Matthew Morrison: Broadway's Song-and-Dance Man Heads to Music City

No matter how you go about it - regardless of the circuitous route you take to divine an answer - Matthew Morrison just won't give any details away about his upcoming stint on the TV behemoth Grey's Anatomy. Forget that it's been the subject of pop culture buzz and an internet frenzy earlier in the week, the actor, who refers to himself as "a song and dance man," won't give up any spoilers to satisfy clamoring fans and inquisitive reporters.

What he is willing to talk about, however, is his love of musical theater and his journey from childhood to now which has cemented his place among the ranks of top-drawer Broadway talents: "I'm a classic song-and-dance man and that's what I like to show to people," he admits. "A lot of people come out and do what I like to call 'park and bark"...you know, stand there and sing. I tell an intricate story of my career and the experiences that I've been through in my life. And there's a lot of movement, a lot of dancing."

Speaking from Los Angeles by phone, Morrison is touting his upcoming trio of performances with the Nashville Symphony, April 6-8, at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center which, interestingly enough, marks his Music City debut. "I really had to think about that because I have played so many different cities in my life," he says. "But, yeah, this will be my first time to play Nashville and I'm really excited about it."

"I have a lot of really great friends in Nashville who are songwriters, so I'm looking forward to seeing them and I'll have a lot of other family and friends coming out for my shows there."

Like many of his colleagues and cohorts in show business, Morrison was ten years old when he discovered what ultimately would become his passion in life: performing in the theater. "I was an Army brat and when I was 10, my parents sent me to spend the summer with relatives in Arizona. Well, they didn't really want to deal with us kids all summer, so they put us all in a play and luckily I found my passion at a young age. I had always created these different worlds and different lives in my head and finally I found a place where I could unload all that and express everything in my imagination."

Eventually, his vivid imagination and devotion to his craft led the budding song-and-dance man to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, which led to him breaking into the competitive, exhilarating and challenging world of Broadway, where he made his debut in Footloose, followed by his big break as Link Larson in Hairspray. That led to his being cast in director Bartlett Sher's acclaimed staging of Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza (for which he earned his first Tony Award nomination) at Lincoln Center - a role he still considers his most challenging to date - and later in Sher's 2008 Tony Award-winning revival of South Pacific (composed by Guettel's grandfather Richard Rodgers), both of which starred Kelli O'Hara.

When Hollywood came calling - specifically producer Ryan Murphy and Glee - Morrison made the decision to leave Broadway "at the height of what I was doing on Broadway" and, in turn, became a household name and familiar face in millions of American households thanks to the Fox TV hit series about a high school glee club in Ohio.

"When I left Broadway, I was at the height of what I was doing: I had played Joe Cable in South Pacific, I'd gotten my big break in Hairspray, I got a Tony nomination for The Light in the Piazza, but I could leave New York and go anywhere in the country and no one would know who I was," he muses.

"When I came back to Broadway after six years on Glee, things were completely different."

His return to Broadway came when he took on the leading role in Finding Neverland, playing J.M. Barrie (the creator of Peter Pan), which earned him two Drama Desk Award nominations.

"I knew when Glee was over I wanted to be back onstage," he explains. "That's my first love - my oxygen. I knew whenever Glee was finished that would be my first move, but I didn't know what the show would be."

His resulting run in Finding Neverland - his first experience carrying the fate of one of the most eagerly anticipated musicals in recent Broadway history on his shoulders - proved a new and welcome challenge.

"It was an interesting experience," he remembers. "To carry a $14 million production on your shoulders is a huge responsibility. It was a lot because when you're doing eight shows a week - which is, in and of itself, a great workload - but you also have to go on all the TV morning shows to promote your show. So you leave the theater at 11 o'clock every night and you're up at 6 to go do the TV shows. It's really tough!"

Upon his return to Broadway, he encountered a phenomenon he refers to as "the Glee effect": the public's embrace of musical theater and support of live performance seemed more pronounced after his six years on television, possibly new to the show's popularity and its weekly dose of musical numbers brought into the home of television viewers.

"There was an excitement and energy that I hadn't seen before and that made the experience more exciting," he says.

His tenure on Glee also led to recording projects which, in turn, helped launch his career as a concert performer. "You can't really take on a Broadway show during a three-month hiatus, so the next best thing to do seemed to be to record an album and go on tour to support it," he maintains, which has led to his Nashville gig next week.

"It's a wonderful collection of standards and songs from Broadway," he explains. "I think I was born in the wrong era because I love all these songs so much...there's such great storytelling in all these songs and I am a storyteller."

About Matthew Morrison: Matthew Morrison is a versatile actor who is recognized for his work on-stage and on-screen. He has been nominated for Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe Awards.

Morrison most recently starred as J.M Barrie in the Harvey Weinstein musical Finding Neverland through January, 2016. The Broadway production is an adaptation of the 2004 film written by David Magee. The story follows the relationship between Barrie and the Davies family, who became the author's inspiration for the creation of Peter Pan.

Morrison received two Drama Desk nominations for his role, and won the category of Favorite Actor in a Musical in the Broadway.com Audience Awards. In addition to his Broadway tenure in 2016, Morrison performed as a guest star on the CBS hit show The Good Wife, where he played the role of U.S. Attorney, Conor Fox, through the series finale.

In 2015, Morrison wrapped the final season of Fox's musical comedy series Glee, where he starred as the director of the glee club, Mr. Schuester. The show was created by Ryan Murphy and received the Golden Globe award for Best Television Series - Comedy or Musical in 2010 and 2011.

In June, 2013, Morrison released his latest studio album, Where It All Began, which is a Broadway standards record that was produced by the legendary Phil Ramone. Prior to this album, Morrison released his debut, self-titled album through Mercury Records in 2011, which featured an A-list lineup of guest artists including Sting, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sir Elton John. In 2012, Morrison starred in the Lionsgate film, What to Expect When You're Expecting, which was based on the book of the same name, directed by Kirk Jones. The film also starred Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez and Dennis Quaid among others. Morrison played a famous dance show star who is faced with the unexpected demands of fatherhood. The film was released on May 18, 2012.

In March 2012, Morrison hosted and narrated the PBS special entitled Oscar Hammerstein II - Out of My Dreams, which focused on the Broadway producer's life and career. Also in March 2012, Morrison was featured in a performance of Dustin Lance Black's play, 8, a staged reenactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage.

Morrison studied musical theater, vocal performance and dance at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He made his debut on Broadway in Footloose but his big break came when he was cast as heartthrob Link Larkin in the hit Hairspray. Morrison was later nominated for a Tony Award for his role in The Light in the Piazza, and received a Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Musical for 10 Million Miles. He also starred in the Tony-winning revival of South Pacific at Lincoln Center Theater in New York.

Morrison currently resides in New York.

Matthew Morrison with The Nashville Symphony: Matthew Morrison sings "Broadway and Standards" in three peformances with the Nashville Symphony April 6-8 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in downtown Nashville. Steven Jarvi conducts the Nashville Symphony during the performance at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 6; and at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, April 7 and 8. Star of TV's Glee and numerous hit Broadway shows - including Hairspray, South Pacific and Footloose - Matthew Morrison is the consummate entertainer, with a magnetic stage presence and a stellar voice to match. Enjoy these classic tunes and more when he performs with your Nashville Symphony: "On the Street Where You Live," "Come Rain or Come Shine," "It Don't Mean a Thing," "The Lady is a Tramp" and "Singin' in the Rain," among others. Questions, email tickets@nashvillesymphony.org. For tickets, call (615) 687-6400, or for group sales at (615) 687-6402.

To post a comment, you must register and login.