‘Murder’ brings Kinosian home for questioning
No need to round up twice the usual number of suspects, Louie. Just bring in Joe Kinosian.
Kinosian, a Wauwatosa native, plays the Suspects in the farcical mysterymusical “Murder for Two” beginning Nov. 10 at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Stackner Cabaret. He plays all of them, including a widow, a ballerina, an argumentative couple and a psychiatrist.
Kinosian cycles rapidly through those characters opposite Matt Edmonds as police officer Marcus, trying to solve the murder. But wait, there’s more: Both men also sing and play the piano in this high-energy production.
A 1999 Milwaukee High School of the Arts graduate, Kinosian wrote the show with Kellen Blair and has played the Suspects in hundreds of performances in Chicago, New York and elsewhere. Composer Kinosian met lyricist Blair in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in New York, where they were randomly paired on an assignment to write a song for the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
“We really liked working together,” Kinosian said during a recent interview at the Rep. “We found out through doing that that we were both huge fans of old movies. … “
Speaking of old movies, the elevator pitch for “Murder for Two” is simple: It’s an Agatha Christie mystery meets the Marx Brothers. In the first productions years ago, only Kinosian played the piano onstage. But “we realized we had to have the other guy play, too,” he said. That led to the show’s present incarnation; reviewers often comment on the four-handed moments when both actors are at the piano.
While white men are playing Marcus and the Suspects here, Kinosian said anyone could play the characters in this show, which he amiably described as “so removed from reality.” Women, including his friend Dani Rhoads, have played the Suspects in other productions.
He has enjoyed watching other people perform the role he originated. “If anything, I only wish that I was taking notes while they were doing it so I could steal things they did. … “
“Murder for Two” has opened many doors for Kinosian as a composer and performer, including a turn as the title character in a production of “The Nerd” this summer at the Bucks County Playhouse in Pennsylvania, making him one of the the tallest actors to play the late Larry Shue’s comic character.
“They usually give it to a little guy, but it was great, because I was awkwardly bigger than everybody else,” he said.
He had a special qualification to seal the deal: “I’m from Milwaukee, I can do the voice,” he said.
Shue was a former Milwaukee Repertory Theater actor. The Rep premiered “The Nerd” in 1981. Kinosian said it was a thrill to play a role originated by one of his acting heroes, James Pickering.
Kinosian cites a Wauwatosa East High School production of “A Chorus Line” as the show that launched his love of theater; his parents took him to see it when he was a boy.
“My problems as a fourth-grader were not the same as the problems of the dancers in New York City in 1976,” he said.
But the story and showmanship took hold of him. Reflecting on the song “Nothing,” he thought, “Look at what these theater songs can do with these characters.”
While he was attending Morse Middle School, teacher Patricia Monroe arranged season tickets to the Rep for theater-centric students. “She was as influential” as any teacher in his development, he said.
For several seasons, he saw every Rep show, many directed by Joseph Hanreddy. (In a classic small-Milwaukee moment, Hanreddy is directing “Holmes and Watson,” which runs at the Rep’s Quadracci Powerhouse in the same time period as Kinosian’s show.)
Kinosian has fond memories and praise for many of his Milwaukee High School of the Arts mentors, including orchestra teacher Jack Watson and theater department members David Valdes, Bob Hoyt and Mary Scoville.
The one who immediately came back to mind was Marie Heiss. “She was the most charismatic and tough but good English teacher,” he said.
For his senior theater project, Kinosian wanted to write his own play, but knew he needed help figuring out how. Heiss met with him regularly about 6:45 a.m., before the school day started.
At the time, he took her help for granted like an entitled teenager. Now he realizes how gracious she was and how valuable her counsel. “She had such a good sense of story and how to craft a story and how much information to give away,” he said.