Jason Danieley

As Jason Danieley sings John Kander's heartfelt ballad "I Miss the Music" in Curtains, savvy audiences can reflect on how much they've missed Danieley himself, back on Broadway for the first time since The Full Monty. In recent years, Danieley has built a thriving career as a concert artist, both solo and in partnership with his Broadway-star wife, Spamalot's Marin Mazzie, and has graced the stage in Encores! productions such as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Strike Up the Band. But he's so magnetic and in such wonderful voice as composer Aaron Fox in Curtains, it seems criminal that Broadway theatergoers have had to wait so long to see him again. Though his soaring tenor recalls an earlier era, Danieley has championed the work of a new generation of songwriters and is upbeat about the state of theater music and about life in general—not surprising, when his latest one-man show is titled Love: A Work in Progress. The personable actor recently chatted with Broadway.com about Curtains and the secret of combining marriage and two busy theatrical careers.

Let's start with the old-fashioned appeal of Curtains. Is the show truthful in the way it portrays backstage life?
There are elements that are dead on, whether it's accenting the ego of a director or the control-freakiness of a composer. Some elements are more so in real life and some less so, but basically it's pretty good representation of what it can be like backstage. It's a love letter to the theater.

It must be a fun show to do.
Oh, it is. I really look forward to going to work. People are always saying, "Are you having as much fun as it looks?" And we're like "Yeah! Sorry! Hope that doesn't disappoint anybody." We're about six months into the run, and I still feel like we're all exploring and finding new things. When you get in a show with a bunch of pros working at the top of their game, it just doesn't get old.

John Kander wrote the lovely ballad "I Miss the Music" especially for you, right?
Yes, and what a great honor it is to sing it every night. I've known John socially; my wife [Marin Mazzie] worked on And the World Goes Round and has known him for quite a few years. He said that once he heard I was on board, he had to write a song for me. I was so moved, and I was particularly moved once I heard the song because it is so personal to John about his writing partner, Fred [Ebb]. But ironically, when I said that to John after the first listen, when David Loud, our music director, and I were both near tears, he seemed genuinely taken aback. He said, "I was writing that about you and Marin!" He was imagining how it would feel if two people who are partners went through some sort of breakup. So it's sort of a double meaning.

It's interesting that he says he didn't write it about Fred.
He didn't initially. Of course, for anyone who writes, what you're writing about is sometimes not apparent, even to you. After I brought it to his attention, it became clear to him that of course it was about that as well—and then the re-writes included the bridge that talks specifically about what it means to write when your partner is gone. He added that.

You're playing the most normal character in the whole musical. Is that more challenging than someone a little more flamboyant?
It can be. Playing the straight man is harder in that you want to cut loose and be as silly and over the top and theatrical as the quote-unquote "comedians" are, but someone's gotta set them up so they can knock them out. I enjoy being the foil to people who are so brilliant at being funny.

So you weren't thinking, "I should be playing David Hyde Pierce's role"?
No, no. Actually, this is a good role for me. The last role I did on Broadway was Malcolm in The Full Monty, who was more of a sad sack and a young man. Of course, I was a younger man when I did it [laughs]. To play someone a little more mature, with more complicated issues, was very welcome. I would love to be the star of a show, but in this particular piece, I'm happy being an ensemble player. Even though David and Deb [Monk] are above the title, the feeling comes from the top, from them, that we're all in this together.

Your voice and demeanor are tailor-made for the great shows of, say, Rodgers & Hammerstein. Do you ever feel that you came into the theater in the wrong decade?
I don't think so. There was a time when musical theater stars were more widely recognized in American entertainment, like in the golden age of musicals, but I'm very happy to be a part of what's going on now. I would love to do a classic like Brigadoon, re-envisioning it for a 21st-century audience, but I am excited by what the quote-unquote "up and coming" guys are writing. The roles I've taken on in shows like Floyd Collins or Dream True or The Highest Yellow, with composers like Adam Guettel and Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael John LaChiusa, have been a real artistic challenge, and a new way of looking at musical theater. Maybe in the past there'd be more money in it, or more appearances on Ed Sullivan or Johnny Carson, but I'm very, very happy with where I am at this point.

