Matthew Morrison: Bali Hai Has Found Him

On a recent rainy Friday evening at about 6:00pm, a sizeable number of people are happily waiting in the cancellation line in the lobby of the Vivian Beaumont, the reason for the assembled group's vigil? Each one hopes to be lucky enough to snatch up a ticket to the theatre's celebrated current inhabitant; LincolnCenter's glorious revival of Rodger's & Hammerstein's South Pacific. It's a wonderfully mixed group that is making up the line, everyone from an older couple sharing a coffee, to several eager students of nearby Juilliard, but one young person catches my eye, he's lost in his own world intently reading an aged copy of the South Pacific script, most likely dreaming of tackling one of the show's roles, perhaps savoring the potential of putting his own stamp on the show's young male lead, Lt. Joe Cable.
  

Not far way from the growing cancellation cue, just a floor below in fact , backstage at the Beaumont, you'll find the very talented actor who is presently making the role of Cable his very own and then some, one of the theatre communities most inspired young talents, Matthew Morrison. From the very first moment Hairspray audiences caught him crooning Marc Shaiman's joyful heart beat of a score and expertly swinging his hips while dancing to Jerry Mitchell's witty whiplash choreography, a Broadway performer of high caliber was born. Since exiting that production a number of years ago, he's built a career that's a testament to his intelligence and passion for the art of acting. Whether playing a sexually dysfunctional son in the comic A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, the troubled and yearning Duane in 10 Million Miles or his Tony nominated turn as Fabrizio in The Light in the Piazza, he's found a continual flow of substantial characters to embrace and bring to critically acclaimed life. He's also no stranger to the world of television and film, but the stage remains his chosen creative home. I consider him to be one of the smartest young actors in the business; Morrison also has that classic manner about him, in many ways reminiscent of a young Marlon Brando, James Dean or Montgomery Cliff. And, even more than those beloved icons, he can dance and sing.

I've had the pleasure of meeting Matthew on several occasions, both professional and social, each time I'm struck by his friendly nature and honest interest in those around him, so it's no surprise that when I'm greeted by him today in his dressing room, it's as if I'm reuniting with an old friend, which in many ways, I am.

South Pacific is getting some of the best buzz of any show of this season. So I thought I should start by congratulating him for being chosen and how he's enjoying the journey of starring in this acclaimed production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. "I feel in a really great place, I feel like I brought this character to a place it hasn't been brought to before. That was my goal in coming to this place, this role", he says these words with obvious pride. He's also been very lucky to have had, at least up until this point the gift of creating characters in original productions like Hairspray and The Light in the Piazza. South Pacific is something different for him, as it's his first role in a revival, it's also the classic musical's first return to Broadway since it made its debut in 1950.

"Creating a role is its own hardship in many ways. You understand what I mean by that, but this show, this show has been done before, it's been done right before, it's like making another Godfather, it's like, why would you want to do that?" We both laugh at that daunting task, but Morrison is up for the challenge, "It's exciting to create this, and I wanted to approach it in a way it hadn't been done before". I notice a note taped to his dressing room mirror, it's a letter from the president of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, he goes on to praise Matt's honest and emotional work in the piece, and how much depth and shading he continues to bring to the character. He's proud of it, "I keep it up because it's so reaffirming of my work, of what I'm trying to do in the show, It's really cool that he see's I'm bringing something new to it." He's got that special thrill that an actor has when he knows his work is moving people, I've also noted as we started talking a certain calmness about him, a true confidence in where he is professionally.

 

This energy lends itself to his Lt. Cable, you understand the character and his place in the story, by watching Morrison lose himself in the role, yet he never gives up that part of himself that makes his theatrical performances so special. "I think it's important to do, you can't do a role without bringing yourself to it, I had to find out who Cable was for me, and to me. I hate in my own personal life, the feeling of being lost. And this guy is completely lost, he doesn't know where he is, he's uncomfortable. Channeling that, it feels good for the performance, for an actor it fuels it."

Matthew was asked to be a part of South Pacific in its early stages, but at that time he was living the life of the Hollywood actor, as he calls it, "My film and TV phase!" He spent a number of months doing roles on numerous television dramas and a few film roles, most notable the stoic highway patrol man in the Steve Carell comedy, Dan in Real Life, but the stage has always been his passion and here it was, calling to him again, "I was staying at Marisa's place in Los Angeles (Marissa Jaret Winokur, the Tony winning star of Hairspray, and recent celebrity contestant on ABC's Dancing With The Stars, she's also long been his close friend and constant champion). "I got word they really wanted me to do this, but I didn't want to come back to audition, it was the same creative team from Piazza, and they knew me well. It became the scenario where everyone was like, "Yes, we want him to do it", so they called and said it's yours if you want it". I have to remark that it's quite a thing to be offered a role on reputation alone, he nods and smiles to confirm that comment, and continues, "So I sat with Marisa in her hot tub and the both of us for two hours, sitting in the tub, discussed everything, each giving our thoughts on leaving Los Angeles and returning to New York, it basically was her…and my decision."

