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Frankly speaking, 'Rizzo' is a most challenging role

Acclaimed local actor Scott Greer tackles what may be his most challenging role ever: That of former Philly Mayor Frank Rizzo.

For his next vehicle, Scott Greer has anything but just another role. The actor stars in "Rizzo," Theatre Exile's world premiere of Bruce Graham's play about Frank Rizzo, the late police-commissioner-turned-mayor who still casts a large local shadow almost a quarter-century after his fatal heart attack during the 1991 mayoral campaign.

Previews begin tomorrow at Old City's Christ Church Neighborhood House, and the production runs through Nov. 8. The opening comes exactly 21 years after the release of ESPN football guru Sal Paolantonio's 1994 book, Frank Rizzo: The Last Big Man in Big City America, on which the play is based.

Portraying "The Big Bambino," arguably the most polarizing figure in modern Philly history, is an assignment unlike any other for Greer, 45, who boasts six Barrymore Awards nominations (and a 2002 prize for Emerging Philadelphia Artist).

"I've never played a historical figure before," the actor said, during a recent phone chat. "And I never played somebody about whom I feel this tremendous expectation from the audience.

"I feel a great deal of pressure about this that I don't normally. This is a very unique situation. You tell people you're doing a play about Frank Rizzo, and they immediately light up - whether with rage or joy, depending on who you're talking to. That doesn't happen very often, you know? I feel like they are quite literally very big shoes to fill.

"People expect a lot," he added with a chuckle, "no matter how they feel about him."

Greer admitted that a lot of the pressure is self-inflicted. "There's a lot of 'Don't screw up either way.' I'm putting that on myself; I feel a little like I'm on a tightrope."

He balances himself with the thought that "otherwise, it's just like any other play. He's a guy like any other guy I would play. Not like any guy I've played, but another character. As an actor, you can only get to the humanity of who you are playing, try not to comment or judge them and play them as truthfully as you can, given the circumstances of the play. So that's what I'm doing."

Theatre Exile Artistic Director Joe Canuso, who is helming the production, said that casting Greer as Rizzo was about as easy a decision as he's had to make for the production.

"Scott was the obvious choice for Graham and myself if we were going to cast in Philly," said Canuso. "We wanted to have all Philadelphia actors in it.

"In Philadelphia, Scott is the obvious choice. He plays huge roles, he's a big guy, he has a certain presence, he has charisma and he's played iconic roles. He's an amazing actor."

An Atlanta-area native, Greer arrived in Philadelphia the year after Rizzo died, so he has no firsthand memory of the man who, as a Center City police captain in the 1950s, earned the nickname "The Cisco Kid" for his hard-line philosophy toward what he always referred to as "crim'nulls."

Not that it would have mattered much if Greer had been in town during Rizzo's municipal reign: Those expecting a clone-like representation of the man will be disappointed.

"We're not using prosthetics or anything to try to make me look like him," Greer said. "I don't look like him. I'm not wearing a wig. I have a receding hairline; I'm just slicking my hair back - he slicked his hair back.

"I would never get mistaken for him. I'm more trying to capture the spirit of this larger-than-life guy. Yes, I've watched a lot of video and stuff, and there's certain tics that he had with his head. He would kind of nod in a certain way, and punctuate things with his hands. I'm certainly doing some of that, but I don't want to [be a Rizzo clone] because if people are thinking about that, I think we fail. Either way we fail. If people are going, 'Oh my God, he's exactly like [Rizzo], that's [as bad] as thinking, 'He's nothing like him.'

"Bruce has written a great deal based on his research. A lot of the stuff I say in the play is right out of [Rizzo's] mouth, on the record. But I'm playing situations that Bruce has invented, or are based on events, like scenes in any other play. I'm playing a character who is trying to get something accomplished, who has relationships with people, and hopes and fears, like any other character I would play."

Greer did key in on Rizzo's way of speaking - which, he suggested, while clearly the result of a Philly upbringing, was subject to change depending on circumstances.

"I've lived here long enough to know what a Philadelphia accent sounds like," Greer said. "You definitely knew he was from Philly, but . . . he over-enunciated when he was trying to make a point. I think he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder, having never finished high school. Often there was a little overcompensating from time to time in his prepared statements and public addresses. When he was speaking off the cuff, it was a little more relaxed and vernacular."

Greer is confident that "Rizzo" will be a successful undertaking.

"My hope is, and my belief is, that for most people, this will be a very satisfying experience," he said. "I think it's a very fair depiction of his [political] record. I don't think it pulls any punches, but [Graham] has talked a lot about how people are gonna watch with an agenda and either love it or hate it before the first line is spoken.

"I do think people are going to come away satisfied. No matter what people thought of him, he looms very large in people's lives and he was a very charismatic figure. People were charmed as they were being intimidated, sometimes. That is what we strive to achieve."

Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St., show times vary, $10-$40, 215-218-4022, theatreexile.org.