From Titanic to Contact and the current revival of Dames at Sea (where he is filling double duties playing two characters!), John Bolton has become one of Broadway’s most cherished actors. He’s also become the Great White Way’s go-to “Christmas” guy, having not only played a big part in the musical adaptation of A Christmas Story, but also by teaming up with The New York Pops to bring concert versions of beloved TV specials to life. In 2014 he starred in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, in 2015 he’s bringing to the stage what might very well be the most beloved Christmas special of all time: A Charlie Brown Christmas.
We spoke to Mr. Bolton about his holiday traditions, the legacy of Charlie Brown, and his thrilling work in Dames at Sea.
What’s the significance of A Charlie Brown Christmas to you? Why do you think it’s remained such a classic?
Because it’s perfect! (Laughs) If I could take one desert island album for Christmas, it would be the Vince Guaraldi trio’s music for A Charlie Brown Christmas, it is Christmas to me, and I think anyone born from the 60s on. I can’t imagine Christmas without it, it is joyful and heartbreaking at the same time, it’s the most ingrained Christmas music I can think of, it’s like family, like a part of you, and a part of all those holidays you had when you were a kid. The music in the Rankin/Bass specials like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Frosty the Snowman, that’s all great, hummable music, but the Charlie Brown music you actually can enjoy no matter what age you are.
How do you avoid crying the second you listen to Vince Guaraldi’s music onstage?
It might be a challenge, but my job is to be the happy man up there, so inside I’ll be sentimental. To hear that beautiful score...and there’s a lot of it, more than the themes you can hum off the top of your head. The more that you hear it, the more you remember things, and it’s just beautiful. To hear that full score played by The New York Pops is going to be spectacular! It’s a family concert so there will be lots of kids in their holiday finest, sitting with their parents at Carnegie Hall, but I like to think this music will particularly be enjoyed so much by the adults who have loved this music for 50 years now.
I’ve always found it fascinating how the TV special fills children with such a sense of wonder, and makes adults feel kinda sad.
It’s because you wish all Christmases were as special, and it reminds you they can still be.
What are some of your other favorite Christmas traditions?
Certainly being with family and friends, filling the house with the smell of mulled wine is something I’ve become especially fond of as an adult. I love telling my relatives “don’t worry the alcohol all boils away” and after the third mugful everyone’s having a great time. I also enjoy the holiday music, as I get older it seems like Christmas arrives faster, so I do put a moratorium on Christmas music till we’re close to the date, I don’t want to be sick of Christmas by the time it gets here. I try not to go in stores with Christmas displays in November, I save it for December. I feel Christmas isn’t as special as it used to be because we try to stretch it out so long, for purely commercial reasons. Hearing the Charlie Brown music keeps it special. The original TV show didn’t have a big budget, it doesn’t have the fancy animation kids are used to now with computers and zooming and motion everywhere. Today if you have children doing voicework it’s very rehearsed, slick and polished, and if you go to these early specials you have a few kids they propped up in front of a microphone and were asked to read lines. Then they picked the best line readings, and because they’re not professional kids, it’s even more special because it’s real, in modern specials you can tell they’re “showbiz kids”.
You originated the role of “The Old Man” in A Christmas Story as well, are you trying to do stage versions of all the famous holiday films?
(Laughs) It does seem to be a thing, “oh, a Christmas event! Let’s call John Bolton!”, certainly it’s a great honor to be part of something that brings happiness to people’s lives, it’s also a responsibility to some extent, they’re there to celebrate the holiday and I try to channel memories of my great holidays and traditions when I do Christmas shows. Actually A Christmas Story was a tradition in a way, last year was the first time in five years that I didn’t do the show over Christmas. After having done it five years in a row, bringing that joyous adaptation of a great movie, to theaters, and to have that role was great, it was also nice last year to get to spend Christmas with my people. I loved doing the show too, so I’m not ruling out doing it again, because I love the show! Darren McGavin did it when he was 63, so I’ve got many more years to do it I hope.
Staying on the matter of patterns, you also seem to like ships, having done Titanic and Dames at Sea. I was so impressed with what you were doing in the latter, where do you find the stamina to play two parts?