Some of the newer composers have been criticized for writing music that isn't very accessible.
It isn't popular music that they're writing, and by that I don't mean bubble-gum pop. If musical theater were radio-play music today, as it was in the past, they'd be on the classical stations. They don't write tunes for melodies' sake; they write for the character and for the situation, and a lot of the subject matter they've chosen is complicated and dark or edgy, so the melodies may be a little more disguised with the dissonance of their chord progressions. But when a character's falling in love or there's a pure moment that really calls for a melody, they have it in spades to offer. And that's when the audience goes, "Ah, there's the melody!" So it's the tension of giving it to them and not giving it to them, which is not so easy for the general population. You have to be a little more patient; they're not going to just hand it to you.

Could one of their shows ever be as commercial as a Kander & Ebb musical?
Probably not, but I think A Light in the Piazza was quite a crossover for Adam [Guettel]. It was a romantic story, and he allowed himself to have more lush melodies and something that was a little more approachable to the general population. But in general, it's like thinking that Stravinsky or any sort of classical composer would be widely accepted. It's not for everybody.

Speaking of Adam Guettel, what do you remember most about Floyd Collins? I recall that show very fondly.
So many people do—even this last week, people have come to the stage door with programs from Playwrights Horizons, talking about Floyd Collins. That was one of the best experiences I've had in the theater, from its world premiere in Philadelphia to Playwrights Horizons. I'm from St. Louis, not too far from where the story took place in Kentucky, and the family dynamic and the familial love of the brothers and the sister and the father really touched me. And we had a fantastic cast [including Christopher Innvar in the title role of the doomed miner, Brian d'Arcy James, Martin Moran and Cass Morgan].

How did you get the part of Floyd's brother, Homer?
I was doing a show at the Vineyard Theatre called Hit the Lights!, sort of a rap musical, and Ted Sperling, the musical director of Floyd Collins came to see it and called me in for an audition. I met Adam and [director] Tina Landau, and it was one of those moments where you're doing the scene and the song and you just feel like "I'm nailing it and they're enjoying it and I'm enjoying them." That little rap musical at the Vineyard was the first thing I did in town aside from a TheatreWorks USA gig where I played the Velveteen Rabbit for a couple of days at Town Hall [laughs].

So you were one of those kids who come from the Midwest hoping to make it in the theater.
Yeah, I moved here when I was 20. Obviously, if you want to do musicals, this is the place you need to be. I packed up my Ford Festiva with a good friend I was doing dinner theater with in Champaign-Urbana and we just said, "Let's go to New York and try our luck!"

What are your memories of playing the title role in Candide for Hal Prince?
So many things. It was my Broadway debut, so I was extremely excited about that, and about playing the title character. I didn't know much about the show, but I'd heard it might be happening so I read the novella and listened to the score. The book has always been the problem part of that marriage, but I was taken immediately by the beautiful score that [Leonard] Bernstein wrote, and the chance to do it with a large cast in a large theater with a large orchestra. That doesn't happen much anymore.

Backing up further, how did being the son of a Southern Baptist minister shape your life?
I think that's where my love for storytelling came from. I was taught at a very young age that words are very important. I started singing at the age of four at my dad's church, and it was always about clarity. In the theater, it's very important that the words are understood, so diction has been handed down through the family in that way. And my family was filled with musicians.

Were you ever a rebel?
Well, I think PKs [preachers' kids] always have a rebellious streak that normal people don't have. I didn't necessarily shave a Mohawk or anything like that, but I drifted for a while in college, as people do. But I have great parents, so I didn't veer too far from the path, so to speak.

Were your parents supportive of your move to New York?
From the get-go, yeah. They didn't know whether I was going to be able to make a living at it, but they knew I was hellbent on doing it. They never said, "Why don't you get an engineering degree?" probably because I couldn't [laughs]. "No, you better just sing!"

You and Marin are the ultimate example of a "show-mance." Is it true you fell in love at first sight on the set of The Trojan Women?
It only took about a week before we knew we were totally in love and wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. It's sick, isn't it? [Laughs.]

