The theater industry is a competitive place with more actors than there are roles and more little jobs than big ones. When someone manages to be casted in a show like the traveling production of “Beauty and the Beast,” it’s a fairly big deal.

Actor Andrew Kruep plays LeFou, Gaston’s right hand man, in the traveling competition. Kruep, originally from just outside of St. Louis, spoke with The Northern Light before the company left Anchorage about his experiences as an actor, and with the show itself.

 TNL: How long, in general, have you been acting?

Kruep: Ever since I was little. My parents kind of threw me into it, for which I’m really grateful now. I actually started doing gymnastics first before I did anything with theater, and that’s definitely helped me out with LeFou. So I started out in gymnastics, and then did little theater stuff, and then I grew up with it in high school and majored in it in college.

TNL: How did you get involved with Broadway?

Kruep: For this tour, I auditioned a while back, about two years ago. The actual tour has been out since 2010, but I joined Christmas of last year. So, I’ve been out for a little over a year now. I had my first audition in Chicago, and then they called me back to have a callback in New York, but I couldn’t go. So, I got a call back a year later to go to New York, and I got the job. So it’s been a long time coming, but I’m so happy to be on it now.

 TNL: How do you cope with traveling all the time?

Kruep: The life of a musical theater person is, you have your loved ones, and they come visit you, but you also have to be able to travel at a moment’s notice if you get a job. Most of us are from New York now, and we live there, but a lot of times we move to New York just to get a job somewhere else. It’s just the life of a musical theater actor.

TNL: What do you enjoy most about this particular production?

Kruep: Definitely the people, working with the cast and crew and management, and the original Broadway team that did the original production on Broadway came back to do our production. So we’ve been working with everyone who created the original, and that’s just amazing.

TNL: What are your feelings on LeFou? What do you like most and what’s the most complicated part of being him?

Kruep: LeFou is such a buffoon; he’s such a goofball. He’s so much fun to play because I literally just get to bounce around the stage, get punched, flip and fall, but that’s also kind of the challenge of it. I never thought that I’d have to learn how to fall; that’s such a weird thing to think of, but you don’t want to get hurt while doing any of the stunts and combat stuff, but you also want to make it look real so the audience feels like you got punched and feels that feeling with you.

 TNL: What’s your favorite scene to act in?

Kruep: I think my favorite scene is in the second act with Monsieur D’Arque; it’s a short scene, but I get to do so much, and get my fingers broken and I get to do a backwards roll. The physical comedy is what I love about it, even though it’s such a short scene. But it’s definitely fun.

TNL: For students in the theater program here at UAA working towards doing what you do, what would you say is the best advice that you can offer?

Kruep: I would definitely say that if you can’t see yourself doing anything else, then go for it. I could not see myself sitting, I could not see myself in a cubicle all day. That’s not the person that I am; I respect everyone who can do that, but I can’t. I was never the best at math, never the best at anything, but I loved to sing, and act and dance. So, if you love to do that too, and you are really really passionate about it, then I would say just go for it. Don’t let anyone stop you.

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