Robert Petkoff as Harold Zidler and the cast of the North American tour of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade

The national tour of Moulin Rouge! The Musical! is a bit of a homecoming for actor Robert Petkoff, or at least that’s what we at the Denver Center like to think.

Robert Petkoff as Achilles in the 2000 Denver Center Theatre Company production of Tantalus. Photo by p. switzer

After all, his first play in Denver was the granddaddy of theatre — Tantalus — the 10-part, nine-hour play recounting the Trojan War. Petkoff, one of four American actors to snag a featured role, played Achilles, Neoptolemus, Aegisthus, and Orestes in the 2000 Denver Center Theatre Company world premiere that kept him in rehearsals and performances for a full year. After that, he was practically a local.

“I love Denver,” Petkoff enthused. “[I love] the lifestyle that in Denver seems very outdoorsy. I found myself jogging, doing outdoor things that I don’t normally do…. Every time I get a show in Denver, I’m thrilled, and I feel like it’s one of my theatre homes. There is Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the Denver Center Theatre Company, along with the Old Globe Theater [in San Diego], where I’ve gone multiple times, and really, really learned how to be a good actor, and part of that has to do with the Denver audiences.”

The next time Denver saw Petkoff was in the first national tour of Spamalot in 2007/08. He traded in the dramatic warrior Achilles for the comedic Sir Robin…a knight in tights.

But those two-week engagements simply weren’t enough, so Petkoff returned to Denver as Colonel Brandon in the Theatre Company’s 2012/13 production of Sense & Sensibility: The Musical followed by Sweeney Todd in 2015/16. There, he murdered his customers with a straight razor while Linda Mugleston as Mrs. Lovett baked their bodies into meat pies.

“It was like the dream role for me, the one that from high school when I first heard the cast album, it’s the one I wanted to play,” Petkoff continued. “I have to say that the Denver audiences were fantastic,” Petkoff continued.

“The Denver audiences are very smart audiences. They’re definitely theater people. They come to the theater because they love the theater. They love storytelling, and so the response was great. It was really fantastic.” — Robert Petkoff

The very next season he returned in the national tour of Fun Home as Bruce Bechdel, a father whose inner turmoil over his repressed sexuality leads to unpredictable behavior ranging from love to rage-fueled outbursts and, ultimately, his death by perceived suicide.

After eight seasons, Petkoff now returns to play the flamboyant Harold Zidler in the North American tour of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Portraying the flamboyant and ambitious owner of the Moulin Rouge is intriguing to the actor.

“I like that he’s a bad boy,” Petkoff explained. “I think he’s a bad boy in the guise of your favorite uncle, you know?”

After appearing as the greatest warrior of the Trojan War in Tantalus then slicing and dicing his way through the cast of Sweeney Todd, Petkoff finds this character’s similarities to the Demon Barber of Fleet Street “hilarious.”

Linda Mugleston and Robert Petkoff in Sweeney Todd, 2016. Photo by Adams VisCom.

“There is a giant bit in [Moulin Rouge] about a razor, and it is the same type of razor that’s in Sweeney Todd. [You know the] picture the Denver Center showed of me holding the razor up? I do that every night with the razor here, so there’s a beautiful synchronicity doing Sweeney Todd then and coming back with Moulin Rouge! The Musical! that you would never expect….”

Petkoff has played Harold Zidler both on Broadway and on tour, each of which has its unique characteristics.

“The biggest difference is that on Broadway, it’s a more intimate house and the audience is right on top of you. So much of my opening scene is talking to the audience, which is infinitely more satisfying in the Broadway company when you are a foot or two away.…

“But the second difference is that the Broadway house is designed to be the Moulin Rouge lined in velvet, which for a singer is not so great because the sound goes out and stops, and you don’t really hear yourself. On the road, you get you get a lot of bounce back, and it’s more like a concert…. So, the audience response when I sing ‘Chandelier’ is more like a rock concert. I mean, as I hit the high notes, sometimes they cheer in the middle of the song. And that’s never happened on Broadway.…”

Apart from his many Denver engagements, Petkoff has worked in film, on TV, and in audio narration. Shows include “Madam Secretary,” “Elementary,” and “The Good Wife.” He’s also recorded more than 350 audiobooks including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Less by Andrew Sean Greer and Bob Woodward’s Fear: Trump is in the White House, among others. He credits his times in Denver with his growth as an actor.

“You become a good actor by working with good audiences. They are your final scene partner,” Petkoff explained. “If they’re responsive and if they’re smart, it forces you to be smart too. It’s easy for an actor to pander. It’s easy for an actor to overplay if they’re not hearing responses, but it’s wonderful to have the response of an audience that lets you know, ‘I don’t have to lay this out so heavily for you.’ You’re smart. You’re going get it. And now what is the least I can do to tell this story. And that’s such a great lesson as an actor. And I learned that in Denver for sure.”

DETAILS
Moulin Rouge! The Musical
Aug 6-17, 2025 • Buell Theatre
Tickets