Loose
Lips
Harry Hamlin gets ready to razzle-dazzle Broadway in Chicago; Joanna
Gleason gets a chorus of approval; and Lynda Carter discovers the
wonder of being a cabaret singer.
By: Brian Scott Lipton
HAMLIN IT UP
Harry Hamlin
(© Joseph Marzullo/Retna)
No matter how big a star you are, getting cast can still be a matter
of who you know. Just ask Harry Hamlin about his return to Broadway
next week as Billy Flynn in Chicago. "Right after they hired
my wife, Lisa Rinna to play Roxie, they asked me to play Billy. But
the funny thing is they never asked if I could sing; they just took
it on faith," says Hamlin, who last appeared on the Great White
Way in the Roundabout's 1994 revival of Summer and Smoke. "I
haven't done a musical in 35 years, since I played Jud in a summer
stock production of Oklahoma!, and I don't have any formal training
as a singer. But I have been going to a vocal coach for a few months,
and I've been learning about my range. Hopefully, no one will ask
for their money back."
While the role of Billy only requires a minimum of dancing, Hamlin's
no stranger to fancy footwork. He competed on the ABC reality series
Dancing With the Stars, once more following in the footsteps of Rinna.
"I was one of the few people who went on the show knowing how
hard it was, simply by watching Lisa every day," he says. "One
of the reasons I did it is that it intrigued me to do something I
might find intimidating. I think you learn something when you push
the boundaries of your comfort zone. Having done it, it doesn't surprise
me that the people who win are often Olympic athletes like Apollo
Ohno; it's an extremely grueling experience."
Billy
Flynn may not be the nicest man in the world, but he's a saint compared
to Senator Randall Bailey, the murdering, conniving character Hamlin
played in this season's finale of Law & Order. "After I finished
L.A. Law, I got lots of offers to play murderers, sex offenders, and
slicers-and-dicers, and I did a bunch of them," he says. "But
this was the first role like this in a long time. I happened to be
in New York to do a photo shoot for Chicago and they called and asked
if I wanted to do it. The set was a little tense, since no one was
sure if they had a job next season. [The series has since been renewed.]
But it's always fun to play the bad guy."
http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/10932
