After Trading Broadway Fame for Family, Original Passion Star Jere Shea is Back in The Secret Garden

Any musical theater fan who knows their Broadway history before, say, Wicked remembers Jere Shea. Ah yes, Jere Shea. That strapping actor who landed a 1994 Tony nomination for creating the role of Giorgio in the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine musical Passion, the hunk of a hero who got Marin Mazzie’s Clara naked in bed...

...and Donna Murphy’s Fosca to actually look up from her damn books.

Sure, the memories (and the gifs) live on. Even better, the original cast recording, the PBS airing and the Tony Awards performance, live on. But after Passion’s too brief run of nine months, Shea hasn’t been seen on Broadway. At all. In fact, on February 21 and 22, Shea will step on his first New York stage in 18 years. And three cheers, musical fans, because he’ll be singing!

Now 50, Shea has signed on for Stafford Arima's staging of the hit 1991 musical The Secret Garden for Manhattan Concert Productions, which features an embarrassment of riches in its cast list alone, including Ramin Karimloo (Les Miserables) as Archibald Craven, Sierra Boggess (School of Rock) as Lily, Sydney Lucas (Fun Home) as Mary Lennox, Cheyenne Jackson (Xanadu) as Neville, Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hanson) as Dickon and grown-up original child star Daisy Eagan as Martha. Shea is playing groundskeeper Ben Weatherstaff, a joyful casting surprise that led us to wonder, where the heck have you been, Jere?

“They wanted to bring back either Abe Vigoda or me, but unfortunately he passed away so...," Shea cracked to Broadway.com. “Actually, it’s been a long time coming for me. Over the years, I’ve kept in touch with some industry folks who were very supportive with the idea of me coming back and now here I am.”

Turns out Shea, who also appeared on Broadway as a Sky Masterson understudy in 1992’s Guys and Dolls, traded fame for family in 1998, when he left his role in the Broadway-bound musical High Society and packed up his wife Elaine and two children and settled near relatives in the suburbs of Boston, MA.

“The more work and success I got in the business, the less I saw my family,” he remembered. “I wanted to be around my kids. But now they’re 21 years old and I get to go off and focus on what I love to do again.” After various jobs over the past two decades including a run as Deputy Chief of Staff for Massachusetts Governor Paul Bellucci, a fundraising gig for the Worcester Art Museum and freelance coaching for actors and public speakers, Shea is dusting off his headshot and resume and dipping his toes back into performing.

The Secret Garden is proving to be a magical re-entry into the Broadway world that he knows and loves. “I’m starstruck,” he said. “I’m working with some of the best actors and singers in New York or anywhere I’ve seen and they’re all in one room. Every 15 minutes, there’s another gooseflesh moment for me! I mean, am I dreaming?”

See Shea live at The Secret Garden, performing at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center on Sunday, February 21 and Monday, February 22 at 8PM. For tickets and more information, click here. Now let’s enjoy that Tony number again, shall we?