Robert Creighton portrays James Cagney in Pioneer Theatre Company’s “Cagney,” which opens Friday evening. Photo: PTC
James Cagney wasn’t a foul man—he simply performed one within the motion pictures.
And if Cagney: The Musical About Hollywood’s Tough Guy in Tap Shoes feels like a whimsical reimagining, do not forget that Cagney sang and danced his method to an Academy Award for his portrayal of George M. Cohan in “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”
“He always wanted to be a song-and-dance man,” mentioned Robert Creighton, the singing, dancing co-creator and star of Cagney. The musical, which had a nicely-acquired 500-performance run off-Broadway in 2016-17, will open Pioneer Theatre Company’s season Friday evening in an expanded manufacturing with Broadway aspirations.
“Going to Broadway is easier said than done,” mentioned director/dramaturg Bill Castellino, a central member of the Cagney workforce for ten years, who will direct PTC’s manufacturing. But he likes the present’s possibilities to crack the Gotham massive time like its star.
“This is a very interesting man, a very interesting biography,” Castellino mentioned of Cagney’s journey from humble beginnings to worldwide renown. “It’s an American story that takes place over a lot of the last century.” Besides that, he mentioned, there was a lot extra to Cagney than the gangster persona with which the world recognized him.
“He proved himself to be a real artist,” Creighton mentioned. “Coupled with that was his sense of justice in every area of his life.”
Through a string of unique songs by Creighton and Christopher McGovern, punctuated by a pair of present-stopping Cohan manufacturing numbers, the viewers will study of Cagney’s little-recognized charitable work, in addition to his private and profession milestones. For instance, he financed the authorized protection of the Scottsboro Boys, 9 males falsely accused of rape in 1931, and battled incessantly towards the studio system
The musical’s spark was lit about 25 years in the past by an appearing trainer on the American Academy of Dramatic Arts who commented on Creighton’s bodily resemblance to the movie star. Creighton delved into Cagney’s filmography on his trainer’s recommendation, then learn each bit of biographical info he may. “I felt a connection there, right off the bat,” he mentioned.
But though he’s uncannily nicely-suited to play this function, Creighton doesn’t need Salt Lake City audiences to anticipate a well-known Cagney impersonation. “I have taken Cagney’s view of playing Cohan and used it to play Cagney,” he mentioned. That is, in case you merely impersonate somebody, “you can only do what they did.” Instead, Creighton says that he understands Cagney’s essence and performs him for actual. “He had a distinct speech pattern and a certain style of dance, and that is all implied—I do his dance steps—but it’s acting; it’s not impersonation at all.”(Cagney’s choreographer is Joshua Bergasse, who gained an Emmy Award for his work on Smash.)
Robert Creighton and Matt Crowl as Bob Hope in “Cagney.”
Photo: PTC
Just out of appearing faculty, Creighton was solid in a brief-lived biographical play about Cagney—the place, he believed, he was anticipated to impersonate the star. That sick-conceived mission “sort of fizzled out,” he mentioned, however “the fire was fully lit in me to do a show about James Cagney.”
The gasoline he wanted got here in 2003, when playwright good friend Peter Colley signed on. “I really needed someone like him to create the show in a theatrical way, not just from a fan’s point of view,” Creighton mentioned.
The two of them crafted a 4-particular person play with interval music, plus some songs written by Creighton, who has a level in vocal efficiency from Wilfrid Laurier University in his native Ontario, Canada. Castellino and McGovern joined the workforce after a studying in New York and helped Creighton and Colley rethink the present.
The presentation of the Screen Actors’ Guild’s lifetime achievement award in 1978 grew to become the story’s framing machine, and Cagney’s risky relationship with studio boss Jack Warner grew to become the central battle. (There’s a bit of poetic license within the play involving a backstage confrontation between the 2 males.)
The reworked Cagney, now with some new songs by McDonald and a solid of six, premiered in 2009 at Florida Stage in Palm Beach County and was named finest new work on the state’s Carbonell Awards. Five productions later, it was again in New York City, the place veteran critic Rex Reed of the New York Observer referred to as it “nothing but joy.” Creighton gained the 2016 Astaire Award as Outstanding Male Dancer Off Broadway. A restricted L.A. engagement ensued.
What’s totally different? The lyrics have been polished, and the scale of the ensemble has doubled. Originally, everybody however Creighton performed a number of roles. (For instance, within the New York solid, Danette Holden performed Cagney’s mom, Warner’s secretary, a bellhop, the mom of Cagney’s character in “White Heat,” display legend Bette Davis and extra.) With extra actors, “we have the opportunity to populate the stage with more characters,” Castellino mentioned. “The numbers are bigger and more realized.”
Equally essential, the director mentioned, “technology has evolved so fast and so wonderfully that we can do things that were not possible” when the play was first written. Video projections assist inform Cagney’s story, and the primary manufacturing used 9 carousel projectors mounted above the stage—operated by techs on ladders. Now all of that may be completed “with a couple of keystrokes and the right software,” Castellino mentioned. “It’s an amazing tool that didn’t exist only ten years ago.”
Creighton had some combined emotions in regards to the subsequent step.
“It’s funny,” he mentioned. “Sometimes a show is small because it’s meant to be small. I loved [Cagney] off-Broadway. It was really good for what it was; the audience left uplifted.” He requested himself: “Do I want to change it?”
He’s assured of the reply now. “I’m 100 percent sure we’ve arrived at the show this show was meant to be.”
Pioneer Theatre Company’s manufacturing of Cagney opens September 20 and runs via October 5 on the Roy W. and Elizabeth E. Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre; 801-581-6961 or pioneertheatre.org/tickets/.
