The Game Is On!

Technically speaking, the Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of The Pajama Game isn’t Harry Connick, Jr.’s first time on Broadway. The popular actor and singer had a two-week gig with his orchestra at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in 1990, and he was the composer/lyricist of the ill-fated musical Thou Shalt Not. But playing factory superintendent Sid Sorokin in the beloved Richard Adler-Jerry Ross musical definitely marks a new and welcome chapter in Connick’s professional life.

“Rehearsing this show has been a very intense process,” says Connick. “It was such an emotional and physical challenge, but it was also the sort of experience where you finish every day and you feel so satisfied. Still, it’s much harder to do a show than film or television. Theater is cumulative; they teach you something and you have to remember it. In film, you shoot it and it’s done, and you move on to the next scene.”

One specific thing he had to learn was the show’s score — including a new number for Sid, the once-cut “The World Around Us,” which is being restored for this production. But, as much as he loves the songs and the character, Connick says that a major reason he took the job was to have the chance to dance onstage. “I’ve never been choreographed before, and it’s really, really fun,” he says, adding: “It’s a lot different than being onstage for a concert. Normally, if I get out of breath, I just stop. But you can’t do that here.”

Connick, who has appeared in films helmed by such directors as William Friedkin and Jodie Foster, has nothing but high praise for Pajama Game director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall. “She’s very clear about what she wants, but she’s also very collaborative,” he remarks. “She likes to start from a place of truth, rather than some preconceived notion of what should be, and let us all grow together into these roles.”

The search for Connick’s leading lady was almost as long as the one for Scarlett O’Hara, in no small part because the actor was instrumental in casting his co-star. So what made him choose Kelli O’Hara as Babe Williams? “She’s extraordinary talented, even more than I knew after seeing her in The Light in the Piazza,” he says. “But the bottom line is that she’s a great girl, and I really like being around her and spending time with her as a person. My wife [model Jill Goodacre] and my daughters adore her. They even have pictures of her in their room. We all think she’s just terrific.”

Now the stars have a mutual admiration society, though O’Hara admits she was nervous when asked to do a “chemistry audition” with Connick. “I thought, ‘What am I supposed to do,’ ” she says. “Then I decided, ‘He’ll like me or he won’t.’ But you know, he’s Southern and I’m Southern. When I told him I was from Oklahoma, his eyes lit up! The other thing is that we’re playing opposing forces in this show, so I knew I had to act strong from the get-go. I didn’t want to do some coquettish lady act just to appeal to him. He’s not stupid, so I don’t think a girl who came in like that would have appealed to him at all.”

O’Hara is aware that some people were surprised she was cast as the hard-headed Babe, partly because the role calls for a belt-type voice rather than a shimmering soprano. “The music is so different than my other parts, and it has been challenging to learn it,” she says. But she notes that Babe is much more like her than Piazza‘s Clara or her other Broadway roles. “First off, I’m exactly the right age for Babe,” she notes. “The best thing for me is that I’m not playing a child anymore, but a woman who has her feet planted on the ground. Look, I’ve lived a little, just like Babe has. The big difference between us is that I’m going to be married next year [to actor Greg Naughton]. So many people ask me what it’s like to work with Harry, and I tell them, ‘He’s fantastic — but you should see what I’ve got at home!’ ”

How does O’Hara feel about stepping into the pajamas of Doris Day, who played Babe in the film version of the musical? “I grew up watching all of her movies, but I completely forgot about this one until I had to audition,” she says. “So I went out and got it. I adored her in it, but I have a different take on Babe — and I definitely have a different hairdo than hers!” (Rest assured, O’Hara wears a wig in the show.)

Michael McKean, who’s playing factory foreman Vernon Hines, also has to compete with some vivid memories: Eddie Foy. Jr, played the role on stage and in the film. Plus, there’s one memory of his own that McKean had to erase. “I wanted to do this part badly in high school, but it went to this guy David French,” he says. In reward for his patience, McKean also has a new number, “The Three of Us”; he sings it at show’s end with Megan Lawrence, who plays Hines’s paramour, Gladys. “It’s a song Richard Adler wrote for Jimmy Durante, which he did in his live act but never recorded,” says McKean. “It works beautifully to tie off Gladys and Hines’s story, which is kind of left dangling in the original script. I sang it to my wife [actress Annette O’Toole], and she was in tears.”

Speaking of his wife: Does McKean ever get as jealous as Hines does in the show? “Jealousy is something we’ve all felt, but let’s just say that Hines is a man whose powers of reasoning do not match my own,” he says. “I’d love Annette if she didn’t have a penny, but the fact that she’s supporting me financially while I do this show is pretty amazing. I should also say, though, that if I weren’t already in love with my wife, I’d be in love with Megan.”

Casting Lawrence was definitely Marshall’s idea; they worked together very successfully in last summer’s revival of Two Gentleman of Verona at the Delacorte Theater. “Once this show started to come together, I thought Megan would be perfect for Gladys,” says Marshall. “I think people are going to come see the stars they know, Harry and Michael, and be delighted by Megan.” In the original production of The Pajama Game and the film version, the famed dance number “Steam Heat” was danced by Gladys, played by the great Carol Haney. But, says Marshall, “I’ve always had a problem with that concept. The whole point is that Hines accuses Gladys of being a flirt, and she’s not. So does it make sense that she’d go and strut her stuff in front of the whole union? Hines would say, ‘Aha, you floozy, I caught you!’ Also, she’s the boss’s secretary, so why would she be at a union meeting? I think it’s much more fun that Gladys doesn’t really let go until she goes out with Sid, gets real drunk, and throws caution to the wind.”

Is Marshall at all intimidated about comparisons of her work to that of the show’s original choreographer, Bob Fosse? “In some ways,” she replies, “he’s like a big, dark shadow hanging over me, because ‘Steam Heat’ is probably the most famous theater choreography ever created. We start with that same iconic image of the bowler hats, but then I had license to really just go with it. The number has nothing to do with the plot, and you don’t have to explain to the audience why they’re dancing it.”

For Marshall, who had never worked on any previous production of The Pajama Game in any capacity, putting the show together with this team has been a singular experience. “Sometimes, during rehearals, I would come in and just watch Harry playing the piano,” she says. “Then I had to be the bad guy and say, ‘Harry, we’ve got to get going!’ But this cast is so supportive of each other, and for me to be part of a show I have such affection for is really great.”