Stop Leslie Kritzer on the streets of her hometown of Hoboken on her way to the gym and ask her what the word is. Without hesitating, she will happily answer – grease.
The 26-year-old Kritzer is all about Grease these days, since she’s starring as Betty Rizzo in the Paper Mill’s production of the memorable ’70s musical, which was eventually turned into a successful movie with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. For the past several months, Kritzer has toiled through long hectic days of rehearsal in a New York City studio on Broadway perfecting her lines and moves. She can’t go more than five minutes without thinking of a line or a scene from the musical, she said. It’s in her blood now.
"I fell in love with it growing up. It’s the perfect summer musical," she said. "We have a really talented cast, and the shows are high-energy and fun."
Kritzer has very little in common with the character she will play eight, sometimes nine times a week this summer. So to prepare for "Rizzo," a tough independent girl who dates bad boys and smokes in the school’s bathrooms, Kritzer thought of the girls in her high school in Livingston who always got in trouble.
"I remember there was one girl who we were all afraid of," she said. "She was the leader of her group and was the first one to start a fight. I have to consciously pull myself back when playing this role. It was hard trying to find who she was inside me."
Kritzer moved to the mile-square city three years ago after graduating from the prestigious Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. She enjoys Hoboken’s community atmosphere and proximity to the city, where she auditions often.
"Living in Hoboken is better than living in New York," Kritzner said. "The people are nicer."
At the conservatory, she majored in musical theater and with a concentration in voice, acting and piano, an instrument she learned to play at an early age. Grease! is her second production at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn. Two years ago she played "Fanny Brice" in the critically acclaimed Funny Girl. Since then she has starred in the off-Broadway Bat Boy, at Town Hall in The Broadway Musicals of 1951 and as "Baby Rose" in Goodspeed Musicals Babes in Arms. Kritzer has also performed at the Sundance Theater Lab, at the Kennedy Center in Tell Me on a Sunday, and at two Broadway Spotlight series roles at New York City’s Ars Nova Theater. Kritzer was also a performer at last year’s Masked Ball benefit at the Hoboken train terminal.
"Musical theater is what I was destined to do," she said.
After Grease! Kritzer said she wants to take some time off before tackling a new project. She also wants to teach acting.
Bad boy, good girl
Grease!, originally written by Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs, is set in 1950s America. It follows the story of "Danny," played in this production by Andy Karl, and "Sandy," played by Jennifer Hope Willis. Having met at the beach, the couple falls in love immediately, but they are separated at the end of summer.
Thinking they will never meet again, they are surprised when they are reunited in high school. Their reunion confirms that they are from two different worlds. So when "Danny" finally decides not to live up to the All-American boy, "Sandy" puts on tight jeans and a bouffant hairdo to win her man.
Unlike the original 1972 Broadway score, Paper Mill’s production will feature songs from the movie like "Sandy," "Hopelessly Devoted To You," "You’re The One That I Want," and "Grease."
Grease! (which has an exclamation point in the Paper Mill version) will run through July 20 at the Paper Mill Playhouse at Brookside Drive in Millburn. Tickets range from $30 to $62. For information on the show call (973) 376-4343 or visit www.papermill.org. For information on Kritzer visit www.lesliekritzer.com. q