Actor Wopat enjoys role as slick lawyer in the musical

Font Size:

By David Burke | Monday, March 26, 2007 10:31 AM CDT | () comments

Tom Wopat is part of the “Chicago” cast that will perform at the Adler Theatre next month. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

For Tom Wopat, getting into the role of Billy Flynn in the touring company of “Chicago” is as easy as slipping on his tux.

“Billy shows up late, leaves early and only has one outfit,” the 55-year-old actor said from his home in Manhattan. “You gotta like that.

“I take a shower, put on a tux.”

Wopat has played the role of the razzle-dazzle lawyer in the musical since taking it on in the 2004 revival and keeps his chops up with stops on the road, including a two-night stand next month at the RiverCenter/Adler Theatre, Davenport.

“I figure a couple of times a year I get into the road company,” he said. “If I’m lucky, I can get into the Broadway show once a year.”

The revival of the Bob Fosse musical — based on a Windy City scandal in the 1920s — began on Broadway in 1996, earned six Tony Awards (including best musical revival) and continues more than 4,300 performances later.

“Chicago” gained greater acclaim with the 2002 movie, which won six Oscars (including best picture). It featured Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones in her Oscar-winning role, and Richard Gere as Flynn.

“The movie definitely gave the franchise a little more legs, but it was doing quite well before the movie,” Wopat said.

He said he hasn’t seen the movie version in its entirety.

“I’ve seen pieces of it, but I haven’t gone out of my way to see it,” he said. “I don’t know that it would inform me a whole heck of a lot.”

Wopat is in the middle of a three-week stint with “Chicago” when he stops at the Adler. While his castmates are in a bus traveling from stop to stop, Wopat takes a car.

“I like my freedom to be able to move around the way I like,” he said. “I exercise a little autonomy.”

A Wisconsin native, Wopat first gained national attention in 1979 with a role in TV’s “The Dukes of Hazzard.” The reputation for playing a good ol’ Southern boy followed him around for several years, and it slowly faded with roles in Broadway shows “City of Angels” and “Guys and Dolls.” He originated the role of Frank Butler in the Broadway revival of “Annie Get Your Gun” with Bernadette Peters in 1999, and landed a Tony nomination.

Most recently, he was in a revival of the David Mamet drama “Glengarry Glen Ross” as a timid, wife-fearing potential real estate buyer.

“It gave me a certain amount of instant credibility as an actor,” he said. “I’ve definitely had a different type of role presented to me since. Not necessarily that I’ve landed them, but I’ve read a lot more interesting stuff.”

Wopat is in line for a role in a planned stage version of the Leonardo DiCaprio-Tom Hanks movie “Catch Me If You Can.” In the musical, he would play the Christopher Walken role of DiCaprio’s character’s father, and would get a couple of Sinatra songs.

On television, Wopat recently completed a movie for the Sci-Fi channel. “The Hive” is a throwback to the 1960s and ‘70s horror movie, and was shot in southeast Asia.

“There’s definitely a certain market for that, especially on television,” Wopat said.

(Filming that movie took him away from a scheduled performance at the Redstone Room at the River Music Experience, Davenport, last year, in a benefit for WQPT-TV. WQPT’s development director, Lora Adams, is a longtime friend of Wopat’s.)

Wopat released an album of standards, “The Still of the Night,” during his “Annie Get Your Gun” days, which he said gave him “a whole new reinvention, and it’s worked quite well.” He followed that with an album of songs by Broadway composer Harold Arlen, “Dissertation on the State of Bliss.”

He’s at work on a jazz album that would be one-third new songs and two-thirds standards.

“It’s hard to sell records these days ... because of the Internet. As long as I can keep doing it and keep doing it live, I’ll keep after it,” he said.

Wopat said he’d like to dig into more of the Great American Songbook.

“It’s classic music for a reason. They’re the best songs of the 20th century, and they’ll continue to be so,” he said. “There’s a lot of pleasure in doing that kind of music.”

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.

IF YOU GO

What: “Chicago”

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, April 10-11

Where: RiverCenter/Adler Theatre, Davenport

How much: $56.50, $41.50 and $31.50

Information: (563) 326-8555