By choosing to make the trip back the California native also reaffirmed his commitment to building his career based on the work, as he did when he followed up playing Link Larkin in Hairspray with his role in Richard Greenberg's comic play A Naked Girl On The Appian Way, in one brave and inspired step, he broke the stereo type of only playing the "hunk", there was no singing, no dancing, just Greenberg's layered script and absurd situations to guide his performance, as he says with some relish, "It's a great thing to keep people guessing."

 

His current return to Broadway and LincolnCenter found him jumping into rehearsals with many familiar faces, his director Bartlett Sher did the same duty for Piazza and Kelli O'Hara this revival's Nellie Forbush, was his love interest in the earlier production, but South Pacific itself was a stranger to him. The score found him reaching for what he calls his "Piazza voice", he immediately set out to build it back up, and push it to new levels as he embraced the rehearsal process, "I felt comfortable, knowing Bar, and after Piazza I felt I could do anything, with my voice but I hadn't trained it for a bit, so I had some work to do, I was like, whoa, let's work this here", he spreads out his arms to indicate how much work he knew he'd be putting in to get his voice where he wanted it. "Working with these kind of voices is humbling, everyone being such amazing singers, Paulo Szot is just mind blowing, and Kelli is just, that voice"…he closes his eyes and clutches his heart to make his feelings regarding her clear to me. Once he surrendered to the music, he was on his way, and from the very first days of rehearsal he knew he was part of something special.

"I had never seen a production of it, never really heard the full score, I knew many of the songs but I didn't know the story. But when we jumped in, it was easy to just get lost in it all. You know sometimes, you have to sing the songs about a cloudy day, and that's great, and that's cute or whatever, but that's where you have to do the heavy lifting as a musical performer. But this, this is actually easy for me as an actor, to sing these songs, which have depth and meaning, to have something meaningful to say, to sing, it's just amazing and wonderful to be in a show with an opinion."

 

It's remarkable what a feast this theatre season has been when comes to it's celebrated revivals, Gypsy, Sunday in the Park with George, and of course South Pacific, each is getting the kind if accolades and attention that most new musicals don't receive, he felt the audiences connection from the very first preview, "I did have that feeling, right at the start, it was very palpable, the way the music and the story connected, I realized it was going to be very special, we all felt we were part of a good show, while I was researching the show, I had read that some critics or writers would call South Pacific one of  Rodgers and Hammerstein's "weaker" works, but I think it's so powerful, and we've filled in so much, rehearsals were so rewarding. I wish I could see it", he adds with a chuckle.

 

Don't let all this serious actor chatter make you think Matthew doesn't have an athlete's boundless energy as well as a natural gift for comedy too, one of his main challenges for this production was finding his "stillness", it's something he worked on with Sher in rehearsals. In his tidy room at the Beaumont he's totally animated as the conversation advances, he has also been at various times stretched out and contorted like a cobra, in that unique way you see dancers sit, because more than anything else, Matthew Morrison is a dancer, and a formidable one at that. He got his start on Broadway in the dancing chorus of Footloose, and followed that as a Phantom in The Rocky Horror Show, star director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell has figurEd Strongly in his career, as both a mentor and friend, he continues to reach out for Morrison's skills when needed, most recently in the workshop of a new musical in development "Going Hollywood". Morrison describes himself simply, "I'm a dancer, that's how I started". I didn't go into his short stint in a boy band, but he did that well too, he is the very definition of that coveted label, "the triple threat", in many ways a throw back to the days of Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. He can and does "do it all", it's only fitting that in those days of entertainment past, you can take a peek into his future, I ask what's going on creatively in addition to his current and celebrated gig, with this his eyes gleam and he gives me a mischievous smile, "Oh, man, I wish I could tell you Eddie, but I can't."

It's very clear this is painful for him to not be able to clue me in, but it's still a little too early, and we in the theatre are a superstitious lot. "I want to tell you, but, it's just, it's all coming together, I'm working with people, you know them, I'm collaborating with this amazing team. I was inspired by the people who do it all, like Hugh Jackman, he's just an unbelievable performer, he gives everything he has to his performing. All the recent shows I've done I haven't been able to dance, so I feel that for my next move, I've got to dance again!" He's excited now, his dancers heart beating strongly for his secret dream project, "Ok, well it's going to have an arc to it, based on, um, if you look around my room here you might get a hint…I think it's going to blow people away." Aha, I see what he's implying, it seems the perfect fit for subject and star. People, be prepared to be blown away once he debuts his dream project. This seems like the perfect time to let him relax and focus himself for that nights performance, he's got the wrenching and lovely ballads of South Pacific to mesmerize theatergoers with, including those eager people still waiting in the cancellation line, as we say our farewells, I take another glance at the letter taped to his mirror, the final words of which, seem fitting to end this essay with,

"I have no doubt that Rodgers & Hammerstein and Josh Logan would have been as crazy about you as all of the rest of us are…"

I couldn't agree more.

 

Photo Credit Walter McBride/ Retna Ltd.