Actor Gregory Harrison takes a turn as the shady attorney Billy Flynn in 'Chicago'

As a kid growing up on Santa Catalina Island, just off the shore of California, Gregory Harrison and his friends were known to play ''native,'' stripping off their clothes and giving the tourists the ''expected scenario.'' They cried, ''Trow coin! Trow coin!'' until the crowds complied.
And to this day, he still doesn't care what other people think.
Sure, the ability to please a crowd has served him well; most recognized for playing Dr. Gonzo Gates on Trapper John M.D., his career has actually included more than 40 movies of the week, several TV series, a handful of films and a few Broadway shows. The most recent is Chicago, which he brings to Nashville this week.
But does he know what the critics — or the crowds — are saying about his take on the role of Billy Flynn, master attorney? Not a chance.
''I never read reviews,'' he said simply. ''I don't want to own them. I don't believe in them, actually. I don't believe the bad and I sure as heck don't believe the good ones. I realize that everyone has an opinion, but my work is from the inside out, not the outside in. I just don't do things for results.''

So very unlike Chicago's Billy Flynn. Flynn is the one who smoothly turns two real-life murderesses into front-page celebrities during the show; it's all ''razzle dazzle'' and ''all that jazz.'' In the hit movie, the part was played by Richard Gere. During its Broadway run and tour, however, the role has been played by everyone from Alan Thicke to Patrick Swayze, with Robert Urich, James Naughton, Wayne Brady, Tom Wopat and Obba Babatunde in between.
Naughton was in the role when Harrison first came across it in 1997, he said. At the time, he was working on another of John Kander and Fred Ebb's pieces, Steel Pier.
''But John and Fred were just so excited about Chicago, and they kept talking about it. They said to me, 'That's a role you should play some time,' and when I saw it, I agreed. Jimmy (Naughton) was great. The part was great. The show was great.''

Little did he know that it would take eight years before an opening in his schedule would meet with an opening for the part. Finally, he joined the Broadway cast, and two months later was presented with the opportunity to tour.
And that was a first.
''I'd never done a tour before,'' he said. For the last year and a half, he's been on the road off and on with the show, allowed ''a couple of weeks off every six or eight weeks to spend time with my family,'' he said. ''That's the only thing that makes it palatable. As much as I like doing the show, traveling, and seeing America, I get crazed missing my kids.'' He and his wife, former ChiPs actress Randi Oakes, live in southern Oregon; they have three daughters and a son.
He was away while working on Broadway, too, but the tour offers different challenges: ''You open every week,'' he said. ''It keeps you present in the work, constantly retooling and redefining. You try to do that on Broadway, but you can't help but sink in after six months or a year and get into this kind of lethargy that can affect the entire cast and production.'' As a result, he said, ''I honestly believe the tour is a sharper, better version of what you'd find on Broadway. We're working harder, having to go out every week in a new city and figure out what the personality is there.''
Granted, the show is still holding its own in New York. It earned six Tony awards, including best musical revival, earned a Grammy for its cast recording and has the distinction of being Broadway's longest-running revival, still selling to standing-room-only crowds at the Ambassador Theatre year after year.
Harrison attributes it to great choreography (in the style of the late Bob Fosse) and great songs. One in particular, We Both Reached for the Gun, ''is truly the most fun I've ever had onstage,'' he said.
And as long as he's happy, the words of the critics can be tossed overboard — just like all those coins near the Catalina shoreline.

©   May, 2005 The Tennessean.com

The United States tour of "Chicago," the rousing Broadway musical that details a web of murder, greed, corruption, exploitation, adultery and treacherous backstabbing, blows into Myrtle Beach for eight blistering performances at the Palace Theatre.

In the U.S. tour production, the cast features Gregory Harrison in the role of Billy Flynn, Bianca Marroquin in the Roxie Hart role and Terra C. MacLeod in the Velma Kelly role. Harrison, best known for his role as Dr. Gonzo Gates on the CBS TV series "Trapper John, M.D.," from 1979 to 1985, has been acting for 35 years. Aside from his occasional television and cinema work, he has been active in theater. He previously played the Billy Flynn character in "Chicago" on Broadway a couple of years ago.

"'Chicago' has such an amazing score and book," Harrison said. "It's a very pertinent story about what people are willing to do for fame. It's becoming ever more pertinent in today's society when you see what people are putting themselves through in reality TV shows for 15 minutes of fame."

Harrison isn't convinced the film version of "Chicago" has had much impact on the attendance of the tour's shows or the ones on Broadway, but he has seen a dramatic change within the audience.

