Great Scott

Scott Greer’s resume is awe-inspiring. For one, he came to Philly in 1992 for a prestigious Dorothy Haas Acting Apprenticeship at the Walnut Street Theatre via Atlanta, GA, originally, and Adelphi University training.

“I wouldn’t have come here if it wasn’t for the Walnut,” he told SPR, but it’s been much more than Walnut ever since. “Since 1994, I’ve done 30 shows at the Arden Theater,” the Barrymore Award-winner and resident of the 800 block of Federal Street said. “I love South Philly – I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”

“I like variety. I’ve gotten many opportunities to grow in many different ways. The math of comedy is endlessly fascinating to me,” he said. “What makes people laugh and how to unite a group mostly to laugh at the same time over something is a really thrilling thing to do.”

He did that well in the recent 1812 Productions’ Jackie Gleason salute “To The Moon” (“That was easily one of my favorite roles,” he said). But it was with Theatre Exile’s “Rizzo” that he really grappled with another iconic South Philadelphian, late mayor Frank Rizzo.

“It was a smash. They had very limited time to do it and there were only 120 seats,” the Readers’ Choice winner as top actor/actress/comedian said, adding he thinks maybe folks wanted to see it but didn’t try to get tickets because “it was sold out and they didn’t even try – it’ll be good to do it on Broad Street in a larger venue.” He’s referring to a Philadelphia Theatre Company’s production in the fall, which will be a kind of PTC presents Theatre Exile’s “Rizzo” affair.

Greer’s loved working on the Neil Simon “B” trilogy at the Walnut (“Broadway Bound,” “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Biloxi Blues”), as well as “La Bete” and “Death of a Salesman” at the Arden, but at the moment, he’s actually in Phoenix performing another dream role – Lenny in “Of Mice and Men.”

“This is the second time I’ve gotten to do a dream role,” he says, having just performed the role in Milwaukee at the turn of 2016.

Next he’ll perform a small role in the Arden presentation of “The Secret Garden” (May 12-June 19). Is there a dream role he hasn’t been able to perform yet?

“I want to play Sweeney Todd,” he quickly blurted out, referring to Stephen Sondheim’s demon barber of Fleet Street.

Comedian Dom Irrera, a Dickinson Square West native, caught the second-largest amount of votes. East Passyunk Crossing-based thespian Krista Apple-Hodge earned a third place finish. — B.C.