“Sid” from Broadway’s The Pajama Game came back to the stage as actor and standards singer Harry Connick Jr., when he began his 13 concert series at the Neil Simon Theatre July 15. The two-time Tony nominee appeared in The Pajama Game in 2006 and followed the critically acclaimed performance with a composition for Thou Shalt Not, which earned him another Tony nomination. “Harry Connick Jr. on Broadway,” sponsored by James L. Nederlander and Broadway Across America, marks the midway point of his lengthy concert tour.

“We’ll make it special and add some surprises for the Broadway house because it is Broadway,” said Connick, Jr. to Playbill.com. “You’re not just playing some venue. It demands some individuality.” If you want to see him perform live, get Harry Connick Jr. tickets online today.

Much like his tour that will run through fall, Connick Jr. is supporting last year’s album Your Songs, which includes the singles “The Way You Look Tonight,” “Some Enchanted Evening,” “Close to You” and Smile.” “I could sing ‘Mona Lisa’ or ‘The Way You Look Tonight,’ or some of the songs I wrote – like ‘We Are in Love.’ We’re just going to keep mixing it up and changing it,” he was quoted on Playbill.com as saying. It is no surprise this Grammy Award-winning musician is returning to Broadway, a place he fell in love with while growing up in New Orleans.

“A lot of these tunes I learned for the first time from jazz musicians. Any musician from Miles Davis to John Coltrane to Bill Evans to Art Tatum and Ella Fitzgerald – they all played these songs at one point in time or another,” he continued.

Aside from that, the piano playing prodigy of the ’80s is actually a Broadway veteran. In 1990 he wooed Broadway crowds with “An Evening with Harry Connick Jr. and His Orchestra” before returning as an actor in 2006. “He’s got that matinee-idol quality that appeals to traditional theatergoers, where younger audiences know him from movies and TV and the millions of records he’s sold,” said Playbill editor Blake Ross to USA Today.

One thing he knows to keep constant is his classic sound. Similar to 2001’s Songs I Heard and 2004’s Only You, 2009’s album recreates American pop classics. Born in New Orleans, Connick, Jr. was influenced by the jazz clubs outside his home, and the records his father stocked in the family’s record store. “There was so much accessibility to live music in New Orleans,” he said.

His live music was a hit from an early age, performing on stage for the first time at six and recording with a jazz band at 10. He attended the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts with Ellis Marsalis and James Booker, and eventually moved to New York for the Manhattan School of Music. In 1987 he released his debut with Columbia Records, though it focused on his piano skills. The sophomore set in 1998 was the first time audiences heard his voice, and since then they haven’t gotten enough.

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Category: Music
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