Interview: Original Seymour Lee Wilkof Is a New Grandfather in Real Life and Onstage

A year ago, Lee Wilkof became a grandfather for the first time. That almost prevented him from playing a grandfather in Jake Brasch’s play The Reservoir. The world premiere is a co-production of Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Alliance Theater, and Geffen Playhouse, and doing all three productions would have required him to be away from his new granddaughter for too long. But he was able to sign on for the Los Angeles run, currently at the Geffen through July 20.

In The Reservoir, Wilkof, known for originating the role of Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors and for his roles in Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins and the 1999 revival of Kiss Me, Kate, plays the eccentric Shrimpy, who has early Alzheimer’s and is preparing for his second bar mitzvah at the age of 83 (Wilkof just turned 74).

Wilkof spoke to TheaterMania about bar mitzvahs, returning to the theater where he performed Little Shop in Los Angeles, and more.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Did you have a bar mitzvah, and do you remember your Torah portion?
The Torah portion I do in the play is my Torah portion. I asked them if I could do it. I remembered it pretty well. I had to review it. It’s really special, and in frankness, learning all my lines at my age was difficult, and to learn something new in Hebrew no less, I’m glad they allowed me to do mine. When I do my portion, I see people in the audience. I see my parents who are both gone, my grandparents. It helps me a lot. It’s like they’re out there as they were at my bar mitzvah.

Did this play bring up any memories of your own grandparents?
Oh absolutely. It brought up my grandparents, but more my parents. Both my parents suffered from Alzheimer’s. My father was young, early 70s, and my mother lived into her 90s. I was doing a play in New York when my dad passed, but I was able to spend a lot of time with my mom. Alzheimer’s is a big part of my family history. But my grandparents, I was very close with them. I had Shabbos or Sabbath dinner with my dad’s parents I think every Friday night until they passed away when I was 18. It was a huge part of our life. Every Friday night 52 times a year for 18 years is a lot of time, and I loved them. I loved both sets. They were very important to me and I intend to be very important to my granddaughter, who happens to live in Columbus, Ohio. That doesn’t make it easy, but I’m going to start spending as much time as I can. I don’t want to miss a moment.

You did Little Shop at the Geffen when it was Westwood Playhouse. Does being there again bring back any memories?
There was a furniture store in the lobby, like a really nice furniture store. You walk in and you go, “Am I in the right place?” but it’s not that anymore. Actually, the actor who played the dentist in New York and Los Angeles, Franc Luz, happened to be in town and he came to the show the other night and he said, “Do you remember the furniture store?” I said, “Of course, Franc. It was a furniture store!” The backstage of the theater in New York, the Orpheum, the crossover was through my dressing room with two other men. We’d have to pull ourselves to the mirror as people crossed over behind us. At the Westwood Playhouse, it’s a lovely place and far from the Orpheum, but I don’t remember any of that.

I was living in LA when I was cast in Little Shop. It was between me and Nathan Lane, and the assistant director convinced Howard Ashman to use me, so I married her. I was chasing a career here in Los Angeles and I wanted people to see it. I was a little burned out. I’d been doing it for over a year. I’m not saying that I didn’t give my all, but in New York it was a sensation. In LA, it was gently accepted. That’s all I remember. It’s 40-some years ago. I remember who I did it with. I’ve done a lot of really wonderful shows, but sometimes even if it’s not a great show, the people you do it with are as important to me as what you do onstage.

This might be hard to narrow down, but do you have a favorite memory or show of your time in the theater?
I do have a favorite show. People always think it’s going to be Little Shop. It’s not. I did the original production of Assassins. Nathan Lane did the workshop and I’m not sure what the circumstances were—I never asked him—but I was cast in the role that he did in the workshop, Sam Byck. Even though I do musicals, they’re not my favorite form. But I got cast in this amazing role and he doesn’t really sing, so I didn’t have to worry too much about singing for Stephen Sondheim. Just to be in the sphere of Stephen Sondheim and the actors who were in it, I feel it’s my greatest blessing. It was troubling because we were doing it as a war had just started. We were pulling guns out and people were freaked out. We were supposed to go to Broadway, but the day we gathered to do the album they told us that was canceled. That was heartbreaking because we loved each other so much and we loved doing it. I consider it my greatest gift as an actor.