From Broadway to the Bowl to ‘Idol’?: A conversation Harry Connick, Jr.

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Few entertainers pack a performance the way Harry Connick, Jr. packs a performance. On opening night of his run at Broadway’s Neil Simon Theatre a few weeks ago, the singer/songwriter/orchestrator/ actor kept topping himself, moving from Frank Sinatra-style crooning to New Orleans-style piano-playing. When the show ended, I heard a woman in the row ahead of me tell her friend: “I feel like I didn’t pay enough for this ticket.”

I repeated the remark the next day to Connick, who seemed pleased to hear it. The New Orleans-born 42-year has a down-home manner on stage—which included bringing his youngest daughter on stage to tell a joke—and he is just as friendly and ingratiating one to one.
As he plans for his Hollywood Bowl evenings Friday and Saturday nights, he’s still being bandied about as a possible ‘American Idol’ judge following his high-profile run as a celebrity mentor earlier this year. Connick told me that when asked if he’d be interested in being a judge, “I said yes.”

As for rumors he could play a key role in a Broadway version of the new musical, “Robin and the 7 Hoods,” Connick says he hasn’t heard anything about it, but he’s flattered they’d think of him.

Click here to read my interview with Connick.

-- Barbara Isenberg