Levi Kreis brings his very down-to-earth perspective - and a Tony Award - to Rubicon stage August 30
As the Bard once instructed that “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players;” in that light, Levi Kreis was born to the stage, as perhaps, he’d likely say were we all. Kries, who hails from tiny Oliver Springs, Tennessee, brings a powerful dynamism to the stage, as last year’s awards season validated. At the same time, he brings a soft-spoken, humble presence to the conversation; he’s a man who has learned to believe in himself - even if it wasn’t easy - and he’s here to tell you that you can do it, too.
Levi offer a piece of his story, and a small preview of what to expect in the show, to RTC’s James Scolari.
RTC: Levi, you’re wearing your success very well. I know you worked hard for what you’ve achieved; has it all been part of the plan?
LK: This is what I’ve always wanted to do, right from the beginning - all I ever wanted to do was make music that was healing, music that spoke to the human journey in a way that was uplifting and healing.
At many points along the way it felt like all the doors were shut - from being on a Christian record label by the time I was eighteen and losing that when they found out I was gay, essentially being told that I couldn’t do what I wanted to do because of who I was; same thing with Atlantic records, going through eight record labels - but those challenges force you to evolve, right?
So I had to figure out how to do it myself. I made my first album off two hundred bucks; tour it, figure out TV licensing, music licensing, make the second album on three thousand bucks. and do it again - TV licensing, film licensing, tour it. The next one, a little more, and now “Million Dollar Quartet” happens; I’m finally at a place where I feel like I’m backed by a corner of the world who’s watching and supporting me. Two weeks ago Billboard Magazine placed me as one of the top five “do-it-yourselfers.” I’m able to look at it and say, ‘alright, how do we let this go even bigger.’ That’s where I am right now, to just allow the unfolding of my albums, and tell the story that’s behind the music as I go along.
RTC: And what a story it’s shaping up to be...
It’s been a really self-defining three years. I’ve seen my perspective change in a lot of avenues. I can say I can attribute a lot of that to what New York was for me, and what a degree of success was for me, but the journey of the last three years really does go to show that happiness and success and an expanded experience of life has nothing to do with material gain or wealth, or success in a material sense. My journey has become - to use a recent Rubicon reference - Technicolor!
RTC: Self-discovery, live and in technicolor. Bravo. What’s the secret?
LK: When I aligned myself with what I think my personal truth is - from a spiritual standpoint, I found that physical health, mental health and spiritual health becomes the through-line that allows me to always be aligned with a greater vision, something positive, something affirming, always knowing that the universe is supporting me and that, from a spiritual standpoint, there is no opposition to my good.
For me, that’s turned everything into a positive - I can say “oh, I’ve been through eight record labels and I don’t necessarily have a record label coming to the table right now;” or you can say, “whoa, this is a new day and age, I’m able to become my own record label!” Seeing it as a positive, realizing, “Oh, I’ve been doing that now for five years,” so when a label like Columbia Records finally comes calling it actually represents a financial step backwards.
It comes from taking the initiative to see no limitations for yourself - to see that absolutely no “no” exists, that there’s no opposition here. You say “I’m going to know my worth, and I’m going to turn it into something I can give, that is substantial to other people and make it about them and not me, and just hustle, hustle, hustle and do it.
So I think that perspective is what is created with the last three or four years with me. I could apologize for waxing philosophical about it, but the fact of the matter is that’s who I am, and that’s the only way that I can interpret what has been “the floodgates opening” for me, in my life.
RTC: It’s been music for you right from the beginning, but somehow it led you to the stage... How did you make the leap?
LK: It actually began here at the Coronet Theatre Workshop in Los Angeles. That was back in 2004, and that’s where I first got an affinity for theatres who allow for new works to be developed and to be seen. It was kind of like the first time I was able to understand the power of new works. I see Rubicon so involved in new works, and developing theatre pieces that can really have an impact on people’s lives, at the same time developing careers for young, hopeful actors who become a part of these workshops and who carry it on to the next step and the next step. It’s exactly what happened to me.
RTC: Is that so?
LK: Yes! Let me tell you, I never came to Los Angeles to pursue acting - it’s a pretty remarkable story, actually, how I got my first acting job. I was here visiting an old girlfriend, and was on her couch flipping through this newspaper looking for something to do on my first afternoon out in the city, looking for an experience that would get me in touch with the energy of L.A.
So I looked at this newspaper and asked “What’s the name of this paper? Oh, ‘Backstage West,’ this is what those actors grab hold of when they get off the bus in Los Angeles and want to become high falutin’ actors! Oh, this will be fun I am totally doing this!” So I went to this cattle call - I didn’t have a headshot or resume, I wasn’t even an actor - and stood in line, I was 167th in line or something for this show called RENT...? I had never heard of it, but five callbacks later they called me for the role of Roger in the West Coast tour.
RTC: Amazing!
LK: It was a pretty intimidating experience, actually. It was two months prior to my final callback that they actually called me, and in the interim I had made myself acquainted with the music, thinking “I better see what this thing’s all about.” So I listened and thought “Okay, I get it, I’m totally in the vocal range of Mark; I can handle his stuff but Roger’s just too high, I couldn’t sing him.” Then they call me for Roger!
RTC: (Laughs)
LK: Yes, then they call me for Roger - and I argue with them on the phone! Mind you, this is fresh off the boat from Tennessee, so it probably went something like this (in a heavy Tennessee twang): “Well that’s real good to hear, but I’ve been listening to the soundtrack and I cain’t sing that s--t! I think I should probably be doing the role of Mark!” They said, “No, you did fine, we gave you Roger’s songs in the audition, and it’s okay.”
