Harry Connick Jr. on Playing Diners for Cheeseburgers to Celebrating Cole Porter on Broadway

Harry Connick Jr., a dashing 21-year-old jazz musician from New Orleans, became famous overnight 30 years ago when the double-platinum 1989 soundtrack for the film When Harry Met Sally brought his swinging renditions of songs from the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Benny Goodman and more to the Billboard charts.

Although Connick didn’t have his eye on the legit stage as a kid, this early linking of his music talents and American Songbook standards (many of which premiered in stage and screen musicals) made him a perfect fit for Broadway, where he first played a concert run at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in 1990. As his songwriting and acting careers grew over the years, so did his involvement with theater—in 2001, he wrote the score to the dark musical Thou Shalt Not and in 2006, he became a Broadway leading man with The Pajama Game. Both projects earned him Tony Award nominations, and cemented his theater community membership.

Now, Connick is back on the boards with Harry Connick, Jr.—A Celebration of Cole Porter at the Nederlander Theatre through December 26. A companion piece to his latest studio recording, True Love, the polished and engaging theatrical concert marks another Broadway first: Connick conceived and directed the show himself. It opens with a fantastical film of Connick actually climbing into the ear of a giant imagined statue of Porter in his hometown of Peru, Indiana—a fitting start to his exploration of the life and work of the songwriting great who won the very first Tony Award for Best Musical for Kiss Me, Kate.

“He had a fascinating life,” Connick tells Paul Wontorek on the latest episode of Show People. “A tragic life, really. My heart breaks for him. First and foremost, being a gay man in a world where he just couldn’t talk about that is heartbreaking enough, but then he got in a terrible horse riding accident and he couldn’t use his legs. Eventually, he had to get one amputated.” Although their lives were vastly different, Connick’s connection with Porter runs deep. “I think about him a lot,” he says. “About what he was like and what it would have been like to be around him, and to tell him how much I love him.”

On Show People, Connick also talked about his music-filled New Orleans childhood in the Lakeview neighborhood, as the son of a district attorney dad and a lawyer mom. “We lived in a town where you could drive 10 minutes and go hear some of the greatest jazz musicians of all time playing at two in the afternoon,” he remembers. “Being around things like Mardi Gras and all of that jazz seemed like what every kid did on the weekends. But I realize now how fortunate I was.”

Connick was exposed to all walks of life when he started playing music in clubs as a kid—at age 14, he would be at a gig until 3AM while his father worked the streets fighting a heroin ring in the French Quarter. “There was so much diversity,” he says. “Not only people’s skin color, but their sexuality, their religion… The way I grew up as an artist was to love everyone. I’m so thankful for that because it did have a profound impact on me.”

Although he was itching as a teenager to move to New York City, Connick’s father made him wait until he was 18, at which point he moved into the 92nd Street YMHA on New Year’s Day in 1986. “I couldn’t believe I was living in New York," he recalls. "I tried every day to get a record deal, going up and down the avenues looking for places with pianos.” One notable early venue was the small, iconic Empire Diner on 10th Avenue and 22nd Street in Chelsea: “I played every Saturday night, from 10PM to 3AM by the bathroom. When you have no money and they give you a milkshake and a cheeseburger? It was the best! I was in New York City and making a way for myself.”

Now with 26 albums, over 20 films, a well-loved turn on television as Grace’s husband on Will and Grace, host of the talk show Harry and possibly the most charming American Idol judge ever, Connick is far from his diner days. But Broadway remains a sweet spot for the star. Although Thou Shalt Not wasn’t a critical hit, he has “a bunch of ideas” for future shows he wants to write. And, after headlining both The Pajama Game opposite Kelli O’Hara, and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever opposite Jessie Mueller, he is eager to star in another book musical.

“I did a Broadway show once and there was an actor in the wings,” he remembers. “She mouthed the words to me, ‘I’m so tired.’ I got chills all over my body. What I wanted to say was, ‘Go home, dude. Do you know how hard it is to get here? There are 1,000 people who would take both of our places right now.’ It is never a grind [for me]. Eight shows a week? Bring it on!”

Watch the full episode of Show People with Paul Wontorek below!

Bonus: Below, Broadway.com illustrator Ryan Casey shares one of our favorite quotes from the interview about Connick loving everything Broadway—even the smell!