By watching my co-stars, they knock it out of the park with those numbers, so I literally stand in the wing and just watch them, in awe of their feat and technique, the buoyancy and abandon with which they do it. Also, because I’m more of a character man I don’t get to dance a lot in shows, and I can dance, so the fact they let me do it in this one, I feel like wow, all these Broadway shows later I finally get to put on tap shoes! Randy [Skinner] knew I danced, and my character usually doesn’t dance, but Randy challenged me, I worked hard on it and I was more nervous about that than anything else. Every night before joining the cast onstage for that number I think “I get to tap dance on Broadway” with a huge smile on my face, I just love it.
Even though it’s not a holiday show, I feel all the show wants to do is fill people with joy, which is very Christmasy. It also reminded me of all those old cartoons where Bugs Bunny would multiply himself and pop up all over the place.
(Laughs) Lesli Margherita, who is spectacular, and I have both said that our main influences, aside from those great 30s movies, and listening to the vocal stylings of those movies, have been The Carol Burnett Show and Looney Tunes.
Oh wow, so I was onto something then!
Absolutely!
I am so sad to see it’s closing in January, because it’s such a delightful show. How long do you think shows need ideally to stay open to find their audiences?
Certainly a few months, to get that word of mouth, and that is what we will have had. We played packed houses in previews to absolutely rapturous audiences, and this wasn’t comps to our friends, it was full house with people who wanted to see Dames at Sea and it was like a rock concert! Since we opened it’s been a challenge, but I respect and appreciate our producers’ commitment to trying to find an audience, but you can say that for a month or so and when it doesn’t work, at least you tried. But I will say this, the people that are coming, are loving it! They sit there with smiles on their faces, and we’ve been collecting for Broadway Cares so every night we’re there as they exit the theater and people are beaming with joy and thank us. They seem appreciative, they’re not avoiding to make eye contact when they leave, and I’ve done shows like that, believe me. Of course we’re disappointed we’re not finding an audience, but we are so proud of the show.
You played the theatre critic in Curtains, was that therapeutic in any way?
I loved playing the critic, sure, it was therapeutic! I loved being the critic and the bad guy, it was a little bit of stick-it-to-them, but it was written like that and that’s what they wanted me to do. I’ve generally lucked out with critics, so I didn’t want to be too cruel, but also the writers didn’t want to make the critic so dastardly people would know he was the killer too. The show got me some attention with the critics, they loved mentioning me. They were asked to not reveal the ending, so doing the show I felt like I had a secret I kept for a year and a half.
Pick three Sondheim songs you love to sing and three Sondheim parts you love.
Gosh, I just sang “Sorry-Grateful” when I did Company at a Bucks County production directed by Hunter Foster, and I played Harry. I don’t know how that song hadn’t entered my life sooner, it’s just so beautiful. I’ve played the Baker in Into the Woods, and this might sound corny, but taking that trip every night emotionally, from the beginning to rediscovering his love for his wife, and then losing her...was just a magical and exhausting trip. I’m fond of the Baker’s music, if I had to take one I’d pick a happy one like “It Takes Two”, where the two characters rediscover each other through song. I love listening to A Little Night Music, but I’m not sure I want to sit through it again, it’s an easier listen than a sit. Pretty much the entire score from that, “Weekend in the Country” is thrilling, it gives me goosebumps, particularly that quick French horn lick early in the number, I just find that one of the two most exciting phrases of music in the history of the world, (sings) I just got goosebumps thinking of that, and that’s how corny I am, mister.
I also remember as a kid, getting the record to Sweeney Todd, and I’d never seen it, but sitting and playing it start to finish and following along in the libretto, not knowing any of the plot twists, but listening to that score for the first time, being this 12-year-old kid who loved theatre, I’d never heard anything like that before. I’d never been so enthralled by a plot. It was my introduction to Sondheim and I wouldn’t trade that hour and a half for anything! I wish I could relive it in some way, someday, by discovering something so magical that would become a part of my life.
For tickets to A Charlie Brown Christmas visit their website.