"It's always sold out over the past eight years," he said. "I have seen a difference in the crowd makeup, though. The crowds have gotten younger and hipper. The faces in the crowd have changed. It's really awakened a younger generation to musicals, and that's good to see. I was beginning to think the musical was going to die out when the audience members did, but the success of 'Moulin Rouge' and 'Chicago' as films has helped in the way of new audience members."

Harrison will remain on the "Chicago" national tour through May 29. Though he doesn't have much in common with the overly confident character he portrays on stage, playing Billy Flynn allows Harrison to flesh out parts of his personality that most people who know him don't get to see much.

"Like all the characters I play, I find one thing that is similar to me and I bring that to the front," he said. "Billy is a self-assured person who is willing to fight for what he wants. And, I have that in me, but it doesn't come out very often. With this show, I'm able to bring that out every night and get it out of my system."

The stage shows that people see on Broadway and on the national tour don't have many differences because the production levels are top-notch. However, the routines vary a great deal.

"I like doing both, I really do," Harrison said. "I like being on Broadway because you have the cream of the crop in actors and directors to work with. But, I like to tour because I get to learn so much about the country. And, I carry my golf clubs with me on the road. I plan to get in some golfing during my stay in Myrtle Beach. I've played the courses there a few times over the years."

©   March, 2005 Morning News Online

Real home is in a remote southwestern Oregon town, where Harrison has been able to successfully pursue both his career and a little peace and quiet for the past decade or so.

His theatrical home, playing attorney Billy Flynn in the Kander and Ebb musical, is something he figures he can do for years, as long as he can also get some time off to spend with his family in Oregon.

"I rejoined the tour about four months ago," says Harrison, who stars in the production when it visits San Jose on Tuesday through Jan. 23. "I'll probably stay about six months, then be off for awhile, then come back."

Harrison has played the slick attorney both on Broadway and on tour, and he plans to continue in the role for years.
"That's the brilliance of Kander and Ebb," he says. "It is a tribute to the precession of their writing that allows the part to be interpreted in different ways and still be done well. What it requires is a commitment to the fundamentals of the character, but not a specific look or race or age -- it's about character. In fact, the whole show is about character and doesn't depend on some chandelier falling down."

Harrison is one of any number of actors who have played the Billy Flynn role. During the '70s, the part was played by the late Jerry Orbach, and by Richard Gere in the recent film version.
"People know this show, even if they've just seen the movie. They know the songs, at least," he says. "We (the stage version) are funnier than they were, and create a more gritty reality in the show. Ours is a presentational piece -- we get right to the music and jokes and focus on those."

"Chicago" plays Tuesdays-Sundays at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, 255 Almaden Blvd. Tickets to the American Musical Theatre of San Jose program cost $45-$72 and may be reserved by calling 888-455-7469 or visiting www.amtsj.org.

©   February, 2005 The Contracosta Times

Q So do people stop you in the supermarket and want to talk about Gonzo?
A Yeah, sometimes, but they're pretty old, those people, if they watched ``Trapper John MD.''

Q Well. I'm not that old.
A Huh. Well, good. Anyone under 13 usually wasn't allowed to stay up till 10 on Sunday nights.

Q So, have you always been a song-and-dance man at heart?
A Yeah. Actually, I got discovered for ``Trapper John'' out of a musical.

Q Really? Which one?
A It was a show called ``The Festival'' that I did with Stephanie Zimbalist (``Remington Steele'') and Brian Stokes Mitchell (``Ragtime''), and Stokes and I both got cast into ``Trapper.''

Q Do you look back fondly on those ``Trapper'' days?
A Absolutely. That was a good introduction to the American public. I couldn't have asked for more. It was a great way to build a fan base.

Q And what is it about musical theater that appeals to you?
A I love the conceit of people breaking into song in the middle of a conversation. I think it's joyful and compelling and it's a great way to express the mood. I saw ``Camelot'' when I was about 12, and it was a magical experience for me. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

Q So musicals were your first love?
A Yeah. I'm not surprised that after a long, arduous career in TV and film, I ended up focusing on musicals. Now that I can afford to do it.

Q What did you think of the ``Chicago'' movie?
A I thought it was great. I loved it. Totally different from what we do every night, but out of necessity. They did what they had to do to sell the musical to the lay audience. . . The play is five times as funny as the movie. . . .
But the success of that movie has helped not only our show but every show out there, by bringing in a younger audience, who now think that musicals are kind of cool. We look out over the house lights now and it's not waves of blue hair anymore.

Q Why is this show so much bigger now than it was at its debut in the '70s?
A People can relate to it now. In 1975, people thought it wasn't realistic. Now, every night on TV we watch people willing to do anything for five minutes of fame. And that's what this show is about. That's what this show satirizes.

