St. Louis native Ken Page, who made it big on Broadway, dies

Actor Ken Web page confirmed his Present-Me State colleagues {that a} Midwesterner actually could make the large time in New York.

On Monday, after a theater profession of greater than 40 years, the St. Louis native died on the age of 70. 

Web page, an enormous man with a much bigger smile and a booming voice, was born in St. Louis in January 1954. After highschool, he graduated from Fontbonne Faculty earlier than heading to New York Metropolis. Within the Nineteen Seventies, he debuted on Broadway as Properly-Properly Johnson in a revival of “Guys and Dolls” and as a alternative for the Lion in “The Wiz.” 

However he was higher identified for his function as one other feline: Previous Deuteronomy within the unique 1982 Broadway manufacturing of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats.”

Web page performed different highly effective roles, together with the character of God in two productions. He gained a Drama Desk award for his portrayal of Fat Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin.’”

Web page’s profession additionally took him to the flicks. He’s referred to as the voice of Oogie Boogie in Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas” and for his function of Murray in Harvey Fierstein’s 1988 “Torch Track Trilogy.”

The movie was one of many first to validate a homosexual man’s want for romantic love and to lift a toddler. In a 2013 interview concerning the film’s twenty fifth anniversary with the St. Louis publication Very important Voice, Web page mentioned it has a time-tested message for younger LGBT individuals:

“I might hope that they might take away from it that their delight begins from inside them, not exterior of them. It isn’t one thing that’s bestowed upon you want a magic wand — it’s one thing that you need to have inside your self. And which means you need to have it with co-workers, you need to have it with your loved ones — whoever. That’s you. And both they’ll settle for you or they’ll’t however you need to know who you’re.”

House once more

Web page moved again to St. Louis in 2010. He informed the St. Louis Beacon he was thrilled to be residence.

“I’m simply having fun with exploring it as a result of I’ve been away a very long time and simply coming in the summertime. There’s an exquisite restaurant scene. Each time I’m going out I’m like, ‘Wow it is a great spot, and it is a great spot.’”

In 2013, Web page turned the voice of the Muny, greeting friends by means of a voiceover earlier than the beginning of a present. Within the outside theater’s 2006 manufacturing of Elton John and Tim Rice’s “Aida,” he performed Aida’s father, Amonasro. Web page reprised the function on the Muny stage in 2016. He donned the Previous Deuteronomy swimsuit once more in 2010 within the Muny’s presentation of “Cats.”

“Every season, he and I might speak about what reveals and what he wished to do and this was his inventive residence,” Muny Govt Producer and Inventive Director Mike Isaacson mentioned.

Isaacson joined the Muny in 2011. He mentioned Web page had been an in depth good friend.

“We shared this communal perception, this collective want, what the theater might be and what it’s, and what the Muny means and the way it might be,” Isaacson mentioned. “There have been occasions when you could possibly lose your manner, and I may at all times rely on Ken to get me again on observe.”

Web page appeared in additional than 45 reveals on the Muny stage. However certainly one of Isaacson’s biggest reminiscences of him was his efficiency as Doc within the 2013 and 2023 productions of “West Aspect Story.” The character is the conscience of the musical and was a task Web page insisted on enjoying.

Rob Ruggiero directed the musical and gave Web page the final second of the present with the road, “Why do you youngsters at all times act like there is a warfare happening?” It was a efficiency that stayed with Isaacson, one which captured Web page’s essence on a stage that meant a lot to him.

“There was Ken Web page standing alone on the stage, his theater, his viewers, his group, wiping tears and asking why,” Isaacson mentioned. “And every night time, that second was completely real and devastating.”

He performed the Sultan within the iconic St. Louis establishment’s 2012 manufacturing of “Aladdin” and appeared in its staging of “Dreamgirls,” starring Jennifer Holliday, that very same yr.

Web page went solo within the highlight with a cabaret present he debuted in New York and dropped at St. Louis in 2014, referred to as “Previous, New, Borrowed and Blue.” Of the present, he informed a St. Louis Public Radio reporter:

“The extent of intimacy with cabaret is the important thing. To the viewers … I say come to loosen up and have time and be in my lounge with me, that’s how I consider it.”

Web page took turns on the writing desk and within the director’s chair. In 2013, he directed his musical “Cafe Chanson” for Upstream Theater on the Kranzberg Arts Middle. Two years later, he directed one other of his performs, “Elegant Intimacy,” additionally on the Kranzberg stage. “Elegant” is a play that nudges us to ask questions on our love lives. He informed St. Louis Public Radio throughout St. Louis on the Air that the thought sprang from a dialog with a good friend.

“Nicely, he mentioned to me, I believe there’s a stage that some relationships attain that’s extraordinarily intimate. It is sort of a elegant intimacy. … Most of my elegant intimacy relationships have been with buddies. Or, individuals who had been romantic involvements that turned buddies relatively than the opposite manner round.”

Web page appeared on the present with Henry Palkes, the play’s pianist and composer, and talked concerning the class of the collaboration.

“What I’ve beloved concerning the course of from all ends, the dance, the choreography, the music and the textual content, is that it has been a very inventive evolution on each stage. … We’ve actually labored collectively to make all of it inform the perfect story of every story, if you’ll. That to me, in my expertise as a director, author or an actor, is the enjoyment of it, attending to work with different inventive individuals and convey one factor into focus ultimately.”

In 2019, Web page obtained a lifetime achievement award from the St. Louis Arts and Schooling Council. In an interview with St. Louis on the Air on the dignity, Web page mirrored on his lengthy profession, his beginnings and a few of his first reminiscences, performing a puppet present at 5 years outdated and finally turning his ardour right into a profession.

“I’ve been very lucky,” Web page mentioned. “Now that I’m at this specific juncture, I can afford, if you’ll, to look again and actually tally, and I believe I’ve carried out OK.”

Watch Web page rework into Deuteronomy for the Broadway manufacturing of “Cats.”

Comply with Nancy Fowler on Twitter: @NancyFowlerSTL