John Davidson plays the seafaring pirate Captain Hook, who chases a flying child in “Finding Neverland.” But he’s got his feet firmly on the ground.
“I like it when a character’s objectives are really clear and strong,” the celebrated entertainer said in a phone interview earlier this month. Davidson’s career has ranged from hosting reality shows (“That’s Incredible,” “Hollywood Squares”) and talk shows (guest-hosting “The Tonight Show”), Disney movies, sitcoms, concert acts, and quite a lot of live theater.
When asked about his dream musical theater roles, Davidson says he’s already done them, including Don Quixote in “Man of La Mancha,” Harold Hill in “The Music Man” and Charlie Anderson in “Shenandoah.”
In “Finding Neverland,” Davidson plays not just Captain Hook but also Charles Frohman, the theater producer who thought playwright J.M. Barrie was taking too big a risk with his fantasy project “Peter Pan.” “Finding Neverland,” coming to The Bushnell Aug. 1 to 6, is about how Barrie’s friendship with a young widow named Sylvia Llewelyn Davis and her four sons inspires him to take a creative leap and unleash a major cultural icon that’s been flying high now for over a century.
Davidson compares his “Finding Neverland” roles with his starring role in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “State Fair,” which visited the Oakdale in Wallingford 20 years ago.
“My objective in ‘State Fair’ was to win a blue ribbon for my hog. I never quite believed in that. My roles in ‘Finding Neverland’ are much clearer. Frohman is trying to convince Barrie not to ruin his career. I’ve worked in the theater a long time, and can understand that.”
Davidson last performed at The Bushnell in 2014, as The Wizard in “Wicked.” He had clear objectives in that role, he feels, but “you’re backstage waiting two hours to come onstage. In this one, I’m on a lot sooner in the show.” He calls The Bushnell “the kind of theater that is set up to do Broadway shows the way they should be done.”
“Finding Neverland,” the actors says, is “about letting your passion show. Captain Hook is so much fun to play, and one of the great things about Frohman is that he’s known to be positive and passionate. That’s something people see in me as an actor. There’s something positive people see in me.”
Davidson can relate to the show’s story about an artist who follows his dreams and likes to vary the sort of work he does. “I started on Broadway. I came to New York as a musical theater singer and dancer. I had a manager who said he wanted to develop me as a variety show host. He told me, ‘You’re going to discover your role as John Davidson.’ He had me on TV, film, Broadway, Vegas, hosting beauty pageants. … It was a real gift to me. But all the way through, I’ve always gone back to doing different Broadway roles. It’s the most creative choice.”
“I only joined this tour a few weeks ago, and am so grateful to have a job this good in my 70s. I’m floating on air every day, so grateful to be working.”
Christine Dwyer, who plays the lead female role of Sylvia in the musical, is also a veteran of “Wicked,” on Broadway and on tour. She hasn’t appeared on The Bushnell stage before now, but she has sold merchandise in the theater lobby and helped out backstage. This was back when Dwyer was attending the Hartt School.
“I saw ‘Miss Saigon,’ ‘Wicked’ and ‘Lion King’ there. I was always trying to sneak into the back of the theater,” she said in a phone interview. She hopes to visit the Hartt campus while she’s in Hartford.
Dwyer is the only one of the main cast members of “Finding Neverland” who has been with the tour since it began ten months ago. “The entire principal cast has changed, including the boys who play my sons,” She didn’t see the show on Broadway until after she’d gotten a call to audition for it.
“It wasn’t something I necessarily thought I would be called for. It’s not my usual vocal range. It’s a challenge, something new and different.” (The original Sylvia Llewelyn Davies on Broadway was Laura Michelle Kelly, who appeared at The Bushnell earlier this year as Anna in the national tour of “The King & I.”)
But the Hartt School had prepared Dwyer for such challenges. “It’s one of the only schools that doesn’t type you as a certain kind of performer. They stretch you. They make it so you can walk into any kind of audition setting. You have to have the singing and dancing skills, but they made me feel like a good actor as well.”
“Finding Neverland,” which ran for nearly 600 performances on Broadway, has been reworked for its first national tour, with significant changes made to the beginning and ending that even includes new music. “There’s new songs, new scenes, new choreography, characters introduced in different ways,” Dwyer says. “Everyone from the original creative team was involved.”
Dwyer joined “Finding Neverland” after her third stint as Elphaba in the Broadway production of “Wicked.” “Both ‘Finding Neverland’ and ‘Wicked’ have great spectacle in them,” she says. “There’s some flying in both shows. They’re both big Broadway musicals, but they’re also both simple stories of connections and friendships — unlikely friendships that can change your life.”
“FINDING NEVERLAND“— book by James Graham (based on the play “The Man Who Was Peter Pan” by Allan Knee), music and lyrics by Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy, directed by Diane Paulus — plays Aug. 1 to 6 at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $22.50 to $112.50. 860-987-5900, bushnell.org.
