B&B’s John McCook
I Need To Do Musical Theater
John McCook is whipping himself into shape. For a marathon? Nope.
“For starring in a musical play,” explains John (ERIC FORRESTER). “Really. I’m into running and sit-ups. I’m a pianist and often sing at the piano. I’m used to sitting and singing. All of a sudden, I have to sing standing and I realize how different it feels. Acting and singing onstage is very physically demanding.”
And he loves it. John literally sings the praises of theater. “That’s where I can best maintain the joy of being an actor. Periodically, I need to do musical theater. My heart becomes light. Stage is the only thing worth the effort, the imposition on my life. My priorities are my family, home and work. Laurette, my wife, loves to see me in the theater because she knows how happy it makes me. My kids also notice how I am when I’m performing onstage. They all love the effect it has on me!”
Musical theater is John’s first love. “Musical theater, nightclubs, dinner theater… Music and acting made a man of me, made me an adult. It took me out of my parents’ home, formed my life.”
John has a special emotional attachment to the musical Peter Pan.
“Peter Pan was the first musical I ever saw when I was 11,” he recalls. “My mom brought me down from Ventura to see that play with Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard at the old Philharmonic in Los Angeles. I saw the play, with its music, power, fantasy, and I said, ‘That’s what I want to do!’ ”
When John played the dual role of the father and Captain Hook in the summer stock production, his own children were mesmerized. “Jake was 6, Becky about 4, and Molly a baby at the time. In the dressing room after the first scene, my kids would watch me change from father to Hook. I’d put on outrageous and grotesque makeup, big black curly wig. They knew it was me, but they would slowly move backward a few inches through the course of the transition. By the time I was Hook, they were standing about 10 feet away from me!”
John had done a number of plays in Sacramento, including They’re Playing Our Song, 1776 and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
In Pirates of Penzance, John played the lead, the Pirate King. “I loved wrapping my teeth around those lyrics. It was quite a challenge, very funny and broad.”
That play was done in summer stock too, in the round and outdoors under a tent. In the opening scene, he sings, “I am the Pirate Kind,” as he’s carried on the shoulders of the other pirates.
“I was about to sing my boastful song but a large moth insisted on being in the spotlight right in my face. I had a sward, of course, and proceeded to fence with this moth. The guys carrying me all saw what I was doing, and the orchestra realized it too, so they continued to play the vamp, no lyrics. Finally, after about 10 minutes, the moth flew away up the aisle out of the tent. The audience cheered and we continued with the play. That was opening night!”
In the mid-1980s, John played Billy Bigelow in productions of Carousel in St. Louis, Pittsburgh and other cities. “The Rodgers and Hammerstein roles are so rich and wonderful and such a part of American musical theater. I’m so lucky to have played them,” he smiles.
“I also loved playing Curly in Oklahoma for many years when I was young enough to play him,” says John. “He’s so funny – unintentionally so – in his adolescence.”
Today his favorite role is Don Quixote. When John stars in Man of La Mancha for the Long Beach Civic Light Opera July 13 through July 30, it will be familiar to him. The first time he played Don Quixote was five years ago in Sacramento.
“We had one week of rehearsal, I played it for one week and then put the beard away,” he laughs. “The beauty is, it’s a role I can do all of my career. Jose Ferrer played the role in a national touring company for many years, until just a few years before he died.”
John has an affinity for the Spanish writer Cervantes and, of course, for the most famous character he created, Don Quixote. In the play, John plays Cervantes who plays Quixote – a character playing a character.
“Cervantes was an actor, writer and he was a soldier,” John says admiringly. “When he and his brother fought in Italy, he lost the use of his left arm. On a ship going to Spain they were taken prisoners by pirates and worked as slaves in North Africa for years. Then some friars paid his ransom.
“Later, Cervantes married and worked as a food purchaser for the King’s Navy. Through that he got into trouble with a monastery, which had him incarcerated. He didn’t become popular as a writer and actor until a few years before he died. Only then did he make any money from that work.
“Cervantes created Don Quixote to express his own frustration over the cruelties of life,” John explains. “Without honor, dreamy, ideals, there is nothing. Especially in the 14th, 15th century. It’s wonderful to play Don Quixote. He’s such a curious, ridiculous character, yet so rich and wonderful.”
John says he can easily relate to Quixote because they share some beliefs and ideals.
“He absolutely worships women,” John says. “And I really agree that too much sanity is madness. There’s a line: ‘When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness.’ I agree. If you don’t have some elusive goals out there, just above and beyond where you’re reaching every day, then all you’re doing is muddling through each day and sleeping all night.”
If he could play and role in theater, he’d choose the title role in Sweeney Todd, John says without hesitation. “He’s such an outrageous character.”
Why would he want to play Todd, a barber who butchers clients and serves them in meat pies? “Well, there’s a terrific score,” John answers quickly with a wide grin.
- Lorraine Zenka
Soap Opera Magazine, not dated