Radio voice meets sadistic ‘fan’

Riverwalk Theatre’s production of “Misery,” opening Thursday (Feb. 9), will feature an unexpected actor in the role of Paul Sheldon: longtime radio journalist Scott Pohl. He’ll play the romance author who’s held captive by his “number one fan,” Annie Wilkes, played by Holly Sleight-Engler.

Pohl, 65, graduated from Michigan State University in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications. He minored in theater, which he said prepared him for a career in radio – spent almost entirely at WKAR.

“When a professor says to you, ‘Come up on stage and sing a song for us,’ and you have to think of something you know all the words to from here to there, not much throws me anymore,” he said with a laugh. 

Pohl retired in 2020, but his well-known voice can still be heard from time to time on WKAR, his employer for 35 years.

While he has that theater background, Pohl said he “never did anything with it for nearly 40 years.”

But he’s had a strong showing on Riverwalk stages in past years. He appeared in “Buried Child” and “Sweat” and directed “Art” last year. He’s also a board member. 

Riverwalk has given “Misery” an R rating for its violence, featuring Wilkes’ kidnapping and torture of Sheldon in an attempt to get him to write a new book about her favorite character, who was killed in his most recent release. 

Rounding out the three-person show, directed by Ayden Soupal, is Jules Overfelt as Sheriff Buster. 

A movie version was made in 1990, featuring James Caan as Paul and Kathy Bates as Annie, whose performance earned her an Oscar in 1991.

Pohl said in preparing for the role, he steadfastly avoided rereading King’s book or watching the movie. He also deliberately chose not to see a production of the play produced by the Lebowsky Center in Owosso last October.

Why would the mild-mannered radio newscaster audition for such a violent show? 

“The honest answer is when I heard that Riverwalk was adding it to the schedule for this season — and I’m on the board, so I knew even before the public announcement was made — I knew I would at least audition for it, partly because I love Stephen King,” Pohl said. “I love this story, but I also, in my gut, thought the part should go to an older actor.”

In a press release, Pohl gave a deeper explanation for his desire to be in the show. 

“It feels more like it could really happen than his supernatural stories,” he said.

Soupal sang Pohl’s praises, noting he is “finding so many layers to the character.”

The book is a white-knuckle journey in psychological and physical violence, as was the movie, and the play has some of that as well.

“There are elements in the movie that are also in this stage presentation, and everybody wants to know about the sledgehammer,” Pohl said. “Yes, this version does include the sledgehammer.”

Pohl said the process of working on stage fights, choreographed by Dale Wayne Williams, has been a different experience for him. 

“Fight choreography is really interesting. You want it to look real, but you want to make sure you don’t hurt yourself or each other,” he said. “So, we’ve done more stretching before rehearsals than I’m used to.”

The production also features moments of levity, however. One such moment happens to be Pohl’s favorite — the captive Sheldon tries to convince Wilkes that he’s going to revive his dead character, Misery, in a new novel just for her. 

“Paul is trying to convince Annie that he’s going along with things he is writing for her, and part of his scheme leads them to have dinner together,” he said. “I may like that scene more than any other scene in the show because he’s leading her astray, kind of teasing her in a playful way, and she’s kind of going for it. I think it’s funny. So, there are some laughs in the show, which break the tension. Frankly, when the tension returns, this makes it even more heightened.” 

King wrote the novel following a rejection of his fantasy novel “The Eyes of the Dragon.” He felt fans locked him into the horror genre, which limited his creativity. He credits the full fleshing out of this book to a dream on a transatlantic flight to London. In fact, once he and his wife were on the ground, he spent his time writing the novel on steno pages, at one point using the desk where Rudyard Kipling died of a stroke. 

The novel, movie and play are a meditation on the pitfalls of fame and pigeonholing artists to one genre. While Pohl said that was “interesting,” he is focused on the relationship between Sheldon and Wilkes. 

“The individual reaction of a fan is all I’ve really contemplated in this production, as opposed to fame on a larger scale,” he said.