FIRST TIME IN DRAG.

Byline: Fred Crafts The Register-Guard

Squeezed into a scorching fuschia gown, Eugene advertising executive Kevin Waltz adjusts his spikey wig and looks for his heels.

"When you act," he says, smiling shyly while checking out his glamorous makeup in the mirror backstage at Actors Cabaret of Eugene, "God knows what you're going to end up doing."

This time, the 36-year-old actor is doing the role of Albin in the hit musical "La Cage aux Folles" (opening Friday), about a middle-age transvestite and his male lover. Albin is the star drag performer (stage name ``Zaza'') in the nightclub that the couple owns.

Waltz's voice drops conspiratorially. "I've got to tell you: This is probably the most challenging thing I've ever done. You can play a murderer. You can play a young person. You can play an old person. But when you're playing somebody who's a little bit older and sorta of the opposite gender, it's tough.

"I'm this middle-age, straight, married guy who is really out of my element."

Waltz has done some unusual things, such as hosting a children's television program and singing in a Christian rock band. Nothing, he says, has tested him quite like this.

Into ``glamorous mode''

Why take such a role?

"Because I hadn't done anything like that before," he says. "I hadn't done anything that really stretched me.

"I'm not a drag queen at heart, but it's amazing to get the opportunity to see if you can pull it off."

And?

"I had the makeup and the gown on for the first time the other day, and I looked in the mirror, and it wasn't `me,' ' he says with a laugh.

"I'd never been in drag before. It was amazing. I had a corset under the thing, so I had a little waist, some heinie there, and lots of makeup. It was pretty incredible. My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe it."

Getting into makeup takes about two hours, a process Waltz compares to doing a painting.

"The shadowing and the highlights and the contouring and everything changes the structure of your face," he explains. `You get rid of the shadow. You smooth out the skin with this inch-thick layer of foundation. You throw in some eyelash and some color.

`You look in the mirror. You think, `My face looks really different,' but it's still you. You throw the wig on, boom, the change happens. The wig is the magic piece of the puzzle. You throw on the gown and the shoes, and it totally finishes it off.

`You can't help but slip into this glamorous mode when you have this crap on."

Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. At 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, nobody's going to mistake Waltz for a willowy supermodel.

One of those most eager to see what he looks like on stage is Waltz's wife, Jayna, who describes him as "a great husband and a great father (of 8-year-old Kharman). He's very open-minded, very free-spirited. To an extent, any way. I don't think he'd go off and join a nudist colony.

"To me, it's just a role. We're very secure in our marriage. We're not worried about if he's going to do this on the side - though, if he's cute, maybe he could make some money."

Money is very much on the mind of director Joe Zingo, too. He says "La Cage aux Folles" is the most expensive show his theater company has done.

"Just the makeup, the hair and the things to make the men look like women cost $300 to $350 a person," he says. "That's not counting the costumes."

A leap of faith

Born in Sacramento, Waltz launched his theatrical career at Willamette High School (class of 1985) in "The Me Nobody Knows," "Tartuffe," "The Mousetrap" and "Antigone."

Then he quit the stage.

He was an announcer and the production manager at KORE radio for four years, and then was at KLSR-TV from 1991 to 2000, hosting the "Fox Kids Club" from 1996 to 1998.

He left to start his advertising agency, Waltz Media.

About five years ago, Waltz returned to acting. At Actors Cabaret, he has been in "Tony 'N Tina's Wedding," "The Rocky Horror Show," "Clue: The Musical," "Forever Plaid," "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," "Welcome to Tourettaville" and "Sex: The Musical."

From 1992 to '94, Waltz was the lead singer for Sons of Thunder, a Christian rock band that mainly performed in Oregon and California prisons.

"I don't want to get all spiritual on you," he says, "but God is the important part of my life. Whenever I'm off track, I know it's because I'm not paying attention to him.

`I can't say that what I'm doing in this show is real consistent with who I am as a Christian. I have my own personal struggles with all that.

`I'll put it this way: Here I have the lead role in `La Cage aux Folles,' which is a comedy about two gay people who raise a straight son who is getting married, and I'm playing the more flamboyant of the two. I have friends who are Christians who cannot begin to understand why I, as a Christian, would do that.'

For Waltz, the answer is simple. He took the role, he says, to clear up his views on tolerance.

"I want to be a better person," he says. "Sometimes that means putting yourself on the line and making choices maybe not everybody's going to understand. I've learned that it really irks me when I find myself making a judgment on something, based on ignorance. I want to learn to be the kind of person who doesn't care who or what is in front of me. Some people don't understand that. Unfortunately, some people try to pull the splinters out of the other person's eye before yanking the log out of their own eye."

THEATER PREVIEW

La Cage aux Folles

When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Friday through May 3; 2 p.m. on April 6

Where: Actors Cabaret of Eugene, 996 Willamette St.

How much: $29.95 for show and dinner, $15 reserved seats, $10 general admission, $12 for April 6 matinee; call ACE box office, 683-4368

CAPTION(S):

After Waltz adds a wig, a gown, some jewelry and a pair of heels, his transformation is complete. Waltz first covers his own hair and eyebrows as the two-hour makeup process gets under way. Waltz adds lipstick and false eye lashes and foundation makeup to smooth out his skin. Actor Kevin Waltz gets ready to dress up in drag for the musical "La Cage aux Folles." PERFORMANCE NOTES Please turn to DRAG, Page G5 Chris Pietsch / The Register-Guard Eugene ad exec Kevin Waltz stretches his limits - and his corset - in `La Cage aux Folles'