It's been delightful singing on a stage.

 “An audience response to a HAMLET monologue is vastly different than an audience’s response to singing any song on the planet. It's so instant and visceral. HAMLET is much more for the soul and music is much more a confection on top of everything else.”

PHOTOS: Matthew Murphy

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