Actor and musician Harry Connick Jr. will return to the Great White Way next year for True Love: A Celebration of Cole Porter.
Connick Jr. will head to the stage for a three-week limited engagement to celebrate the work of legendary songwriter Cole Porter. He came up with the concept for the show and will serve as the director; the play feature certain hits from Porter’s catalog, including timeless tracks like “Kiss Me Kate” and “Anything Goes.” Connick Jr. noted to Variety during a press event that Porter, who was most popular in the 1930s and ’40s, “really understood the technique of arranging and orchestrating.” While his songs are considered classics now, Connick Jr. believes that his “witty way with his lyric writing and his songwriting” is still relevant to audiences today.
The show will touch on Porter’s personal story as well, delving into the mixed relationship he had with his sexuality, along with a handful of health struggles. However, Connick Jr. didn’t want it to feel like a “history lesson,” telling Variety that rather than pack the show with stats and facts, “there’s enough in there to educate people who may not know about [Porter] to let them know who he was.”
Previously, Connick Jr. appeared on Broadway in the revival of both The Pajama Game and On A Clear Day You Can See Forever. Connick Jr. always planned to return to Broadway, telling Variety that “if I had two careers one of them would be only Broadway just because I love it so much.”
“I love the family of it, I love the immense creativity that exists here, not only with the people onstage but with the people that put the show on, from the producers to the crews.”
True Love: A Celebration of Cole Porter, will open this Thursday, December 12, at the Nederlander Theatre and will run for three weeks.
