Retired theater critic turns professional actor

What happens when a theater critic turns the table on himself?

Graydon Royce wrote about the arts, and theater in particular, at the Star Tribune. He recently retired from the newspaper — but then threw himself into an acting role at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres.

Royce says his interest in Chanhassen Dinner Theatres goes back a long way.

"I actually auditioned at Chanhassen in '74 for 'Gypsy' with Gary Gisselman," he recalled. "And everything was going fine until they put me through a dance routine and it broke my ankles and I said, 'OK, there has to be a better way of making a living.'"

That turned out to be in newspapers, eventually as a reporter and critic on the Star Tribune's arts desk.

"Holiday Inn" director Michael Brindisi says he's known and respected Royce for years.

"As a critic he was a nurturer. He liked me personally, and he wanted to see me succeed," Brindisi said. "But he wasn't easy on me. In fact, a little tougher, as he wanted me to be as good as I could be."

After Royce retired a couple of years ago, Brindisi says, they were just chatting one day.

"He said, 'I would love to be in a show at Chanhassen someday,' and I said, 'Let's make that happen.' So the next show up was 'Holiday Inn,' and I just created a track for him.'

Royce didn't have to think about it for long. "I immediately, of course, said, 'Oh sure, I'd love to be on stage,'" he said. "And then he said, 'OK, I need you eight shows a week. It's five months. I need you for the whole thing. I don't want you bailing out three months into it or anything.' Ultimately I said, 'When am I going to have this chance? I gotta do it. Gotta do it.'"

"Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn," to give the production its full title, is a new Broadway show based on a classic 1942 movie of the same name. Berlin wrote "White Christmas" for the film, and it won the 1943 Oscar for best song.

It's the story of Jim, a singer who dreams of leaving the stage behind to become a farmer. He proposes to his girlfriend on the day he gets the deeds to the Mason farm in Connecticut. She accepts but then immediately leaves with his best friend, a great dancer, when they are offered a national tour. Jim moves to his new property and quickly learns the hard truths of agriculture.

"Farming is a lot harder than it looks," he tells Louise, the woman he hired to fix up the place.

"I'll say," she replies. "Mr. Mason tried for 55 years."

"Fifty-five years? Then what happened?" Jim asks.

"He died," she says, ending the conversation.

Let's be honest here: While Royce appears regularly throughout the Chanhassen show, he's front and center only briefly, playing a radio announcer.

He is on stage often in various nonspeaking roles during the torrent of Berlin songs in the show. He and actor Aleks Knezevich appear together throughout the production. Knezevich said he was a little nervous when he first heard about Royce joining the cast.

"When you're talking about somebody from sort of the outside coming into a show, you never really know what they are going to do," he said. "And as a reviewer, you worry they are going to be critical of the process or something like that. But Graydon's just embraced it."

And his reviews have been good. His former Star Tribune colleague Rohan Preston described Royce as "charismatic and credible" in his performance.

Chanhassen Dinner Theatres celebrates its 50th season this year, and things are going well. "Holiday Inn" is sold out through the whole of December. Royce said that's a testament to good work being done by the organization.

"It is actually one of the most serious places for theater in the Twin Cities," he said.

And he's grateful to Brindisi for putting him in the show.

"It still feels almost surreal to be up on stage each night," he said. "It really feels like I am a different person. I am in a different world. What a gift that's been."

"Holiday Inn" runs through late February, so Royce is only halfway through his five-month commitment at Chanhassen. He said, though, if the right role is available, he might well be interested in working at other local theaters.