Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James Reclaim Their Time on Broadway in Days of Wine and Roses

Broadway lovers salivate over a new score they can add to the ever-expanding soundtrack of their lives. But more than that, they relish a new piece of lore—a nugget of history that binds a generation’s great artists and preserves Broadway’s air as a place of rich legacy and tradition. History, however—like a great score—unfolds in its own time. 

Twenty-one years ago, when Kelli O’Hara first pitched Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas the idea of a Days of Wine and Roses musical (an adaptation of the 1962 Blake Edwards film), she had no way of knowing that she would be such an integral part of the Broadway landscape by the time the project finally saw the light of day (she has been Tony-nominated for each of her last seven Broadway roles, winning the trophy in 2015 for her performance in The King and I). Nor did she know that Brian d’Arcy James—now a four-time Tony nominee and the man she singled out as her stage partner for this unlikely musical drama—would be right there with her atop Broadway’s spiritual Mount Rushmore. Instead, like all the most satisfying Broadway tales, it started with few expectations and a simple desire: “I wanted to work with him again.”

In an interview with Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek for The Broadway Show, O’Hara and James recount their first collaboration in the 2002 musical Sweet Smell of Success. It was a short-lived Marvin Hamlisch, Craig Carnelia and John Guare musical based on the 1957 film noir and was a heartbreaking disappointment that O’Hara still insists “shuttered too soon” (it ran less than four months but did earn James his first Tony nomination for his performance as slick press agent Sidney Falco).

Since O’Hara and James debuted Days of Wine and Roses off-Broadway in the spring of 2022—a sold-out world premiere at Atlantic Theater Company directed by Michael Greif—the pair have managed to pin an addendum to the legacy of Sweet Smell of Success. Perhaps it’s even lent some closure to the project that has now been publicly reframed as the birthplace of Days of Wine and Roses—a creative zenith in both O’Hara and James’ careers, not to mention a hot ticket that’s beginning a limited Broadway run at Studio 54 on January 6.

“Right after that,” says O’Hara, referring to the closing of Sweet Smell of Success, “I met Adam and Craig working on The Light in the Piazza in Sundance.” The Light in the Piazza would land on Broadway in 2005, earning Guettel (the embodiment of Broadway legacy as the great Richard Rodgers’ grandson) two Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Orchestrations, Lucas a Tony nomination for Best Book and O’Hara her first career Tony nomination for her performance as Clara. For the Sundance workshop, however, she was still developing the smaller role of Franca, and there was not even a hint that this musical would become her Broadway breakout. Even so, she was already dreaming up a Days of Wine and Roses project for her and the scene partner she wasn’t quite ready to let go of.

“I love the movie for some reason,” O’Hara says, subtly acknowledging the grim journey its central lovers, Joe Clay and Kirsten Arnesen, take as they succumb to the evils of alcohol addiction. Of course, The Light in the Piazza was adapted from an Elizabeth Spencer novella about a developmentally disabled young woman and her mother’s fraught summer in Florence, so she was in fitting creative company. And so, as she recalls two decades years later, “I thought it would be a good, weird, operatic, dark, artsy version to write for Brian and for me.”

Rarely do you hear words like “operatic,” “dark” and “artsy” bandied about on Broadway. But even rarer is it to see a musical so finely tailored to its performers. “I think we're different kinds of singers, and I think Adam knows that,” James says about the music Guettel has crafted for him and O’Hara. “He's able to just make sure that everybody's been given the things that they can do and do really well.” For James, this means opportunities for his booming baritone, mixed with moments of pathos and his gleaming Jack Lemmon-esque charm. For O’Hara—one of Broadway’s most prolific sopranos known for her interpretations of classic leading ladies—this means over a dozen showcases of her extraordinary instrument, as well as some darker hues you don’t often get in golden-age Broadway revivals.

“I sometimes think, ‘What must have people thought when they heard Sondheim the very first time?’” O’Hara says, comparing Stephen Sondheim’s jarring but profound contributions to the world of musical theater to Guettel’s signature amelodic style. “At first you don't understand it. You don't hear it. And then you see how every single thing is so specifically chosen to match an emotion,” she explains. “Any musician— that's all they want to do. They want to sing Sondheim. They want to sing Adam Guettel.”

“It's very satisfying to feel like you've been asked to climb a mountain every night and also be entrusted to do that by Adam and Craig and Michael,” says James. “I think that's what you want as an actor—to be given a chance to exercise all of your abilities and hope to feel a modicum of achievement in doing that.”

“It's like getting on a train,” says O’Hara of Guettel and Lucas’ writing. “If you just get on it and you invest in it, the work is done. You don't have to try so hard. That's the big lesson in growing up and being a little older,” she notes, reflecting on the evolution of her own artistry since her first collaboration with Guettel and Lucas—back when she initially proposed Days of Wine and Roses. “I could play Clara now from The Light in the Piazza, I think, far more appropriately than I did when I was in my 20s because the work was done.”

Twenty years of maturity and wisdom may be sharpening the performance O'Hara is able to give today, but it seems every instinct she had 20 years ago has been proven right, including, most importantly, the one she had about her costar. “You don't know— even with a friendship, to go so deeply into something together. It's been wildly satisfying and so comforting,” O’Hara says. “It's far exceeded my expectations to feel so safe.”

The dichotomy between the onstage tragedy and the offstage joy surrounding this longtime passion project has become almost comical. “After the show, I would constantly get, ‘Are you two OK?’” O’Hara says about their concerned off-Broadway audiences. O’Hara was more than OK. “I was on top of the world,” she says candidly. 

"You realize you just never know what's going to happen down the road," says James, the other half of O'Hara's "weird, operatic, dark, artsy" vision that is now gifting the two of them more time together on a Broadway stage. "You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow—let alone 20 years from today."

The Broadway Show Credits: Directed by Zack R. Smith | Producers: Paul Wontorek and Beth Stevens | Senior Producers: Caitlin Moynihan and Lindsey Sullivan | Videographers: Nick Shakra and Tyler Ward

Photo Credits: Photography by Emilio Madrid |  Photo Assistants: Alan Padilla and Cooper Hammel | Location: Corner Studio

Styling Credits: Styling: Eliza Yerry | Hair for Kelli O'Hara: Lindsay Block | Make-up for Kelli O'Hara: Jilly Oshry | Grooming for Brian d'Arcy James: Evy Drew | Grooming for Paul Wontorek: Angella Valentine Kelli O'Hara Wardrobe: Dress: L’agence | Skirt: Alexis | Shoes: Neil J. Rodgers | Shirt: Another Tomorrow Brian d'Arcy James Wardrobe: Blazer: Givenchy | Sweater: Vince | Pants: Vince | Shoes: Kingsman