SP: Interview with Nick Corley

NR: Where did you go from those readings?

NC: Some things came into place from those readings. Then came the task of raising a substantial amount of money. Instead of turning to the normal producing entities, I believe the next thing that happened was we did a presentation at a different theater space, (around a 99-seat theater space) at the Directors' Company. It was one of the first things in their new theater space. That was for corporate people. Hallmark was there and Bill Haber was there. Bill Haber might have been on as producer at that point. We did a presentation to raise money from sources that were not your normal theater sources - not the Shuberts, not the Nederlanders, not the normal producing theater entities. The version of that show had to be an hour and fifteen long.

NR: How long had your previous readings been?

NC: We did the whole show before. We added a narrator. There was a narrator in the reading before who would narrate stage directions, but now the narrator became more of a tool to get us from one thing to the next, sort of a storyteller. That character would fill in some of the blanks. We would sing part of one song, he would say a little something, and then boom, we'd be at the next thing. Nan did a remarkable job condensing the show down to an hour fifteen format. I still have it. It's wonderful. It reads like a great swashbuckling adventure story you'd tell your kids at night because it was so action-packed and fun, but so condensed. They were the shortest versions of the songs that they could possibly be, because people want to know the story and they want to hear the songs. She found ways of just doing a little bit of the dialogue before the song, and then we'd do the song. So, we had that version of it. I'm not sure if we did one or two of those. I think we did two. I can't remember.

At this point, there was still no director on board. I never expected anyone to ask me to direct the show. For me it was a great adventure. It was a great opportunity for people to see my work and for me to work with established people, or people who were about to be very established. It was a great introduction for people to start thinking of me in a different way other than just as an actor, but as an actor who also directs. But, never from the beginning did I even think or dream that anyone would offer the job to me.

NR: So, when Peter Hunt got the job, that didn't surprise you or hurt your feelings, did it?

NC: No, not at all. These shows are extremely expensive and they don't say, "Hi, you've never really directed anything big, but we're going to put you in charge of a ten million dollar production."

NR: Well, they already had a book writer/lyricist who had never done this before, and they ended up with a leading man who had never done this before. I guess they figured that was enough gambling.

NC: Yeah. It's very different with a director because that's the person who's in charge of everything. There's a lot of technical stuff to know. There's a lot of things I've learned in the time since then so I never expected anyone to ask me to do that. I was just enjoying it for the time being.

The last thing that happened was something that was called the Group Sales presentation and that happened in the Broadhurst Theater where Once Upon a Mattress was playing. We were on their set. They kind of cleared off the stage and we put up the chairs and the music stands and Nan had to cut it down even more because the whole thing had to be an hour long - definitely. Then they invited all the people who book group sales tickets. I think we did two or three that day.

NR: Was it the same cast still at this point?

NC: Same cast. The theater was filled with these group sales people and friends, and industry people. Everyone wants to see the new show. It went great. The audience leapt to their feet. They cheered. Carolee stopped the show several times. Greg was wonderfully funny and Francis was terrific. The whole cast - everyone was there. Jekyll at this point was in town. A lot of people from Jekyll helped out and played lots of parts. It went terrific. Peter Hunt was the director at that point.

NR: Was there anyone in that who was in the original cast?

NC: The only person who's been there the whole time is Elizabeth (Ward). It's funny because I was in a revue with Elizabeth. We knew each other as friends and we did this show together, so when this reading came up, I called Elizabeth to play Marie. I said, "This role is so you. Will you come and do this reading?" She said, "Sure, I'd love to. Frank Wildhorn? Absolutely." So, Liz came and did the reading. Nan loved her and I think Liz is the only person who has been in every version of the show. She's coming back to do SP3, and her husband, Ken Land, will be playing Dewhurst in the new version. I'm so happy that Carolee is doing it again. I don't know if it's official yet or that deal has been struck, but Carolee was wonderful in the part. She stopped the show at every reading. She's an amazing Marguerite. She's a wonderful actress. She brings so much passion and heart and depth and caring to the part. Actually, it was between her and Christine Andreas. The two of them were down to the wire. You know, people make decisions for different things. I don't know why one was chosen over the other, but I know it was a really, really hard decision for all of them to make between the two of them.

NR: So, it looks like it worked out for her after all.

NC: Yeah. She ended up doing Parade and she was nominated for a Tony for that. She's doing Bells Are Ringing in L.A. right now, and then she comes in hopefully to do The Pimpernel. Audiences will love her. With just music stands she would stop the show.

Continued in part 2...

Questions suggested by:

Renee Girard, Lois Colpo, Jody Uyanik, Thom Rosati, Jennifer Ahlborn, Leona Hoegsberg, Kathy Thurlow, Peter Williams, Susan Cassidy, Nesha Sellers, Shari Perkins, Josie Smith, Amy Lovett, Marc Roselli