‘Children’ Rascal Michael E. Knight Helps Out a Man With Two Wives

There’s a spousal merry-go-round at the Odyssey Theatre.

Onstage, “It’s the story of a guy with two wives whose life starts to unravel, and he enlists the help of his upstairs neighbor Stanley-- moi-- to help,” explains Michael E. Knight, who’s co-starring in “Run for Your Wife!,” an Americanization of Ray Cooney’s popular British farce.

Offstage, the marital multiples continue: The cast includes Knight and his wife, Catherine Hickland (who used to be married to David Hasselhoff); Ian Ogilvy and his wife, Kathryn Holcomb (who used to be married to Bruce Boxleitner), and Cindy Carlson (whose husband, Steve Bond, was originally in the show). “It is very incestuous,” agrees Knight, whose wife plays in the alternate cast, “and very fun.”

The actor, of course, is no stranger to romantic intrigue: On the ABC soap “All My Children,” his rascally Tad Martin “slept with everything that moved,” Knight admits cheerfully.

“For a 23-year-old kid who’d been a wallflower in college, it was great. Two or three times in your life do you get a role that works. I was very lucky.”

Raised in Ojai and a graduate of Wesleyan University, Knight took the New York theater route after college, working at Circle-in-the-Square and doing small roles until he landed “All My Children” in 1983.

He stayed with the show till 1987, took two years off, then returned in 1989-90. Back in Los Angeles since 1991, he recently completed an episode of “Murder, She Wrote,” and is upcoming in January in the movie “Hexed,” which he candidly describes as “a raunchy sex thriller with no redeeming quality.”

On the Tad front, Knight--who won two Emmys for “Children”--does not rule out a return engagement for his popular character, last seen motoring out of town in a state of amnesia. “There are no plans yet,” he stresses. “But the doors are well open, and I’m in touch with people there all the time. At the drop of a hat, I could go back.”