“I had to remind myself that nobody sounds like Bing Crosby, and I don’t sound like Bing Crosby, and I said to too, no one dances like Fred Astaire, so let’s relieve ourselves of the responsibility of feeling like we have to do that,” Pinkham says. “I learned how to do those also in college.”īut more challenging than juggling is reprising roles by some of Hollywood’s most famous and charismatic leading men. And you’ll see those pins up there? Pinkham says, pointing to a trio of worn juggling pins that look as though they’d work well in a haunted circus act. Once I found the fun of it, I just wanted to keep learning. “I also played a lot of sports growing up, so because I ‘had’ to learn for the show, I got really into it. “I had to juggle in a show in college so I think I learned from doing that,” Pinkham says. Audiences got to hear a brief excerpt of his rendition of “Blue Skies” during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade during a medley performance during which Pinkham also showed off his juggling chops. Pinkham, whose blue eyes and supernatural cheekbones give off a Jude Law-vibe, stars as Jim Hardy, the role originally portrayed by Bing Crosby, a former New York City performer who opens a venue on a farm in Connecticut that will only offer shows on public holidays. “To be quite honest, I think I wanted to sing ‘Blue Skies.’ I was thinking ‘Blue Skies,’ and ‘White Christmas,’ in December, in New York, on Broadway, and that was enough for me.” Very fitting, considering the show, based on the 1942 film of the same name, is all about capturing a nostalgic, cozy Christmas spirit set to the music of Irving Berlin (Berlin won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for that now ubiquitous song, “White Christmas.”) “The music was kind of the selling point for me,” Pinkham says of his decision to appear in the show. That sort of history lives in these walls.”Ī wire hanger rattles against an air vent by the door (“a theater ghost we’re trying to scare off,” Pinkham jokes), vibrating with a tinny, percussiveness that makes it sound almost like Pinkham and I are talking by a crackling fireplace. “There’s just something about doing a show and being in this building, this creaky old building with the company every day, in a dressing room that has housed, among many others, Donna Murphy, Barbara Cook…” Pinkham says, “I was told recently, with some sadness, Carrie Fisher was in here for her show.
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