Paid-member exclusive: Bright Star’s George Krissa
The scene-stealing star of Great Comet, Bright Star and the upcoming & Juliet discusses breaking through, making history at Hallmark and his dream roles
Back in late summer, I chatted with George Krissa for a feature in the Toronto Star. This was right before he finished the remount of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 and before he began rehearsals for Bright Star, which is currently lighting up the CAA Theatre until Nov. 2.
In the former show, he played the decadent, libidinous Anatole with such scene-stealing glee that he earned last year’s Toronto Theatre Critics Award for supporting performance in a musical (when the show demolished box office records at Crow’s). And in the latter, he stars as Jimmy Ray Hobbs, who’s smitten with a woman but forced to separate from her by his prominent father.
Later this year, he steps into neo-Elizabethan garb as William Shakespeare in the ultra fun & Juliet. Three big musicals in one calendar year — quite an achievement. That was what I focused on in the article, with some background about where he came from and the inspiring way he built his career in a non-traditional way.
As with many interviews, there was a lot of material that I just couldn’t use. So here are some quotes for paid-members.
Most people in the Toronto area probably first saw you in The Rocky Horror Show at Stratford in 2018. But before then, you had done some theatre out West. What do you consider your first “break”?
I think I had a series of little breaks. I did West Side Story at the Citadel. They put a lot of trust in me for that, because it was my first big role. I played Tony, and I had only done a couple of revues before that. I really had no resume, so they took a chance on me — they gave me the opportunity to prove myself. That kind of led to other couple of things: Stratford was a really big break — Rocky Horror was a huge, huge hit for them, and extended into Christmas.
What I think cemented things for me here was the combination of doing The Holiday Sitter for Hallmark, which was big for them — the first LGBTQ+ led holiday rom-com. And that, in combination with Great Comet at Crow’s, felt like a break for me.
A few weeks ago, I talked with Divine Brown, who plays your sister in Great Comet, and she said it was great fun playing one of the show’s villains. Did you feel the same way?