For Pat Sajak the challenge in returning to the Connecticut Repertory Theatre from June 6 to 15 as the star of “The Drowsy Chaperone” is similar to his appearance last summer in Storrs as Felix Unger in “The Odd Couple.”
“How long does it take me to get them from: Hey it’s Pat Sajak, to look: it’s the Man in Chair?” the longtime host of “Wheel of Fortune” says of his role as the central character in the Tony Award-winning musical about a man who sees his favorite Broadway show come alive in his living room as he listens to a recording of the show. “To me, the play is so engaging and charming I don’t think it’s going to take long.”
In “The Odd Couple,” a New York Times review praised Sajak for being “as personable onstage as he is on TV, maybe even more so,” a characterization that the former disc jockey and talk show host sees as having delivered a successful performance.
“As a game show host, the biggest compliment I get is when someone can say: ‘I can do that.’ It’s supposed to look easy. If I look like I’m working hard, I’m not doing my job,” Sajak says after a rehearsal last week. “It’s the same thing in the theater. It’s not supposed to be an exercise of, ‘Hey, look at me I’m acting.’ It’s supposed to feel normal and comfortable.”
The similarities between doing a television game show before a studio audience and performing on stage help to provide Sajak with a familiar environment, but he also enjoys some of the subtle differences between recording a television program and doing live theater.
“I was real happy with [the similarity] of it,” he says. “I’m having a conversation with a player [on ‘Wheel’] or I’m having a conversation with an actor. The similarity surprised me. I thought it would be a totally foreign world. I’ve always been comfortable on stage. What I like most, which is different from what I do, is the immediacy of it. If something goes awry on ‘Wheel’ or a light goes out, we can say: ‘cut, let’s do that again,’ or stop and change a bulb. If a light goes out here, we adjust to it and have to keep moving. In that sense it’s a whole different set of muscles.”
Sajak says working in “The Drowsy Chaperone” is a unique way for someone who describes himself as a fan of musical theater to be in the production even though he does not sing or dance.
“The chances of my doing ‘Man of La Mancha’ are limited,” he says. “It’s about as close as I can get to musical comedy with having any talent at all. I get to move around enough and interact enough, be a part of it and feel like I’m in a musical comedy.”
Working with veteran Broadway performers such as Tony Award nominee Liz Larsen, part of the “The Odd Couple” cast who returns for “The Drowsy Chaperone.” and the UConn students who are part of the ensemble also has been a rewarding experience for him.
“They were great, real supportive and helpful,” he says. “They really helped me get through it. I looked forward to seeing Liz again. She helps ground me. On more than one occasion we’ve stepped aside and said, something didn’t work and we’ve talked it through. I do work hard, I think. I try to make it work and not just do a celebrity turn. The young men and women who are working on the show are working their buns off and I owe it to them to make sure I do the same.”
Over the more than 30 years of hosting “Wheel of Fortune,” which is one of the longest-running television game shows in history, Sajak has hosted his own television talk show on the Fox News Channel, filled in for Larry King on CNN and Regis Philbin on “Live with Regis and Kathy Lee” and hosted a show on the Major League Baseball Radio Network. And while he has done some acting over the years, Sajak says finding time to theater around his television schedule is a challenge, even as he would like to do more acting.
“My bread and butter is the game show and it eats up a good part of the year; that’s my first loyalty,” he says. “We just managed to cram these three weeks and it wasn’t easy. Would I love to be a part of a show on Broadway? Absolutely, but logistically it’s impossible. If I had it to do over again, I would have done more of this earlier and I might have structured my schedule to accommodate it.”
If he could pick a play on Broadway to be part of?
“I don’t have a dream role, but there is a little bit of me that would like to do ‘Glengarry Glen Ross.’ I don’t know which role, but that would be an interesting challenge for me and [the question] of when do I stop being Pat Sajak,” he says. “I think I have a sense of timing and a stage sense and I think I could carry it off.”
“The Drowsy Chaperone” is part of the Nutmeg Summer Series 2013, and will run from June 6 to 16 at the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre. For information call 860-486-1629 or go to the CRT Website.