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

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

Photo of Harry Connick by Palma Kolansky

 

Comments

[Gregory Hinton]

Friday the 13th at the Hollywood Bowl with Harry Connick, Jr. was anything but unlucky for the 14,000 fans who showed up last night to see him. As he made the transition from sophisticated crooner to pounding the ivory on an upright piano, Connick transformed the Bowl into a venue intimate as the Cafe Carlyle or a Bourbon Street Jazz Club. Riffing with New Orleans trombone player Lucien Barbarin was an absolute highlight. Connick's self-deprecating humor is remarkably funny. A great evening.