This musical business is murder

T.R. Knight sure knows how to make an exit. The actor met his demise twice on the same night -- once in prime time and once center stage -- his characters’ departures marking the close of one chapter of his career and the beginning of another.

On the Sept. 24 season opener of “Grey’s Anatomy,” Dr. George O’Malley succumbed to injuries suffered when he was hit by a bus, ending Knight’s five-year run on the ABC series. Meanwhile, at the Mark Taper Forum in downtown L.A., Knight debuted as Leo Frank, the complex hero of the complex musical “Parade,” based on the true story of a Jewish factory manager who is lynched after being accused of the 1913 rape and murder of an Atlanta girl.

“The whole evening was surreal,” says Knight, clad in his typical T-shirt and jeans, as he relaxes backstage the morning after his big night. “I learned a lot from that first show. It was difficult and fun -- although it’s hard to use a word like ‘fun’ because this is not an easy story to tell, even though it is an important story and a beautiful one.”

In the frenzy to get through the performance, Knight says, he didn’t have time to ponder the quirk of scheduling that paired “Parade’s” initial preview with George’s farewell. In any case, he declares his “Grey’s” period is behind him.

“Now my focus is here,” says Knight, referring to the Taper production, which officially opens today. The 36-year-old actor has devoted the last two months to preparing for the play, driven by the thoughtful intensity with which he seems to approach much of life and what he insists is pure survival instinct: “The fact is I’m a fish out of water, and I’m trying to literally dance as fast as I can to keep up.”

Knight often speaks in such dire terms when talking about himself. He is, by all accounts, his toughest critic. “Some people call it beating yourself up,” he says with a grin. “I think it’s being honest. I expect a lot.”

Which is why he deems playing Frank to be “the hardest thing I’ve done in the acting world,” then adds “and I love it. It’s pushing every boundary and all the comfort levels.”

Knight has often pushed himself to take the less comfortable course, especially if -- as he puts it -- “I can learn something or stay true to myself.” One prime example is his most famous exit of all -- his parting from “Grey’s Anatomy” in June after what he describes as a communication breakdown with series creator Shonda Rhimes and concerns about his character’s development and diminishing screen presence. “The change was quite obvious,” he says. “It was time to move on.”

He decided to leave because, he explains, “it was clear it was going to be for the best and that regardless of everything I had to hang onto that.

“I don’t mean to sound disingenuous,” he adds. “You realize very clearly the difficulties -- those thoughts like ‘I might never work again’ do get some air time on darker days. The future is so unknown, and was, and still is.”

Others in his situation might seek a soft landing. Not Knight. When he was approached about “Parade,” he said yes despite the obvious risks.

Doing theater was no problem. Knight has spent much of his life onstage, having made his debut at 5 with the Guthrie Theater in his native Minneapolis. Musical theater, however, was another matter. Knight hadn’t sung in a show since college (“I was Squire Dap in ‘Camelot.’ ”).

And when it comes to musicals, “Parade” is no piece of cake. Its subject matter is sober, its characters take a while to warm up to, and Alfred Uhry’s book and Jason Robert Brown’s score -- both Tony winners -- are demanding. The original production, co-conceived and directed by Harold Prince, opened in New York in 1998. Mixed reviews and a producer’s financial problems contributed to a run of only 85 performances.

Knight is appearing in a tauter, more intimate version created by Brown and Uhry that was staged in 2007 at the Donmar Warehouse in London by Rob Ashford, who is directing the show in L.A. The revisions pleased the critics. “Daring and ambitious musical vindicated,” declared one headline.

--

Shades of gray

Ashford, who served as assistant choreographer in New York, says the original was “more black and white” in its depiction of Frank’s plight and the Southerners who surround him as well as the anti-Semitism, corruption and other evils that tainted his trial. “We’re interested in shades of gray,” he explains. “Questions -- including whether Frank might actually be guilty -- appeal to us because this is life.”

That’s one reason the director is happy Knight is his leading man. “You need an actor like T.R. to play Frank because of all the different colors inside him.” Knight’s inexperience as a singer doesn’t bother him. “You realize that as long as you can sing, it doesn’t have to be your forte. Singing is similar to acting. It’s about portraying the character.” In any case, Ashford says, “we’re lucky because T.R. turns out to have a good musical ear and strength in the pipes.”

Knight speaks about Frank in a hushed voice. He feels the weight of portraying a real person, especially one at the center of so much history. He has studied Frank’s life: How he moved from Brooklyn to the South to manage a pencil factory, married a local Jewish girl named Lucille and became the main suspect when a young factory worker was killed.

Frank, the dramatic character, is harder to describe. “He is prag- matic,” Knight says, “very much an outsider. He’s uncomfortable with emotion. Unfortunately, he is faced with a hard journey.”

The Donmar version emphasizes the poignant relationship between Leo Frank and Lucille, who begins to grow -- as a woman and a wife -- when she fights for her husband’s freedom. “At first, they are cross-wired because he is from the North and she is from the South,” says Lara Pulver, the British actress who plays Lucille -- a role that earned her an Olivier nomination in London. “There are a lot of little irritations between them. It takes an event for them to start communicating.”