Q So why do we want to watch people eat worms on TV?
A As a nation, I think we glorify the less noble in our midst. We glorify dysfunction. We want to see how low people will go.

Q Billy Flynn does seem to be the lowest of the low.
A You may think that. But I like him. He's the most honest character in the whole show. He doesn't pretend to be anything other than he is. He's a happy man. He loves his work. Everybody else has a second agenda.

Q What's the biggest challenge in the show for you?
A Not being liked. You have to try and play the intentions of the character and not try to make them like you just a little bit more. . . . Sometimes people come in liking you before you've even stepped onstage.

Q That sounds kind of nice.
A (he chuckles): It is.

©   February, 2005 The Mercury News

Gregory Harrison is no stranger to interrogation. He's been playing amoral attorney Billy Flynn for nearly a year and a half in the touring production of "Chicago," which opens Nov. 30 as part of the PNC Bank Broadway in Louisville series.
Harrison was raised on Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of California, a popular location for film shoots, and got an early behind-the-scenes look at filmmaking when Audie Murphy stormed ashore in the movie "The Battle of Bloody Beach." Later, Harrison became prominent as Dr. Gonzo Gates in the series "Trapper John, M.D." He has starred in a raft of made-for-TV movies and miniseries and has had guest and recurring roles in "Ed", "Judging Amy", "Falcon Crest" and "Touched by an Angel."
When he heard the Ruthless Interrogator was on his trail, he tried to take the Fifth, but we found ways to make him talk.

If you're in trouble and you have to go to jail, who are you going to hire, Billy Flynn or Ally McBeal?
Billy Flynn. I don't think he has any of the neuroses of Ally McBeal. I think he's smart, has a lot of expertise.

Who is your favorite fictional TV or film attorney?
Well, when I was a little boy I watched Perry Mason all the time — he was the only attorney on television. I thought that was how it really worked. But Johnnie Cochran, during the O.J. Simpson trial, showed me that there are a lot of Billy Flynns out there. For me, he's pretty much the model for Billy Flynn. And he's America's model for the fast-talking, ruthless lawyer.

Not long ago, "The Glass Bottom Boat," with Doris Day and Rod Taylor, ran on Turner Classic Movies. What's your connection to that flick?
Well, my grandfather started the glass-bottomed boats around Catalina Island, where I grew up, around 1905, and my father grew up working on the boats. Later, my father got his pilot's license and captained a boat for 45 years. When they made the "The Glass Bottom Boat," they hired my father to drive the boat around and pretend to be Arthur Godfrey in the long shots and stuff. They were filming on the boat all the time, and I was about 14, so I got to sit on the boat and watch the whole thing. It was the first time I really saw a movie being made over the long haul, where you weren't just walking by a set. And I saw how it was really done, and it inspired me to be an actor. Suddenly I realized that, "Oh, this isn't magic. This is a craft, it's like putting a big, complicated puzzle together, and I can do that."

©   November, 2004 The Courier-Journal

Get ready for some razzle-dazzle - the nation's longest-running revival is bringing all that jazz to Des Moines starting Tuesday."Chicago" will have a six-day run at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines, with nightly performances Tuesday through Sunday and matinees Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
The show first opened on Broadway in 1975, spinning a sassy, sensual tale of two jailbirds - Velma and Roxie - competing for attention. Even with the choreography of Bob Fosse, the musical never quite got out of the shadow of "A Chorus Line" and closed after two years.
A revival opened in 1996, won six Tony Awards and has stayed open since. A film version of the production won the Best Picture Oscar in 2003.

In the touring production, Gregory Harrison stars as smooth-talking lawyer Billy Flynn. The character in the Broadway original was played by Jerry Orbach, later of "Law and Order" television fame.
"I think the story itself resonates even more profoundly than it did when the revival opened," said Harrison, who starred on television's "Trapper John, M.D." from 1979 to 1985 and has acted in dozens of television movies.
"It's a satire, a look at . . . what people are willing to do for five minutes of fame. Every night on TV you see what people will do for five minutes of fame, and I don't think there are any limits to it."

Harrison was working with "Chicago" creators John Kander and Fred Ebb on their Broadway musical "Steel Pier" when the revival of "Chicago" opened. Harrison went on to do a revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Follies" but always kept "Chicago" in the back of his mind.
"I had my agent look into it," Harrison said. "We just sort of missed each other, and then this window of opportunity came up."
Harrison joined the Broadway production for three months, and then rehearsed with the touring version for another month before hitting the road in June 2003.
"I think we're back to the pure intent of the original revival," he said. "It's a subtle difference, but it's an important one."
Theater-goers, for example, who remember Richard Gere tap-dancing as Flynn in the movie won't see Harrison tapping his toes. (The tap dancing, Harrison notes, wasn't in the original stage production or the revival - it was added just for the movie.)

