Eric Millegan plays — and looks like — a teenager,
although he has entered his third decade.
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By Raven Snook
Friday, December 31, 2004
In January 2004, actor Eric Millegan had absolutely no plans, and that scared
him.
Sure, he had performed on Broadway (“Jesus Christ Superstar”),
guest-starred on TV (“Law & Order: Criminal Intent”) and appeared
in an independent feature film (“On Line”). He was even named “Hottest
Up-and-Coming Openly Gay Actor of 2003” by Out magazine.
Even so, he was convinced that no one in the industry knew his name. “For
everything I had done, a lot of people didn’t know me,” he says.
“I needed to land a project that said, ‘I’m a person in this
town.’”
Little did Millegan realize that exactly a year later he would be on stage
in the potential star-making role of Harold in world premiere of a new musical,
“Harold & Maude.”
On Jan. 5, 2005, Milligan’s new project begins previews at the fabled
Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey. Written by Tom Jones (who wrote “The
Fantasticks,” not the “What’s New Pussycat” aging sex
god) and neophyte composer Joseph Thalken, “Harold & Maude”
is based on the 1971 cult film of the same name about a suicidal teenager and
his lover, a septuagenarian free spirit who teaches him to celebrate life.
Oddball character actor Bud Cort played Harold in the movie opposite Academy
Award-winner Ruth Gordon as Maude. Millegan will also costar with an Academy-Award-winner,
stage veteran Estelle Parsons.
At 30, Millegan is lanky and pale, and gives the impression of a charmingly
awkward adolescent. The character of Harold is only 19, but Millegan has no
trouble passing as a teenager. “Some people say that I should lie about
my age,” Millegan says. “I just don’t like that. I want to
see myself as an up-and-coming 40-year-old, not a has-been 19-year-old.”
But in early 2004, Millegan was beginning to feel like a 30-year-old never-was.
“I came back from my Christmas break and two weeks later my agent was
fired,” he recalls. “I was still with the agency, but they seemed
less interested in me. No one auditioned me for two months.”
Then in April, he received a call from the casting director at Paper Mill inviting
him to audition for the role of Harold. “I watched the movie and I thought,
‘This is a really good part for me,’” Millegan recalls. “But
it’s a tricky part, it’s very internal.”
When Millegan didn’t hear anything right after his audition, he assumed
that he didn’t book the gig. But a few days later the casting director
called and said that he wasn’t out of the running yet.
Thus began a two-month saga of callbacks during which Paper Mill continued
to hold open calls for the role of Harold.
“In May, I was rehearsing a musical called ‘Insomnia,’ which
I did at the Midtown International Theatre Festival,” Millegan says. “We
were at Chelsea Studios across the hall from the Harold auditions. There were
lines of people auditioning for what in my heart I believed was my role.”
Millegan refused to be discouraged and in June he finally got a chance to read
with Parsons. “I knew all along that the show revolved around the chemistry
of these two people,” he says. “I had to go in there and really
click with her.”
Luckily, the energy was right because after one last audition, Millegan was
finally offered the role.
“Eric is a unique and talented guy,” says director Mark S. Hoebee,
who is also the associate artistic director of Paper Mill. “Harold is
a very odd combination of things. He must be endearing but he can’t be
winning. We needed to find someone who would, in the nicest sense of the word,
be a loser and still be able to carry an entire show.”
Parsons also felt that Millegan was the right man for the part. “I wouldn’t
take a job unless I had great trust in the people I was doing it with,”
she says. “Eric is lovely and ambitious and our voices meld together beautifully.”
Even though “Harold & Maude” screenwriter Collin Higgins (who
died of AIDS in 1988) was gay and Harold’s sense of alienation smacks
of veiled gay angst, the character is straight. He and Maude even consummate
their affair.
When asked if being an openly gay actor has affected his landing heterosexual
parts like Harold, Millegan laughs.
“I’ve always been out but it became official in the summer of 2003
when the Advocate and Out magazine did articles on me,” he says. “Since
that happened, I have had more leading ladies than ever. Before I played characters
that were either gay or lonely. In the last year, I can’t think of how
many girls I’ve kissed. I should try making a list.”
While Millegan anticipates that Harold & Maude will bump him to the next
level professionally, he realizes that an acting career is an ongoing endeavor.
So he’s already looking ahead to life after Harold with a number of potential
projects.
“In November, I did a reading of the musical ‘Mask,’ based
on the movie with Cher,” he says. “I played her son, Rocky. That
was a magical experience and hopefully it will go somewhere. I also wrote a
screenplay called ‘Nathan Lane’ about a young boy who grows up,
discovers he’s gay and becomes obsessed with Nathan Lane. I’d love
to see that produced.”
But for now, Millegan is concentrating on Harold. “It’s just about
the coolest role I could have booked,” Millegan says. “If you gave
me a choice between stepping into the role of Leo in ‘The Producers’
or playing Harold, I’d take this part. From now on people will be able
to say, ‘Eric Millegan? He’s the guy who originated Harold.’”
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