In the early 80’s Richard “R.” O’Donnell was a regular on stage at Peninsula Players. He was the only actor to star in a show with an extended run – not once, but twice. The Nerd in 1984 and The Foreigner in 1985 both broke box office records in their time and each show starred O’Donnell. It’s been more than twenty years and one has to wonder why he’s never returned, despite the fact that he is alive and well, intensely active in Chicago theater as both a writer and an actor.
Today’s Chicago Tribune features a timely article on one of his many persona… The Kreep.
Here’s an excerpt from the Trib’s SCREEN SCENE: ‘Kreep’ing along, poetically:
Chicago’s Internet-based film critic, Brazillia R. Kreep (a.k.a. The Kreep) celebrates his birthday this Halloween.
The ghoulish fiend, who reviews films in rhyme via an iTunes podcast and in print, is the creation of R. O’Donnell, a local actor, filmmaker and sometime publicist. While The Kreep claims to have been born 100 years ago, “in Scaresville, Il.,” his lyrical reviews actually debuted last Halloween.
Think of Vincent Price’s rap from “Thriller,” and you get the idea. Here’s a sample of his review of “The Nightmare Before Christmas”:
“Ole Christmas was a bitter pill
Jack Skellington t’fit the bill
Took tinseled trees ribbons n’ bows
N’ dipped it all in spooky woes
Packages wrapped in spider twine
Punch he spiked with ghostly swine
Stockings stuffed with dreadful things
Awful icky devil wings”