The movie version of the musical and the 2001 film "Moulin Rouge" have brought more young people into the theater for this touring version, Harrison said.
"Moulin Rouge," in particular, "showed young people who couldn't conceive of this idea of people breaking into song in the middle of conversation," he said.
But at its core, the musical is just a style of entertainment - like opera. "If you can buy into the style, it can become a very enjoyable experience," he said.

If you've seen the 54-year-old Harrison during the past 20 years, it has most likely been in one of dozens of television movies. The short-term commitment of the projects - three or four weeks - has been appealing, he said, and allowed him to spend more time with his family in Oregon.
"I love being an actor, but I only enjoy it in relation to the rest of my life," he said.
Harrison has played the president three times in television movies, but he says it's not as satisfying as it sounds.
"Unless it's a really well-drawn one, like you see on 'The West Wing,' they're kind of boring to play," he said. "I'd rather play a common man that's really well-defined."

©   November 21, 2004 DesMoines Register

"Chicago" is the story of Roxie Hart, a night club dancer who murders her lover. She hires Chicago's shrewdest lawyer, Billy Flynn (played by Gregory Harrison), who turns her crime into celebrity headlines and gets her acquitted. Harrison talked about his character in a recent interview.
"He is a fun character, with great songs and surrounded by beautiful women, all the pluses in my book," he said. Harrison said he likes to play characters who are ruthless and powerful and who don't see themselves as bad guys."They see themselves as benevolent dictators," he said. "There is a lot of juice in the role, and I can throw a lot of energy out to the audience."

Location affects audience response
Harrison said the show is so good and so well-written that keeping it fresh night after night is easy. He is, however, always fine-tuning his performance. One thing the cast does keep in mind is the region they are touring. He said the show sways from audience to audience and the crowd's laughter at the jokes.
"There are different kinds of audiences and we play (the show) differently from region to region," he said. "The first night is spent figuring out and making adjustments to our normal pattern to accommodate the audience."
Harrison said one thing the show does provide is a documentary of the characters. "It is based on a true story, so your homework is done for you," he said. "You don't have to imagine and come up with a character. As actors we do know how to create something from nothing. This time, we are creating something from something."
He said the whole show is based on what some people are willing to do for five minutes of fame and how our society embraces and glorifies shady characters. "You see this every night on reality television," he said. "People will eat anything or stab someone in the back figuratively or even literally to get their five minutes. This show is about how a couple of murderesses become stars and how the American public can be buffaloed and confused with notoriety and not talent."

Thirty years on stage
Harrison is best known for his role in "Trapper John, MD." He's been acting for 30 years and has appeared in many television films, including "For Ladies Only," and has had starring roles on Broadway in "Steel Pier" and the revival of "Follies." But now he's on the road and Harrison said he's enjoying it. He said although it is more difficult with a family and four kids at home, he has had the opportunity to see a big part of America.
"And I always have my golf clubs with me," he said. Performing is the career that Harrison always hoped he would have. He said one of his favorite roles was playing a surfer in a 1987 film. "I grew up on island (Santa Catalina, Calif.) and that role was the most fun because that is who I am," he said. "I still enjoy watching and reliving every day of surfing and filming." According to www.gregoryharrison.ws, he has had a life-long romance with surfing and by the time the Beach Boys were singing about "Surfin' USA," he was an avid surfer. He continues to ride the waves, traveling around the world in search of "liquid perfection."

Live experience is memorable
Harrison's favorite musical scene in "Chicago" is when Roxy is sitting on his knee and he's playing a ventriloquist and she is miming a dummy.
"I am trying to convince the press about the hoaxing story I invented," he said. "I feel like I'm juggling with four balls in the air during number, and musically it is one of the most fun songs."

©   November 17, 2004 Ames Tribune

The revival of the musical “Chicago” was a hot ticket even before the 2002 Academy Award-winning film. The touring version of the stage show hits town again next week via the Atlanta Broadway Series.
This time, the featured performer is Gregory Harrison as the win-at-all-costs defense lawyer Billy Flynn.

“I love playing Billy,” Harrison says. “Billy is completely unapologetic, and that is one of the reasons the audience likes him.”
Harrison first experienced stardom on TV’s long-running “Trapper John MD,” and the actor admits that a lot of people are surprised by his appearance in “Chicago.” But his background also includes an abundance of theater, including “Follies” and “Steel Pier” on Broadway as well as “Love Letters” and “Guys and Dolls.”

