The Columbus Dispatch : Performer does lots with 'Spamalot' Page 1 of 3
TOURING SHOWS Performer does lots with 'Spamalot' Sunday, November 18, 2007 2:43 AM
BY MICHAEL GROSSBERG THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
No longer a child actor, former Hilliard resident Graham Bowen is making a living doing what he loves most: musical theater.
Bowen, 24, is the dance captain and a swing (substitute) performer in Monty Python's Spamalot, continuing through next Sunday in the Ohio Theatre.
As dance captain of the first national tour, he works SHARI LEWISDISPATCH with the 25-member cast to maintain Casey Nicholaw's Former Hilliard resident Graham Bowen, dance captain and actor in choreography and teach steps to replacement actors. Spamalot
"There's always something to do," Bowen said. "It keeps me on my toes and keeps my job interesting and fresh."
As one of two male "swings," Bowen most often replaces vacationing or ailing ensemble members who play multiple roles, from knights and nuns to French taunters.
"I don't perform on a nightly basis, but, with the amount of work the ensemble has to do, I get plenty of time to go on," he said.
His favorite swing "track"
is playing a Finnish fish-
slapping villager, then a frog,
a nun, a monk, a knight and a killer rabbit -- all in one performance.
"You never stop going," Bowen said. "I've been watching Monty Python for years. You just can't pass up something like that."
Growing up in Hilliard, Bowen didn't pass up many opportunities to perform.
At 10, he landed his first leading role: Milo in a 1993 Columbus Children's Theatre production of The Phantom Tollbooth.
He also performed with Actors' Theatre, Ohio State University and Players Theatre Columbus; and toured with his sister Jessica for nine months in Oliver!
"There was never any question that he had potential," said William Goldsmith, executive
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artistic director of Columbus Children's Theatre.
"Graham always had presence, charisma and a bright light about him. He always came in on time with his lines prepared."
When he and his talented siblings -- Alex, Andrea, Cameron, Jillian and Jessica -- became serious about the performing arts, parents Peggy and Guy Bowen moved from Hilliard to New York in the mid-1990s to further the children's careers. (Andrea, the youngest, has become the best-known as Julie, daughter of Teri Hatcher's Susan, on ABC's Desperate Housewives.)
Some family members have moved elsewhere to pursue show-business careers.
Jessica, the oldest, is a professional musician in Nashville, Tenn., and will release an album, Waiting in Vain, next year. Jillian, an actress in Studio City, Calif., has voiced animated characters on King of the Hill.
Alex is a screenwriter, an actor and a film student at California State University, Northridge. Cameron is an actor (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) in Los Angeles.
Graham chose to remain in New York, mostly to work onstage.
"The stage is the first thing I got into, and, for me, there's no comparison," he said. "As much as I love TV and film work, I love more the family feeling that's created around a stage project."
As a child actor, he appeared in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular; made his Broadway debut in the musical Big; and appeared with Cameron and Alex in out-of-town tryouts of Whistle Down the Wind, an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that never reached Broadway.
As he grew up and began focusing more on dancing to supplement his acting and singing skills, he returned to Broadway in Swan Lake and the revival of 42nd Street with choreographer-director Randy Skinner.
Just before joining Spamalot on tour, Bowen worked with central Ohio native Skinner on regional productions of an Irving Berlin stage musical, White Christmas.
He is moving up in the theater world: After joining Spamalot in April as assistant dance captain, he was promoted last month.
"I'm fortunate to be working steadily," Bowen said. "To get to work as an adult professional in a career I aspired to is quite thrilling."
• will be presented at 1 and 6:30 p.m. today, 8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. next Sunday in the Ohio Theatre, 39 E. State St. Tickets cost $24.50 to $73.50 at the Broadway Across America office, 10 W. Broad St.; the Ohio Theatre box office (614-469-0939); Ticketmaster outlets (614-431-3600, ); and www. broadwayacrossamerica.com.
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