Fast chat John Mahoney e played an all-American retired cop on TV's “Frasier” for I seasons and now plays an all-Brooklyn old man in the Broadway revival of the comedy-drama “Prelude to a Kiss.” So it’s a surprise to learn that John Mahoney was raised in Manchester — the Pittsburgh of England — before emigrating to the United States at 19, in 1959, to join his war-bride sister outside Chicago. ‘Mahoney, 66, came to acting at age 37, after earning a mas- ter’s degree in English and belatedly discov- ering he didn’t like to teach. He worked for Northwestern Univer- sity’s Children’s Me- morial Hospital, editing doctors’ manu- scripts for medical journals, then spent a couple of years as an associate editor of ‘Quality Review Bulle- tin, the journal of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals. It was about as much fun as it sounds. Having dabbled in theater in his teens back in Manchester, Mahoney quit his job in 1977 and signed up {for acting classes at ‘Chicago’s St. Nicho- las Theatre, meeting co-founders such as David Mamet and William H. Macy. He got his Equity card and | f you we minute Yknow pretty « because immedi me like cast] al if it we natural world t be ther One of ended “Frasier Kelsey was so and so and she where t were at service les}, ma had eve needed. there, a like, ‘O} gonna t itt’ the have be difficult in there body w thank y they we they we anybod, short ni How di your Br T tried te rid of m While s US. Arr my rout ship, Iv Tittle stu say to 5% “How diwith his stage debut in Mamet's “The Water Engine,” then joined Chicago's ‘Steppenwolf Theatre. He won a Tony Award as Artie Shaughnessy in the 1986 revival of John Guare’s “The House of Blue Leaves.” Mahoney went on to ap- pear in numerous movies and TV series before settling into the role of grumpy but sensi- ble patriarch Martin Cran on the hit sitcom “Frasier” in 1993, He's since kept busy doing theater, his preferred medium. Frequent Newsday contributor Frank Lovece spoke with him in his “Pre- ude” dressing room. Given that “Prelude to a Kiss” is almost 17 years old and was made into a movie, | don't think it's a spoiler to ask whether your character, an old man who switches bodies with a le and tries to pass for kind of a jerk. Well, he is! He takes over that young woman's body and he’s not about to give it up. Of course, what’re you gonna do? I never like to throw stones at somebody unless I've been in that person’s shoes, and I don’t know what I'd do if sudden- ly P'm given a chance to start all over again with a beautiful new, young body. But that must have been very weird, if you get into thinking about that, how “she” and the husband could have relations when act- ually it’s a man inside that body. I like the quaint way you put that, “have relations.” (laughing) Yes, well, I go back! TEWSDAY PHOTO Had you seen “Prelude” before? Td seen it in Chicago about 12 years ago [when The Old Man was played] by a great Chicago actor named Mike Nussbaum — he was the office manager in “Glengarry Glen Ross.” In fact, one of the biggest laughs in the play is something I just flat-out stole from him, when I pull my leg under me and sit down on it [like a young woman in the body of a man).” It's true — that was the biggest laugh when | saw it. Y'know, as well-known as you were in theater, a lot of people first noticed you on “Cheers” [in a 1992 episode in which he played~~ an old but enthusias- tic jingle-writer]. You just knocked it out of the ballpark, and | found out later you were a last- minute replacement. Y'know why it was pretty easy? It was because everybody immediately treated me like a peer. [The cast] all just acted as if it were the most natural thing in the world that I would be there doing that. One of the reasons I ended up doing “Frasier” is because Kelsey [Grammer] was so kind to me and so complimentary and showing me where the toilets were and where craft service was [chuck- needed. If 'd gone in there, and they were like, ‘Qh, God, is he gonna be able to do itz’ then it would have been very, very difficult. But I went in there, and every- body was just, ‘Oh, k short notice. ‘ouegueg 2How did you lose your British accent? tried too hard to get rid of my accent. ‘While serving in the US. Army to shorten my route to citizen- ship, I would make little study cards and say to somebody, “How do you ‘buh- NAH-nuh’??” And they'd say, “ba- NANNNN-uh,” and P'd write it down. Didn't you havea ariWiN'2 — chance to use your wv ever they eal accent — why ever it that? — on an episode of “Frasier,” where Martin's ae n ay but not Manchester-born Jane Leeves]? ‘Oh, yeah! Jane did a great job on that show since her voice suggested Man- chester — because if she had-done a {real] Manches- ter accent they would have had to have subtitles! Sometimes, I'd help her with it, and sometimes she'd laugh at me because there are still a couple of words that give me away. Like “um-burrrr-REL-uh” in- stead of [the American] “um-BREL-uh.” She always used to get a big kick out of that. ‘wo>“Kepsmournmm AQ0% WL HowvW ‘AvaNns ‘AvasM3N