By Victoria Looseleaf
He’s so cool we can hardly contain ourselves. Indeed, after trekking down to Irvine the other night for a flamenco concert (click here to read our coverage of that, including our LAT review, the one in which we coined the phrase, “duende interruptus”…), we couldn’t sleep. At 4 a.m. we finally turned on the tube (after reading some of Tom Perrotta’s latest book, The Leftovers…not exactly holding our attention the way Jonathan Franzen does..), and there he was in all his Columbian/Big Apple glory: John Leguizamo playing a successful Bronx drug dealer wanting to better his status. The flick was Empire, from 2002, and also starred the always wonderful Peter Sarsgaard and, unfortunately, the risible Denise Richards. (She’s more famous for having married Charlie Sheen (and to think that we once introduced Sheen to that erstwhile permanent house guest, Kato Kaelin, but that is certainly another story, or maybe not.)
Indeed, one near the top of our all-time favorite list is Carlito’s Way. That 1993 Brian De Palma gangsta flick saw Legz kill the Al Pacino character. It was also the film in which Pacino told Legz (off-camera), “You’re a clown, John. Just be yourself, you don’t have to clown around so much. HUA!” That bit of business lodged itself into Legz’ fertile brain and also helped contribute to the actor’s naming his latest one-person show, Ghetto Klown, directed by Fisher Stevens.
It’s Legz’s fifth one-man theater piece and the third to have played Broadway. (The first was Freak, which opened in 1998 and ran for a very respectable 144 performances.) Now we Angelenos can see this fabulous playwright, comic nonpareil and master of characters (he plays nearly three dozen different peeps), right here in the heart of Hollywood at the Ricardo Montalban Theatre thru October 16. (Another show has also landed in the heart of Hollywood – but it’ll be there for 10 years, so there’s no need to rush to Cirque du Shekels, er, Soleil’s Iris. Click here for our take on that over-priced extravaganza.)
But we digress: Stalking the stage for more than two hours with volcanic moves and equally explosive tales from his trenches, this 47-year old force of nature and exceptional actor (he’s Lee Strasberg/Method-trained, after all), brings everything he’s got – and he’s got plenty. From portraying his old-school Latino grandfather, whom he adored, and his father (also old school, but this story’s a heartbreaker that involves legal wranglings), to his mother, girlfriends, ex-wife, best pal RayRay and a host of Hollywood types, including a Jewish father-son agent team, with the son a mega-coke sniffer, Legz delivers a bullet train of emotions, hilarity and grit as one wild and krazy dude. Hey: It may be Legz’ world (that could benefit from a bit of editing), but it’s great getting a peek into it – and into one of the most talented performers of his generation.
But don’t just take our word for it. Click here for a taste of the full enchilada: Legz in his own words, in our chat with him for 91.5 Classical KUSC’s Arts Alive.
