Unlikely Mary for ‘Easter’ in Garden Grove

Typecasting it’s not.

“The last thing I ever thought I’d be doing is playing the Virgin Mary,” sassy Broadway belter Kim Criswell said of her role in “The Glory of Easter,” which opens tonight at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove.

“You know,” she added, sitting in her dressing room earlier this week after a rehearsal, “I’m not approaching this like, ‘We are all in the Bible.’ I’m just assuming I don’t know that yet. If I really am this person, then I wouldn’t know I’m in the Bible.”

Not exactly a churchgoer, Criswell figures the Crucifixion and Resurrection “is a seriously wild story and a great piece of theater, whether you believe it or not.”

She also allowed, in the faint Tennessee accent still with her from a Chattanooga childhood, that “maybe it is a true story, because nobody could have thought up something that wild.”

Seen last season in Opera Pacific’s “Kismet” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center--she played Lalume, the royal trash of Baghdad--Criswell is best known for her starring role in the Los Angeles production of “Cats” that ran at the Shubert Theatre in the mid-’80s. As old Grizabella, the wizened alley trash of the Heaviside Layer, she sang Andrew Lloyd Weber’s nostalgic anthem, “Memories,” every night for 18 months.

Though her progression from “Cats” to “Kismet” to the Crystal Cathedral may seem surprising, it does have a certain logic, if only because of the accelerating decline of musical theater in New York, where the irrepressible and irreverent stage actress has made her home since 1980.

“There are so few shows, you can’t earn a living there anymore--at least not the kind I need,” said Criswell, whose Broadway credits include featured roles in “Nine,” “Baby,” “Stardust” and “The First,” as well as the national touring company of “Annie” and top regional revivals.

This lackluster season, for instance, the musicals that opened on Broadway can be counted on one hand: “Carrie,” “Legs Diamond,” “Black and Blue” and “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway.” The first two were disasters, closing soon after their premieres. The third has managed to remain open. And the fourth, which is the only bona fide hit, is a compendium of highlights from 20 years of musicals from 1944 to 1964.

“I missed the auditions for the Robbins show, so it’s like I’m out for the year,” Criswell said. “That’s why I came back to Los Angeles--to do the (TV) pilot season. I’m trying to get into film and television work. Musical theater has become a dead-end trip.”

It doesn’t help that this red-haired Southerner, 31, finds herself competing for starring roles time and again against established “name” stars whose marquee values carry the kind of weight that New York producers require before they risk millions of dollars on today’s mega-musicals.

“It happens every time,” she said. “It’s always between me and a name. And I’m never going to win that, not the way it is now. It doesn’t matter what I do in the audition if they want a name.

“For ‘Anything Goes,’ it was between me and Patti Lupone. For ‘Sunday in the Park’ and ‘Into the Woods,’ it was between me and Bernadette Peters. For ‘Cats’ it was between me and Betty Buckley. Judy Kaye is another one. Our paths cross a lot. It’s getting a little silly.

“Unless all of these girls decide to take a vacation somewhere--together--I’m not going to get the parts that I’m right for,” Criswell said.

Knowing she would be coming West and would need to tide herself over, Criswell tried out for “The Glory of Easter” in October in New York, where she said many of the pageant’s leading players were cast (including Jonathan Fuller, who stars as Jesus).

“When I went into the audition, I didn’t know quite what to expect,” she said. “Back there, they sort of think of the Crystal Cathedral as Radio City West. I guess it’s because Radio City (Music Hall) has a Christmas show with live animals and special effects, just like here. This place obviously has many more religious overtones. I’ve noticed that. But I’m happy to be here.”

Moreover, Criswell sees significant parallels between what she did in “Cats” and what she is expected to do in “The Glory of Easter.” The common denominator, she said, is the anguish that must be evoked in both performances, although one was secular and the other is religious. “As Mary, I don’t have many lines, but there’s a lot of hysteria,” she pointed out. “It’s really like Grizabella. All I did as Grizabella was have ‘a hissy fit.’ Every night I had a nervous breakdown, which is basically what I’m doing here.

“Quite frankly, I thought all I would do as the Virgin Mary was stand there and look pretty and sing a song. Now it’s true that I don’t go on until the last 20 minutes of the show, but when I do it is full-tilt boogie.”

A 1979 graduate of the Cincinnati Conservatory, Criswell worked professionally on stage long before she got out of high school. At 15, she recalled, she was starring in shows at Six Flags Over Georgia, an amusement park near Atlanta, while her classmates “were dipping ice cream cones at Baskin-Robbins.”

The first time she sang in public she was not even old enough for elementary school. “My parents stood me on a box at church,” Criswell said, “and I think I sang ‘Ave Maria.’ I didn’t know that was weird for a 5-year-old. I had this strange adult voice. I never did sound like a kid.”

While Criswell’s singing is her greatest claim to fame, she has misgivings that it “has become a trap,” because casting directors “assume singers in the musical theater can’t act.”

Still, she maintains a busy schedule of pop concerts. Last weekend, for instance, she was a guest artist with the Vancouver Symphony, singing an evening’s worth of tunes from the Rodgers & Hart songbook.

In the meantime, she is trying to build a theatrical recording career. Twice featured on original cast albums--”Baby” and “Nine”--she recently recorded Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes” with the London Symphony. It is due out in the fall on Angel-EMI Records.

“I’m Reno Sweeney,” Criswell said. “Frederica von Stade is Hope. Jack Gilford is Moon Face. It’s great. I got to sing the starring role, and I’m the only person on the record I’ve never heard of.”

“The Glory of Easter” continues through March 26 at the Crystal Cathedral, 12141 Lewis St., Garden Grove. Performances nightly at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m., except Monday. Tickets: $14 to $25. Information: (714) 544-5679.