Out actor-singer Sean Allan Krill has ruled the theater scene not only in Chicago but on Broadway, with Honeymoon in Vegas, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, and Mamma Mia! After past Windy City work in Brigadoon, The Hot L Baltimore and Forever Plaid, he now returns once again to Chicago.
He is currently playing Colonel Brandon in a musical version of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility at the Shakespeare Theater. Past productions in the Shakespeare troupe include The Comedy of Errors, Sunday in the Park with George, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Krill completes his gay engagement with marriage at the end of the run for his show and sat down at Navy Pier to talk about it to Windy City Times.
Windy City Times: Hi, Sean. Did you always want to be a performer?
Sean Allan Krill: I was always so into art in general. I was always drawing. I was taking pictures, and making plays for my family. My family would sing on car trips.
WCT: Do you come from a musical family?
Sean Allan Krill: Yes, but no one had ever done it for their living before. My dad would dance to the jitterbug. He was into social dancing. That is why I kept my middle name. That is my dad's name Allan. It is my homage to my dad because he always wanted to be in showbiz but never was.
WCT: I saw your performance in Steppenwolf's Hot L Baltimore.
Sean Allan Krill: That was a crazy role that Tina Landau made up for me, which I loved. My character of the ghost was not in the play. She just called me and asked me to come along for the ride. We created it all together. I got to haunt people and connect with them. It was a fun thing to be a part of.
WCT: Talk about your character, Colonel Brandon, in Sense and Sensibility.
Sean Allan Krill: He's so dear to me. He's a man, for 14 years, has let his life stop because of loss. He is reawakened because of meeting Marianne, who reminds him of his lost love. He has such a profound journey over the course of the novel, and especially how Paul Gordon has written him in this piece. The two pinpoints he gives him in song are so lovely. You are basically watching a man come back to life.
WCT: How is this version of the show different than past incarnations?
Sean Allan Krill: I was a huge fan of the movie. The thing that is so interesting about it as a musical is the parallel of a solo and a soliloquy are almost exactly the same thing except music is added to one. A song is also letting the audience in on a very private place. That what I think is so interesting and has been the challenge of a piece about people who don't express their feelings. So much is not being said and there was no touching. There was a lot to convey just by looking at someone. To take those things and musicalize them is a beautiful thing.
WCT: You have a long history with the Shakespeare Theater.
Sean Allan Krill: I did the first musical here with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat after it opened on the Pier. That was in 1999. I then did Sunday in the Park with George when it was upstairs back in 2002. I went on tour then came back to do The Comedy of Errors here on the main stage. This has been my first chance to come back and work again. It is like coming home.
WCT: You have done Sunday in the Park with George a couple of times. Is it your favorite?
Sean Allan Krill: I played the soldier here and then played George up at Skylight in Milwaukee. It is a pretty damn near perfect musical, in my opinion. I have never been able to decide on Into the Woods or Sunday in the Park as my favorite.
WCT: How was working with Harry Connick Jr. and Jessie Mueller in On a Clear Day?
Sean Allan Krill: It was the craziest job for me. I had never done it before. I had been friends with Jessie's sister for a long time so when I was picked to be a standby it was great to see that all happen for Jessie. Here, the character was sort of A Star Is Born-type in the play. It was a Cinderella story. To see the spotlight on her was great.
WCT: Did you see her in the Carole King musical?
Sean Allan Krill: Yes, I saw Beautiful. I am such a fan of hers.
WCT: Have you played any gay characters or always straight?
Sean Allan Krill: I was in Hit the Wall that started here in Chicago. The play was about the Stonewall riots and was at the Steppenwolf Garage Theatre a couple of years ago. They also did it at the Barrow Street Theatre right around the corner from Stonewall in New York. I did the production there. It was the first time I ever played a gay character. I played a gay who was a well established older person. He was representing the older men in the late '60s who had a lot to lose. He was in the closet but he would go to Christopher Park and pick himself up a boy.
WCT: So you never had issues about being gay and having a career as an actor?
Sean Allan Krill: I have never really cared. I've been so proud of my relationships. I was in a 13-year relationship with an actor here in Chicago, Guy Adkins, who passed away five years ago from colon cancer.
Often, it had nothing to do with my part in a show so I have never felt weird about talking about my personal life.
WCT: You never were pigeon-holed, then.
Sean Allan Krill: No, and I know it is very different in Hollywood. I think stage actors have a little more leeway. I have never had a manager tell me to be less gay.
WCT: I heard there is romance in your future, with you getting married at the end of the run of Sense and Sensibility.
Sean Allan Krill: Yes, I will be married in Chicago. My fiance, Harry Bouvy, has family here. We have family from all over so we thought Chicago would be central for everyone. It is so nice to go into summer with this amazing play. The story of loss and finding love again.
WCT: You can tap into that feeling. That is how life is, sometimes.
Sean Allan Krill: Every now and again life gives you a beautiful little gift. I feel very lucky right now.
Sense and Sensibility runs now through June 14 at Courtyard Theater, 800 E. Grand Ave. For complete performance listing and ticket details, visit www.chicagoshakes.com/sense .
