Interview: Meet CAGNEY'S Newest Bob Hope, Jeffry Denman

CAGNEY, the new hit musical about Hollywood's tough guy in tap shoes, just recently welcomed Broadway's Jeffry Denman to the company. Denman is best known for starring in the original company of Irving Berlin's White Christmas for which he was nominated for a Fred & Adele Astaire Award. He was Munkustrap in the final cast of Cats (original Broadway production) and was featured in the original company of The Producers which led him to pen the memoir, A Year with The Producers.

To celebrate his latest role in Cagney, BroadwayWorld chat with Jeffry to talk about his plove of the stage and his passion for the song and dance man.

Check it out, below!

How does it feel to be back in New York performing, again?

Amazing. Walking through the theatre doors, it sounds so cliche, but I felt like I was home again, and I had never even played the Westside Theatre. I'm just so incredibly grateful to be in this show at this time and I'm really really happy to be back in New York. It's important to appreciate. This is fleeting and you always don't have the job, so when you do, it's very important to appreciate and be grateful for it because it really is a blessing what we, as performers, get to do. I know plenty of guys who are super talented and I was lucky to get the role.

We're you a fan of Cagney before you started your role in the how?

I hadn't seen the show until Bobby called me and said "Hey we're looking for somebody. Would you be willing to come see the show and would you be willing to check it out. And I said "Of course," as I had been hearing a lot about it. I've known Bobby through business for a number of years and I knew he had been working on this. I was a fan, in that way, in that I wanted to see Bobby get his dream of bringing it to to life, rooting for him from the sidelines, as it were. As far as James Cagney as an actor, yes. I'm a pretty big fan of 1930s and 40s cinema and my focus was always on Fred Astaire, Gene Kelley, the song and dance guys, James Cagney being one of them. But I wasn't as familiar with him. I had seen PUBLIC ENEMY and WHITE HEAT, but I hadn't kind of gone down the rabbit hole and really watched a whole bunch of stuff. But, of course, everyone has pretty much seen YANKEE DOODLE if you're going to be a song and dance man. It's pretty much require watching. And amazing, too. I knew of him as pretty much I think everyone knows him. Kind of "Oh, he's a tough guy. He's also a song and dance man." It's just kind of the first layer. And that's what I think is brilliant about the musical is that everyone walks into the theatre with that mentality, but then it shows you what made him who he is and how he really struggled with that. He knew that he was good at doing this one thing, which was being a tough guy, but he also knew he had all of these other things to offer.

Do you happen to have a favorite movie of Cagney's?

Well, for the song and dance man, there are a few things better than watching James Cagney doing his George M. Cohan. It is a perfect blend of actor to material and character and all of that. But, I really, and it's probably so cliche, but I love WHITE HEAT. I remember watching it when I was younger and saying "Oh my god, I felt uncomfortable during that movie in a way that I have never felt uncomfortable." That movie for me, I probably saw it when I was 17 or 18, and it really had this different quality to it that made me very uncomfortable, just because of what his character was going through, and I always remember that. And I've been meaning to go back and watch it again because it's been a while since I've seen it and now being in the show, since it's part of the plot, I want to go back and watch it again.

You play not only Bob Hope, but a bunch of other characters in the show. Do you have a favorite character or scene from the show that you get to do?

Well, Bob definitely. I love playing Bob Hope. I did a Fred Astaire musical a while back, where I played Fred Astaire. And then I did WHITE CHRISTMAS and I played Danny Kaye type role, and also I've done SINGING IN THE RAIN where you're playing a Gene Kelley. So, I'm kind of checking off these song and dance men that admire and have been virtue of me watching their films, educational for me. I've never ever dreamed that Bob Hope would kind of come into that world. I've always loved Bob Hope and it wasn't until I got the role that I was like "Oh, I should really kind of dive into this guy a little bit." And, I mean, talk about a careers. The man, he never stopped, and he was successful at whatever he did. So, I love getting to play him and that fact that he was Cagney's side at pretty important parts of his life to support him and tell him, "Hey, stop feeling sorry for yourself and come do a movie with me." Bob is probably the most developed character that I play. A lot of the other characters are fictional, maybe based on people of the era, and Bob is just really cool.

You're not just a dancer or a singer, but a choreographer, director and even author. Do you have a favorite production that you've worked on choreography or director wise?

Last year, there's this theatre that I work at out in Utah, called Tuacahn, and I worked there for a couple of years. I really love it out there. It's a 2,000 seat amphitheater, outdoors in the middle of Snow Canyon, and it's just absolutely stunning. They've welcomed me there in a really wonderful way. And last year, I co-directed and choreographed a new Disney piece called WHEN YOU WISH. The artistic director, Scott Anderson, and I, we put this together with the help of Disney and it was just amazing. It was one of the high points of my careers thus far, and I was very proud of what we were able to accomplish in a fairly short amount of time with some very talented people. I just love it, it was really great.

Now, there's a lot of fantastic dance numbers in Cagney. What's your favorite number that you get to do every night?

I think it's probably the Bob Hope and Jimmy Cagney Dance off in the second act. It's the hardest thing that I do in the show, but it's absolutely the most rewarding. It's a huge amount of a cappella tap and it is really tricky, but it is so much fun. When I first got on it was tough, because you've been rehearsing on your own in a studio without the cast and so you're just kind of doing your own thing, and it's so different when you have the energy of the other actor with you and Bobby's there with me. Bobby's been doing this for so long and it takes a lot of concentration and focus for me to kind of get where he is because it's so in his body. And you're a cappella, you don't have any music, it's just the two of you, so any era in step is just going to sound not great. So, I have to be kind to myself because it took me a minute to get to where he is, and now that it's clicking it's so much fun. It's an extension of the scene, which is really great. It's a scene where Bob is trying to encourage and support, and give a little bit of tough love to Jimmy when he's down. He's feeling sorry for himself, and bob is there to go "Come on, come on. Let's go." And so this challenge tap comes on out of that. I think it's really beautifully choreographed and I'm proud to do it every night. I'm always coming off stage and going to Bobby, "OK, how was that? How was that?"

Not even five and half feet tall, James Cagney's oversized talent catapulted him from scrappy Irish kid on the streets of New York to Hollywood legend on "the top of the world." A Vaudeville hoofer turned actor, Cagney made a splash on Broadway before Hollywood called and made him one of the Silver Screen's most iconic tough guys in legendary films including The Public Enemy, The G Men and White Heat. But it was his turn as song and dance man George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy that earned him the Academy Award and forever cemented his place as one of America's most beloved movie legends alongside the likes of Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Marlon Brando, Jimmy Stewart and Fred Astaire.

Directed by Bill Castellino (Grumpy Old Men, Jolson), and choreography by Tony Award nominee Joshua Bergasse (On the Town, Gigi), Cagney features a book by Peter Cooley (I'll Be Back Before Midnight) and score that blends original music by Robert Creighton and Christopher McGovern (Lizzie Borden) with classic George M. Cohan favorites, including "Give My Regards To Broadway," "Grand Old Flag," and Yankee Doodle Dandy."

Cagney, the Original New York Cast Recording, is now available from Broadway Records online and in stores. The album is produced by Michael Croiter and Matt Perri. The show plays at The Westside Theater, Upstairs (407 West 43rdStreet, between 9th & 10th Aves). Performances are Tuesday at 7PM, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 8PM, with matinees Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at 2PM, and Sunday at 3PM. Tickets are $89.00 (including a $1.50 facility fee). Premium seats are available for $109. Call Telecharge.com at 212-239-6200.For more information, please visit www.CagneyTheMusical.com.