Tom Wopat
Tom Wopat will forever be secure in pop culture as Luke Duke in the '80s TV series "Dukes of Hazzard."
But that show was almost an anomaly. Luke Duke was a good ol' Southern moonshiner-turned-Robin Hood. Wopat was born in rural Wisconsin (about the closest connection to Hazzard County), but got involved in musical theater when he was 12 and spent many of his pre-Dukes years on the musical stage where he first gained attention.
Tom Wopat
And he's spent most of the post-Dukes era on stage as well, still gaining attention. Yes, he's done other TV ("Cybill") and movies, but mainly he's racked up starring roles in musicals, including an appearance four years ago in Memphis at the Orpheum in "Chicago" as lawyer Billy Flynn.
This weekend he's at the Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center crooning favorites from his albums. His "Love Swings" tour is "primarily American songbook but we've got some pop tunes that we've given a jazz treatment," he said in an interview, "and there's also a few absolutely new songs, several original songs."
But it's not always songs, or musical theater, or evading Boss Hogg.
Wopat recently was in an all-star Broadway production of David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross." "It had Alan Alda, Liev Schreiber, Gordon Clapp -- a real interesting group and a real departure from the things I've done on Broadway," Wopat said. "I've always been a musical leading man, so this was a whole different ball game and it opened up a lot of opportunities for me."
He has upcoming projects as well.
One is "Sondheim on Sondheim," a new revue with James Lapine. "There will be a bank of TVs on the wall with Stephen talking about a particular composition. We'll have an orchestra and will perform a lot of these. There are cases where he revised a song three or four times, so you may hear short versions of the rejected versions."
Also coming up early next year is a musical of the Steven Spielberg film "Catch Me If You Can," with Wopat playing the father of young con artist Frank Abagnale Jr.
But for this weekend, Wopat is not about hurling through the air in the General Lee, glitzing his way through a musical or snapping through some dialog. It's about a cool jazz trio and Wopat on stage, making music.
--------------------
"Love Swings: Tom Wopat in Concert"
Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center, 3663 Appling Road. Wopat will hold a meet-and-greet in the lobby before and after the show. Tickets: $20. Call 385-6440 or go to bpacc.org.
--------------------
- |
Comments » Disabled