So I went and did it, and of course, long term, vocally, no, I didn’t have the endurance to be able to do that, however it was three months of being introduced to this entire world of theatre and the world of acting, and I found my instincts in building character. Acting, to me, was the part that made the greatest sense, not singing the A’s, because I knew already it was out of the realm of the vocal range that I could really communicate the best - or even hit!
RTC: And you were off and running.
LK: One thing led to another, a couple of films came out of it - these things just sort of came to me. But life goes on, and let me tell you, it was far from a gravy train - I started workshopping “Million Dollar Quartet” because I couldn’t eat; my car barely worked, I didn’t have gas to even get to this workshop - they were giving me like fifty or a hundred bucks, which to me was like “oh, I’m rolling now!” I thought, “well this is cool, of course I can play this Jerry Lee stuff, I’ve been playing it since I was eight years old.”
I never would have thought that seeing the first incarnations of the script, that it would become anything like it did. But I just kept coming back to it, and then I kept coming back to Seattle, and then Seattle became the second theatre that underscored that new works experience, and they took “Million Dollar Quartet,” and I saw all the other new works they were developing and thought “wow, I like this.” It set well in my heart, being a part of that new works experience.
RTC: LA, to Seattle, to...?
LK: Then we took it to Chicago, and that’s where things started getting more serious. While it was my personal bottom - my divorce, my getting sober - a re-birthing of who I was, dealing with my old demons, quitting smoking, even changing my entire belief system - all this work culminated in a whole new person.
Suddenly we’re wrapping up Chicago and I hear “you’re going to New York.” I just laughed. So we went, we opened, all of a sudden I find out that I’m nominated for a Drama League award, I’m nominated for the Outer Critics’ Circle Award, I’m nominated for a Tony Award, and then it’s the awards season, and then you’re doing eight shows a week while you’re doing four or five other press things on top of it, maybe even fourteen performances in a week, it’s nuts and two or three months pass by an you wonder “how much more can I give anymore” and you’re a nervous wreck...
Only to find it was the very button that needed to be pushed to move into that place where I could actually really face this issue of self-worth. It made me. It made me face my demons of not being good enough; it made me step up and say “you have got to now look at yourself in the face and believe in who you are, because the world is watching.”
RTC: Wow.
It was the hardest thing for me to do. Even that day, when I won, I came home that night and put the Tony Award in the back of the closet and didn’t look at it for two months. Because I couldn’t face it, I didn’t feel equal to it, I felt like I had somehow ‘pulled the wool over everybody’s eyes.’ See, I had never stepped into the world of acting with intention, it all just happened, as I told you, it was always an accident. But somehow now people were going to showing up expecting this “Tony Award-Winning Actor,” and you know, there are people who have Masters Degrees in acting from Harvard, studied actors, and I’m having to hold this standard... it just blind-sided me.
So it was difficult for me to get to that place - but I thought ‘Okay, this is a call, to live large - this is my own journey, my own personal challenge to finally believe that who I am is an individualized expression of God, and that my voice and that my passion and my gifts - in acting, in singing, in piano playing, in everything that I do - has no opposition, and will be heard and will be supported and will be embraced.
That was the hardest journey for me - it was not fun. People think that winning a Tony is going to be like “oh my gosh, wasn’t that just great,” and I say ‘No, that was so hard!” Maybe for other people, who’ve come into this world knowing it’s what they wanted to do, they sort of came out of the womb, they’ve landed, they’ve been in theatre since they were kids, they always knew they would have it, and they finally received their good -- it was not that experience for me. It made me have to do the inner work, to realize the real worth, inside.
RTC: And that’s the thing - we all have to face the mirror, sooner or later. We all have to do the acceptance piece, or else live in pain.
I think at that point I had learned - I felt anyway - I had learned all that I could from pain.
It’s funny how the world may think something like that which they consider luck or a blessing is an easy thing -- but I think we can learn as much when things go well for us as we can from pain. That’s a huge adjustment when we’re not used to things going well for us - because we’re all creatures who would actually, simply prefer the familiar, no matter what it is.
The other side of it is to realize it’s just not that serious. Who cares if they approve or not? In the end, we’re here to be ourselves, not to seek approval from others. My only concern is to be the voice of God as I hear it.
RTC: Knowing that authentic voice comes from within. It’s not always easy to hear - especially in this culture, “I’m not good enough” is a very familiar refrain.
You’re so correct, it’s such a common thing, a very personal struggle that every person carries their own version of. Inadvertently, it’s become my own passion; this entire new album I’m doing is all about that, it’s all about the perfection of who we are; about self love; about knowing you’re an individualization of God. Who cares if people approve of you or not, you are here to unabashedly be you. So yes, we all carry our own version of that.
This is one of the things I weave into the night. It’s what you’ll hear when I come to Rubicon, I’m allowing the audience to hear, without any guardedness, without any pretense, what my heart and my journey is. And I take them through, and I sing something from RENT for them, I’ll sing something from “One Red Flower,” the workshop I did at Rubicon, I’ll sing something from “Million Dollar Quartet.” Walk them through what my experience has been, from those first steps to the way I’m walking right now.
RTC: You’re a man with a message.
I am.
RTC: I’ve seen that you’re rather a master of social networking - if you had to boil it down in those terms, how would the lesson look?
LK: You have to learn that anything is possible - you’re only limited by your own creativity.
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