The show 42nd Street has twice nearly intruded on a milestone in the life of Kelly Sheehan. First, there was her birth. Sheehan’s mother, a dancer named Julie O’Connell, discovered she was pregnant with Kelly right around the time she was cast in the Los Angeles production of 42nd Street in the early ’80s. She would have had to pass on the role, except the production ended up being delayed, so the new mom was able to join the chorus line after all. A couple of decades later, Sheehan had to rush her high school graduation so she could move to New York to appear in the Broadway revival of 42nd Street. After she’d been cast, Sheehan wrapped up her high school studies half a year early in order to be in New York for the start of 42nd Street rehearsals at the beginning of 2001.
Now, as 2008 draws to a close, Sheehan is back on Broadway in Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, the screen-to-stage adaptation (with extra Berlin songs incorporated) that arrived at the Marquis Theatre after years of regional productions. Sheehan was in four of those productions: in 2005 in Los Angeles; 2006 in St. Paul, Minn.; last year, Boston; and even a one-week engagement during the hot summer of 2006 at St. Louis’ Muny. While most of the Broadway cast has previous White Christmas experience, Sheehan has the longest tenure with the show other than star Jeffry Denman (who’s been in it since it originated in San Francisco in 2004).
“This is definitely the most exciting year that we’ve had,” says Sheehan, “because of the parade, the big Broadway opening... And having a theater right in Times Square is so exciting. Pretty much everyone has family coming to New York and seeing the show. Sometimes when you’re out of town, they don’t necessarily want to travel to St. Paul or Detroit to come and see the show, but people always want to come to New York.”
Last Thursday, Sheehan and her castmates performed at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade; she’d also performed at the parade when she was in 42nd Street. Both 42nd Street and White Christmas—along with last spring’s No, No, Nanette at City Center Encores!, which Sheehan was also in—were choreographed by Randy Skinner, a master of old-timey tap shows.
“I absolutely adore him,” Sheehan says of Skinner. “He really researches the time period and stays true to it. He recognizes the different steps and the different style and the different energy that people had. People were into dancing for themselves—they weren’t doing it for fame, or TV or the camera. He really focuses on how they did it back then, and he’s always been considerate to the dancers on helping us look and sound our best.”
Tap is Sheehan’s favorite type of dance, and her forté, but it’s also an almost invisible art in contemporary musicals. White Christmas: set (and created) in 1954; 42nd Street: based on a 1933 film; No, No, Nanette: from the Roaring ’20s. “It’s really challenging,” Sheehan acknowledges, “to find a good old-fashioned American musical with tap dancing and very period pieces—big tap numbers, from the times where there were 30 to 40 dancers on stage. We really don’t have that anymore, and it’s very expensive to do.”
