Oklahoma! Star Damon Daunno on Leveling Up in a Classic Role and Strumming His Way to Broadway

As Curly McLain in director Daniel Fish's newly reimagined Oklahoma!, Damon Daunno does double duty as an actor and guitarist—often playing along with the seven-member band. “Strutting around with a guitar, singing these tunes, really feels amazing.” the actor says. “I feel like I've discovered new friends in Rodgers and Hammerstein.” The set, mainly plywood and picnic tables, isn’t the only thing that’s been stripped down in this staging. The musical arrangements and orchestrations is, too. “It's a mark of any great piece of work that you can interpret it in any kind of way,” Daunno says of the darker take on the classic. “These melodies are so sweeping and these lyrics are so poetic that you don't need 30 instruments to convey their bounty and beauty.” Daunno talked to Broadway.com about growing up loving Cobain and Cabaret, his knack for playing instruments on stage, and why he wants to be in the Guys and Dolls movie.

Little Rascal
Growing up in northern New Jersey, Daunno was a “rascal of a child” who adored mischievous characters like Bugs Bunny and Bart Simpson. He says these traits made him a natural fit for performing—and getting attention. “I just always loved microphones, you know?” he says. “I loved being on a stage in front of a room full of strangers and seeing if I can get people to laugh or clap along.” Around age 10, Daunno began playing electric guitar and auditioning for school plays. Musical theater was a “great hybrid” of his hobbies. “I had posters of Kurt Cobain and Pete Townshend all over my wall,” he says. “But I also was listening to the soundtrack of Cabaret and Into the Woods.”

God, I Hope I Get It
Frank Sinatra, a staple in his Italian-American family, must have bridged those bad boy cartoon characters and Daunno’s interest in musical theater. After watching the 1955 movie version of Guys and Dolls, starring Sinatra and Marlon Brando, he began to dive into classic, old Hollywood movie musicals and their soundtracks. “I was like, 'That! That's what I want,'” he remembers. “Those are my guys.” Lucky for Daunno, a recently announced remake of the film is in the works at TriStar. “I just read that! I was like, 'Take a breath,'” he jokes. “But, goodness gracious, would I love to be seen for that.”



Guitar Hero
The roles in Daunno’s career have a theme: his characters almost always play instruments. “It's a really exciting time to be a fella who does lots of stuff in this industry,” the actor says. “Particularly with theater, there are more projects now that celebrate folks that are musicians.” Similar to his performance as Curly, he played the guitar as the young lover Orpheus in the off-Broadway production of Hadestown. He even learned how to play both the ukulele and the upright bass for his role in Brief Encounter, his 2010 Broadway debut. “I play lots of stuff, mostly stringy things. I'm not a horn man—never was,” Daunno says. “I could be in a pop rock band on most instruments.”

You’re in the Band
Daunno has been writing his own music ever since his pre-teen years, when he started a band that was banned from playing his school’s showcase due to inappropriate lyrics. “My punk rock spirit peaked in the sixth grade.” As Daunno's career grew, he felt he was straying from creating original material: “It was a bit of an identity crisis,” he admits. “Do I have to choose music or acting to properly succeed in one or the other?” Nowadays, he’s trying to balance the two, composing music for his wife’s web series. “For a long time, I wanted to fight against that and be like, 'No, I want to play Hamlet!'” he says. “But now I really am excited for the amount I get to sing and play in Oklahoma! It makes me really want to get back to writing my own tunes again.”



Married Life 
While performing with Kneehigh Theater Company in 2014, Daunno met British actress Kirsty Woodward. The pair got hitched last year at Brooklyn City Hall, celebrating with tacos and margaritas. Despite the hectic schedule of opening a Broadway show, and a difficult immigration process for Woodward, Daunno says married life is “domestic bliss.” He adds, “When I first met my wife, I said, 'Every molecule in my body says yes to you.' And I didn't know that it was exclusively romance at the time. I just knew that I could sort of watch her exist forever,” he says. “And now I get to.”

From Hell to a Beautiful Mornin'
Daunno is gearing up to open Oklahoma! in the same season as another musical he’s helped develop. In the world premiere, 2016 New York Theater Workshop production of Hadestown, the Anaïs Mitchell concept album-turned-musical, he played the tragic young lover Orpheus. “I'm so excited and proud for the Hadestown folks,” he says. “It's a wild spring. It's going to be a great season.” Making it even more special—and meta— current Hadestown star Amber Gray played the Laurey to his Curly in Oklahoma!’s 2015 summer run at Bard College, as well as Persephone in the off-Broadway Hadestown in which he starred. “It's really fun to witness yourself and your friends getting to level up at the same time.”