He is completely comfortable onstage, and “Chicago” is even more pertinent now than when it debuted, he says.
The highly successful team of composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb based the original 1975 Broadway show on murder and media frenzy from the 1920s. When it premiered, the cynical storyline involving murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart didn’t seem as topical.
“Since then, there has been OJ and so much else, it’s so much more relatable to this time, how America glorifies the less noble people,” Harrison says.

When “Chicago” was resurrected two decades later, it won Tonys for revival, choreography and direction.
“Chicago” in its many forms has allowed several actors to make their own marks. On the stage, Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, Ann Reinking and Bebe Neuwirth have all won acclaim, just as Renee Zellweger, Catherine-Zeta Jones and Richard Gere did in the film.
“The material is so good, it allows people to bring their own individuality to their parts,” Harrison says. “I think the same is true with this cast.”

And Harrison says “Chicago” is a gay favorite for many reasons.
“There’s the choreography and the beautiful people and the campiness,” he says. “Also, the score [featuring show-stoppers “All that Jazz” and “The Cellblock Tango”] is also one of the best ever written.”

The passing last month of gay lyricist Ebb [who, along with Kander, is also responsible for “Cabaret” and a score of other hits] makes the road tour of “Chicago” bittersweet, according to Harrison.
“I knew him so well and had the opportunity to work with him back in 1997 on [Kander and Ebb’s final show] ‘Steel Pier,’” Harrison says. “It’s a great loss. He was a sweet, genius man and a dear friend.”

Harrison is no stranger to Atlanta or to gay fans. Perhaps his most famous visit came when he filmed most of his TV movie “For Ladies Only,” where he played a male stripper.
“That was a lot of fun,” he says. “We shot most of the interiors, the dance club stuff, at Backstreet.”
The performer is straight and has been married to his wife for two decades, but he acknowledges his gay fan base. Harrison estimates that a third of the e-mails he gets are about the touching film “It’s My Party,” in which he plays the lover of Eric Roberts, who plans to kill himself rather than die of AIDS.
The movie was based on gay director Randall Kleiser’s own experiences, and “I got to play the Randall Kleiser role,” Harrison says. “When I looked over and Randall was crying after takes, I knew I was doing something.
“I don’t think that enough people saw that movie when it came out, but they have now,” he continues. “I think the studio was frightened by it; they thought it was dangerous. Yet I am very proud of doing that film; it’s one of the highlights of my career.”

©   October 01, 2004 Southern Voice

Come on down,
He's gonna paint the town...
And all that jazz!

Of course you know Gregory Harrison.
He soaped it up on Falcon Crest. He was totally gonzo as an irreverent surgeon in Trapper John, M.D.
And Harrison may just be the uncrowned king of made-for-TV movies and mini-series. He's done romantic comedy (Au Pair), action (as President Hayes in the First... series), historical drama (Centennial), thrillers (Murder at 75 Birch).

But I'll bet you didn't know that Gregory Harrison is a song-and-dance man.
He's tapping and strutting up a storm these nights as slick attorney Billy Flynn, the man who controls the headlines and the future of some merry murderesses in Chicago, leading off the Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati season at the Aronoff Center through Oct. 3.
As Flynn, defense attorney for those killer dames from the Roaring Twenties - Roxie Hart (Bianca Marroquin) and Velma Kelly (Brenda Braxton) - Harrison gets to play ventriloquist, croon a Ziegfeld Follies style ballad and even star in a fan dance.

The quality of Flynn's defense is in direct proportion to the size of the retainer and the headline.
"He's the best character," hoots Harrison. "He's big, he's outrageous, he's unapologetic. He loves what he's doing."
So does Harrison, which, he thinks, is about all they have in common. Well, "I have always been able to play cocky, self-assured guys. I'm probably more like them than I like to think."

Harrison has been singing since he was a kid, but he came to dance by way of sports. He plays baseball and golf; he has a passion for surfing. Dancing was a natural.
He put some time in as Flynn in the Broadway revival of Chicago, after he made his Broadway debut in 1997 in Steel Pier, also by Chicago creators John Kander and the late Fred Ebb. He was also in the cast of the Broadway revival of Follies two years ago.
This is his first national tour, which is taking him away from his family (wife Randi and kids Emma, Lily, Kate and Quinn) and his longtime home on the Oregon coast.
Ever pragmatic, Harrison inked for a six-month road trip because "I had nothing else to fill the gap with." He's not complaining. He prefers acting on stage to screen, large or small. "It's more pure. You don't have an editor, nobody messes with the performance. It's just between me and the audience."

©   September, 24 2004 Cincinnati.com