Keach works to capture Richard Nixon’s character

By John Benson

When Stacie Keach began studying the role of Richard Nixon for the national touring production of “Frost/Nixon,” which comes to Cleveland on Tuesday through Jan. 25 at the Palace Theatre, the veteran film and stage actor was cognizant about not turning his performance of the 37th president into a Rich Little-like experience.

“When the opportunity first came up, I thought my initial responsibility was to be as much like Richard Nixon as possible in every way,” said Keach, calling from outside Warsaw, Poland. “But I discovered even though there has to be certain behavioral expressions to emulate, it’s not an impersonation or an impression per se. The approach is capturing the essence of his character and in particular his inner workings and his soul.”

He added, “I was very impressed by a certain self-deprecating humor that he has and his preoccupation with his own image in terms of how he projected himself on television. I think one of the things our director, Michael Grand, has emphasized is how television affects our sensibilities and how it controls our perspectives in terms of political candidates.”

It’s all of these factors that author Morgan (“The Last King of Scotland” and “The Queen”) explores with “Frost/Nixon,” which goes into great depth to explain the motivations behind British talk-show host David Frost and his 1977 interview with the post-Watergate Nixon.

“There’s a dual journey here,” Keach said. “There’s a journey that David Frost takes in terms of his trying to abandon the exclusive notion that he was a talk-show host and a performer, and that he wanted to be taken seriously as a journalist and as an interviewer. And then there was Nixon trying to rehabilitate his image in terms of Watergate.”

After debuting in 2006, “Frost/Nixon” came to Broadway a year later and earned several Tony Award nominations. For Keach, who recently appeared in Oliver Stone’s feature film “W” and is known for his hit television series “Mike Hammer,” the relevancy of the play in today’s climate was uncanny when considering the unpopularity of President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.

“It’s amazing,” Keach said. “I wonder myself if this is just a matter of synchronicity, just the way destiny has taken us. Let me put it this way, I didn’t plan it that way, and I don’t know if Peter Morgan did, either. It just so happened that the relevance of this piece has really captured the attention of a lot of people.”

As amazing as that timing may be for “Frost/Nixon,” there is yet another phenomenon associated with this production. That’s the recently released Ron Howard-directed feature film “Frost/Nixon.” It’s the rare occasion when the debut of a national touring stage production coincides with a major Hollywood movie. So how does Keach see the two competing entities coexisting?

“I think the name recognition is big here and there have been other movies that have come out, ‘Chicago’ for example, where business picked up in the theater,” Keach said. “It’s just people become aware of it and say, ‘I want to go see that.’ I think one of the important factors here is the play, the live theater experience, is what generated the enthusiasm of Ron Howard and the movie studio to make a movie.”

With that in mind, why does Keach feel the stage production, which does take some poetic license liberties with the actual Frost-Nixon interviews, is superior to the silver screen movie?

“I think the live experience as opposed to the film experience gives you the benefit of seeing the live action on stage and the televised image simultaneously, which is something you can’t get in the film, obviously,” Keach said. “So that’s one of the things that makes the theatrical experience unique and special.”