Slipping Back
To Broadway
Ricky Goldin has played
"Danny" since September.
Ricky Paull
Goldin will return
to New York
in "Grease"
after eight months
on the road.
SUZANNE CHESSLER
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
sometimes rocky, deep-
sea fishing boat travels
a long way from the
theaters where Ricky
Paull Goldin tours
with the rock musi-
cal Grease, but it's
the place he goes for occasional
getaways.
Those getaways are rare be-
cause Mr. Goldin puts his
career first, and he is excited
about starring in the somewhat-
changed show running April 7-
10 at the Fox Theatre. He
enjoys portraying Danny Zuko,
king of the Burger Palace Boys,
in the play satirizing '50s-era
teen-agers.
"I'm a big believer that you
have to do things when you're
young, so I don't spend a lot of
time with leisure activities,"
said Mr. Goldin, 27. "Still, I like
to get up at 3:30 in the morn-
ing, get my fishing gear to-
gether and go out on a boat."
Right now, Mr. Goldin feels
hotel rooms are his home even
though he has an apartment
and house in New York. He be-
gan preparing for his road
part last September and will
take it to Broadway in May.
"Danny is a high school
hero and quite a famous
character," Mr. Goldin said
of the fictitious person he is
bringing to life. Other actors
cast in the role have in-
cluded John Travolta, Hen-
ry Winkler and Peter
Gallagher.
"I think Danny looks a
little like me, is lovable like
me, is Jewish like me and
even obnoxious like me," he
joked.
Grease takes a humor-
ous look at what it was
like growing up in the '50s
and '60s, when hot rod-
loving boys wore black
leather jackets and had
greasy hair and boy-crazy
girls went for bobby
socks, pedal pushers and
beehive hairdos.
It is the story of
Danny, and Sandy
Dumbrowski (Susan
Wood), the wholesome,
naive and pretty trans-
fer student whose life changes
forever under the influence of
the tough yet vulnerable Bet-
ty Rizzo (Rosie O'Donnell),
leader of the Pink Ladies gang.
"There's no doubt that the
music from the '50s was a rev-
elation and really changed the
world," Mr. Goldin said. "Songs
have been added to and
dropped from the Grease first
produced in the '70s, and the
way we perform them and the
setting in which we perform
them make for quite a spectacle.
"When I got the lead in this
Tommy Tune-produced musi-
cal, I tried to physically prepare
myself. I took dance classes and
was in the gym a lot. I had to
build up my strength because
it's a very demanding show.
"I tried to hone each of my
abilities as best I could, which
included taking vocal training,
and found that repetition each
and every day before I got to the
rehearsal stage was most help-
ful for me." '-
Although this will be Mr.
Goldin's first performance in
Detroit, he has been in the city
promoting another role, one of
many from TV, stage and
screen that have carried his
career since childhood.
"This profession is what I
was drawn to, and I hope to
stay with it and affect people
who are around me and far
away alike," said Mr. Goldin,
who briefly studied theater at
Fordham University.
"I really feel you can't portray
life until you've lived it a little,
and I was lucky because I had
the type of mother who wasn't
crazy about my being in this
business. She constantly would
stop me and make sure I was
getting all the schooling I could
and living life a little before go-
ing back to another project."
Living a role was an impor-
tant aspect of preparing for his
first TV film, Coach of the Year.
"A couple of weeks before I
shot the movie, I went out to a
correctional institution in Illi-
nois, and I spent a night in a
cell," he recalled. "It was an ex-
perience that really made me
stop and think and feel and
then try to portray that."
Until he was 11, Mr. Goldin
lived in England and Ireland,
where his father was an enter-
tainer. His move to New York
provided a launching pad for his
own work.
After starting out by doing
commercials, he was cast in TV
films, theater productions in-
cluding the Broadway version
of On Golden Pond, sitcoms like
"Kate and Allie" and "Alf'," fea-
ture films such as The Blob and
the daytime drama "Another
World."
Mr. Goldin created the role
of Dean Frame on the NBC
series, winning the 1991 Soap
Opera Award for Outstanding
Younger Leading Actor in a
Daytime Series.
"My favorite role is always
the project that I'm working on,"
said the Grease star, who also
has his own TV production corn-
pany, Goldin-Sachs Entertain-
ment.
"The toughest role was in
`Another World' because of the
hours and trying to keep it fresh
every day.
"It's easy to lose track of the
character's objective when do-
ing a daytime show. Probably
one of the hardest jobs I had
was pulling that off, and I im-
provised a lot. I fought tooth
and nail for the things I believed
in and for the way I thought the
character should go.
"It's tough for all involved
with shows like that—writers,
directors, actors, producers—
and reactions depend on how
seriously people want to take
those shows and how much
they let the shows get to them."
On a more personal issue,
Mr. Goldin takes his religion
very seriously and welcomes the
opportunity to do benefits for a
variety of Jewish causes. Dur-
ing a recent stay in Boston, he
met with a temple youth group
to encourage members to pur-
sue their own dreams, no mat-
ter how distant they might
seem.
"I am very proud to be Jew-
ish, although I haven't per-
Goldin will be on
Broadway with
Grease as
Danny Zuko.
formed in a temple except at my
own bar mitzvah," the bachelor
entertainer revealed. "I did it
like a show. I memorized my
Haftorah and 'belted it' to the
back of the room, as my rabbi
said."
Mr. Goldin is pleased with
the way his career is currently
going. He is looking forward to
continuing with Grease.
"I'd like to keep doing come-
dy for a while because I'd like
to get the soap opera melodra-
ma out of my blood and laugh
for a little longer," he said.
"I'm happy to be living the
goals I set for last year and this cr ,
year, and I've reached every one
except directing some episodes
of 'Another World.' "
Grease will be performed at cf_
the Fox Theatre at 8 p.m. April a
8; 4 and 8 p.m. April 9; and 1
and 5:30 p.m. April 10. For in- 73
formation, call 396-7600.
CO
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