I read that there was a hot tub on the set. What were you two doing in there?
We were just running lines! [Laughs.] That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

I've also heard an urban legend that Marin displayed a nude photo of you from The Full Monty in her Kiss Me, Kate dressing room.
It's not an urban legend [laughs]. We did a photo shoot for Vogue and, as in all of the photo shoots for Full Monty, they said, "You're not going to be naked" and by the end of the shoot, we were naked in some fashion or another. I had turned my back to the camera and was looking over my shoulder—not the prettiest pose for anybody when they're naked—and a dresser cut the picture out and made Christmas ornaments for Marin, one with a Santa Claus hat on my head and another with angels' wings on my back. Come Christmas time, I always try to hide that box.

You two are celebrating your 10th anniversary this year, right?
It's coming up on October 19. It's flown by. We look at each other and go, "I really can't believe it." It's great.

Was the fact that she is 10 years older than you ever an issue?
No. My old girlfriends were very different, but the one thing they all had in common is that they were a little bit older than me. I've always been called an "old soul," so I've always had a connection with people who are a little bit older.

I was amused at a recent article in which the interviewer said you look older than Marin.
Oh, I know! That was hysterical. She loved it! I don't know about me. I'm thinking, "Oh, the crow's feet are starting to come out."

Did the two of ever come to a point where you felt you had to decide whether to have a family?
We've thought about it. It's such a crazy life, and I don't think it's in the cards— well, not to say it isn't in the cards, but right now things are so crazy that we're not planning on anything.

You're on the same page about it.
Definitely. You know the couples who always order the same thing at dinner? We're kind of like that in life: For some reason, we're always on the same page. We might have a day or two where we try to convince the other to think our way, but ultimately, on all issues, we're on the same page. We're lucky. Maybe it's because we come from parents who have long relationships. Her parents are in their 54th year of marriage, and my parents are in their 38th, so we have good role models.

Some acting couples avoid being identified as a team, but you and Marin have gone in the other direction. How did you decide to perform together?
You know, we never really talked about it; it just started happening. Marin would get a symphony orchestra gig and they'd ask about me, or vice versa, and say, "Why don't you both come and do some duets?" We'd get a weekend out of it in Boston or Philly or San Francisco, and then people started asking us, "When are you going to do an album?" It just evolved, and we're looking to keep it going. People identify with a married couple on stage for some reason. I really can't say why, but it seems to be working and we're not gonna fix it. It ain't broke.

You enjoy performing together, and that obviously shows.
Our voices work really well together; we blend well and we phrase similarly and our approach to lyrics is similar because of our classical training. With all due respect to the women I've sung with before, I've never found a person I've clicked with as well musically—aside from the fact that we're married and we have chemistry. It's liberating to sing songs you might not necessarily get to sing in a musical, and you get to be yourself. That can be scary for some people, but being ourselves with each other onstage works for us.

You're on Broadway in Curtains; Marin's on Broadway in Spamalot: What's your daily life like?
Right before this, I was organizing and cataloging orchestral charts that we have in our library and working on our symphony gigs, which we book a year in advance. The concert career takes a lot of time, and I'm working on a recording of my own with my band, which takes a lot of time, too. One of us is usually at the gym while the other one's working in the office. But around 5 PM, we stop everything and try to have at least an hour together before we go to work.

So it would be a myth to say you have too much togetherness.
Definitely a myth. Our theaters are only a block away from each other but we hardly ever see each other. On two-shows days, she has her regime, I have my thing, and we see each other in the morning and then after the theater when we're ready to collapse.

What's the key to blending two theatrical careers?
We try not to work out of town unless there's a good reason, whether it's a role we're dying to do or a show that's possibly coming into New York for a longer run. We try not to be separated for a long period of time. And we make all of our decisions based on ourselves. We're not "show whores"—that sounds horrible, but we're not dying to be in this business, we're dying to be with each other. We have a great passion for singing and acting, but it doesn't consume our lives. Everything is based on being together and making that work.

Is the Lucy Simon musical Zhivago still on the drawing board?
I believe they're looking at London for an out-of-town tryout. As far as my involvement, I haven't seen any rewrites or heard of anything moving forward, but I know that [director] Des McAnuff's schedule is quite tight with him taking over the Stratford Festival, along with staging millions of companies of Jersey Boys. So I'm not sure when that's coming up or if it's in the cards for me to participate. I'm hoping that the next show I do will be a starring role. We'll see!

See Jason Danieley in Curtains at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.