Pulver, a star of the BBC series “Robin Hood,” is reimagining Lucille because the Donmar’s Leo, Bertie Carvel, was what she calls “T.R’s opposite in every way. Bertie is 6-foot-2 and long-limbed.” Knight, who is a trim 5-foot-8, “is much more sensitive and compassionate. What’s quite heartbreaking is that he is able to find the most beautiful sincerity and vulnerability as Leo. However, he still has that wonderful, gritty New York directness that is at odds with the Southern belle. He has all those elements, and yet you have that suspicion -- did he rape and murder a young girl?”

In real life, Knight exudes a sweetness and sensitivity that enhance his boy-next-door looks. He is generous and unassuming. During an interview at the theater a few weeks ago, he kept crediting others -- this casting director, that costar-- for his success. When a man popped into the room looking for chairs, Knight jumped up and lugged several out the door.

Within the “Parade” company, Knight is one of the gang. When it’s someone’s birthday, he brings the cake. In rehearsals, he’s earnest about asking questions, unabashed about absorbing the day’s ups (“I finally got the hang of singing and walking”) and downs (“On those big notes, I’m afraid of sounding like a goat”). “Everything is a process,” he likes to say. “Every day we progress.”

Such steadfastness was a lesson Knight learned as a young actor. In his early 20s, while he was a member of the Guthrie company, he grew dejected over his repeated failures to gain admission to drama schools in New York. “One of my mentors said, ‘There is more than one way to skin a cat.’ It was his benediction. It lifted the heaviness and made me realize there is more than one path. A door is closed. You find another one.”

--

Gaining a foothold

Knight went to New York on his own and rode “the roller coaster of work and unemployment.” He made it to Broadway in a 2001 revival of Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off” and a 2003 production of “Tartuffe.” Off-Broadway, he received a Drama Desk nomination for a 2003 production of Anto Howard’s “Scattergood.”

Trying his luck in Hollywood, Knight landed two TV pilots. One didn’t go anywhere; the other was a drama about interns at a Seattle hospital. “Grey’s Anatomy” premiered in 2005 and was an immediate sensation. Knight became a fan favorite and was nominated for an Emmy in 2007.

Three years ago, he found himself smack in the middle of the media spotlight when “Grey’s” costar Isaiah Washington reportedly referred to him using an anti-gay slur. Subsequently, Washington lost his job and Knight publicly came out. Within the past year, rumors about Knight’s growing unhappiness with the series swirled -- until his departure was announced.

In July, he told Entertainment Weekly that instead of trying to discuss his concerns with Rhimes he asked for his freedom. He declines to elaborate beyond what he told the magazine, saying “it’s pointless to rehash.” Since his decision was made public, Knight says, he’s encountered “the expected noise”-- ranging from fans’ cries of betrayal to sniping about how foolish he was to walk away to speculation about what he’ll do next.

Knight is discussing possibly appearing in a Broadway revival of Ken Ludwig’s comedy “Lend Me a Tenor,” but he says nothing is official. He never would have thought about doing a musical if Center Theatre Group hadn’t called. There were no special deals. “I auditioned,” he says. “I’m just grateful they were thinking outside the box.”

Knight has worked extensively with “Parade” musical director Tom Murray and vocal coach Eric Vetro. He is a regular at Vetro’s Toluca Lake home studio -- a sunlit space lined with photos of clients such as Hugh Jackman, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Bette Midler and the Goo Goo Dolls.

One muggy morning, Knight arrived armed with his stuffed music binder and a gigantic bottle of water. Once Vetro had settled at the piano, Knight warmed up by rolling through arpeggios. Then, he and Vetro went line by line through “How Can I Call This Home?,” a litany of all the ways in which Frank doesn’t belong in the South. Like many of “Parade’s” numbers, it requires attention be paid to each note and nuance.

Throughout the lesson, the student more often than the teacher asked questions and delivered critiques: “Why do I drop out phrases?” “I run short of breath here.”

“T.R. works hard,” says Vetro later, “but he laughs a lot too. He has a wicked sense of humor. He’s also very opinionated and has a real strong moral compass. Some people don’t suffer fools. T.R. does not suffer people who don’t have integrity or who are not sensitive to other people’s needs.”

Vetro has seen Knight make a big leap since his audition. “The look in his eye has gone from ‘I’m not sure about this’ to a look of confidence. When we first started, it was T.R. Knight singing the music. Now you see the character, Leo Frank. That’s when I breathed easier and said, ‘This is going to be something special.’ ”

After “Parade,” Knight has no firm plans beyond finishing the restoration of his 1930s Tudor home in L.A. He doesn’t reveal much about his personal life except that he still hangs out with his “Grey’s Anatomy” costars and will catch up on his old show, including that opening episode in which George is buried and mourned -- but in which Knight did not appear.

Otherwise, he says, “I just want to be lucky enough to work, and to work with people I admire. I love acting. I love doing work that is challenging -- and slightly terrifying.”

--

[email protected]

--

‘Parade’

Where: Mark Taper Forum,

135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays to Fridays, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. Ends Nov. 15.

Price: $20 to $80

Contact: (213) 628-2772