My Way

“I enrolled at Wichita State as a business major,” says Hal Davis ’72. “I was supposed to take up the reins of the family business my grandfather had started in Wichita around the turn of the century.”

But just before the semester began, his father died suddenly, and too young, and Davis needed to get up to speed quickly to run the store. While dutifully completing a year of business classes, he realized that his destiny did not lie in commerce. “I had come face to face with the fact that life is short, sometimes too short,” he says, “and you’d better get what you want out of it. So I decided to do it my way.”

That way led him onto the WSU stage. A passion for entertaining ran in the family — “It must be inherent in the Welsh blood,” Davis speculates — and he himself had performed in high school productions. So he wasn’t a theater naïf when he found his way to Wilner Auditorium to audition for Oh, What a Lovely War, which Richard Welsbacher, now professor emeritus of theater, was staging.

“In walks this tall, lanky, masculine, good-looking guy,” Welsbacher remembers. “His cold reading was absolutely awful, but we needed men in the chorus, and he could sing and fill up space, so I cast him.”

“Hal is one of those rare individuals just made for the stage: He can act, he can sing, and he can dance. He is as talented as he is a joy  to work with.”

Ann-Margret

But a funny thing happened on the way to opening night. Throughout rehearsals, Davis got better and better. He was subsequently cast in show after show and ultimately played Hamlet, “superbly,” according to Welsbacher. He had become a linchpin of the theater program, even though he was working toward a degree in education by default, since WSU didn’t offer the bachelor of arts degree in theater at the time. “Hal’s wretched cold readings became part of the program’s folklore,” Welsbacher says. “We knew he was going to read badly but always produce.”

That’s Life

On the wider collegiate stage, Davis became legendary among WSU academic advisers in much the same way. By his junior year, he still hadn’t declared a major, and he had been taking courses across several disciplines, including art, literature, physical education, music, dance, psychology and theater.

“I was all over the map, driving them crazy,” Davis says. “I told them that even though I didn’t have a plan, it all seemed to be leading to an acting career.” He decided to take the teaching block to have an adviser-satisfying fall-back profession — a sign that he was indeed becoming an actor.

New York, New York

After graduation, Davis won acceptance to the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, and then he was off to New York. “Some of my friends went to California, but for me, the stage was always the place, and New York was the stage,” Davis comments. “Four of us set out in a U-Haul to make our mark. It was both scary and exhilarating.” He found success right away, steadily landing roles in showcases, new musicals, and Broadway, off-Broadway and regional theater productions.

To date, his more than 50 professional credits include Forty Karats with Virginia Mayo, In Gay Company Revisited, Damn Yankees, Professionally Speaking, Dial M for Murder, Handy Dandy with Jane Alexander and Jerry Orbach, Annie Get Your Gun, two productions of Sweeney Todd, two of Camelot, Dinner Date with Death at New York’s Original Improv, The Sound of Music at Lincoln Center, two productions of Crazy for You, Oklahoma and Annie.

Davis performed in the first national tours of Getting My Act Together with Connie Stevens and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with David Cassidy, and in two national touring productions of Grease. He played six roles in the Tony Award-winning Titanic, the Musical on Broadway for two years and in its two subsequent national tours, and three times as the Sheriff in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas — the last production involving an 18-month national tour with Ann-Margret.

Along the way, he returned to Wichita to appear in WSU Summer Theatre’s 1987 Silver Anniversary season production of Guys and Dolls; as King Arthur in Music Theatre of Wichita’s 1988 staging of Camelot and its 1991 production of Big River; and iN the Fantasticks at Wichita’s Stage One in 2000. 

It Was a Very Good Year

“We all knew Hal was going to be successful,” declares Joyce Cavarozzi, WSU associate professor of theater. “He can do it all — drama, comedy, musical theater, you name it. He’s especially in demand for musicals not just because he sings wonderfully and has great stage presence, but because he can act, which not all singers can do. He can act scenes, and he can act lyrics.” And although Davis cheerfully disparages his dancing skills — “I can move around enough on stage to fake it if they pay me enough and make me do it!” — Roger Smith, of 77 Sunset Strip fame and Ann-Margret’s husband and manager, says, “I saw him dance in the Whorehouse finale, which featured the whole cast, and he definitely held his own among all those ‘real’ dancers.”

After that tour ended, Davis returned home to perform once again at Stage One. Co-founded by Kathryn Page-Hauptman ’88 in 1996, this professional theater company is dedicated to staging one new musical — some by well-known playwrights, composers and lyricists, and others by lesser-knowns — among each season’s productions, and on tap for late 2002 was My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra. “I’m really excited about what Kathy is doing with Stage One,” Davis says. “It’s a first-class regional repertory theater and, as far as I know, it’s the only one in the state.”

I Only Have Eyes for You

As producing director, Page-Hauptman wanted Davis to play the role of the “older man” in My Way. She says, “I immediately thought of Hal. He’s such a seasoned, confident performer. He has that incredibly rich baritone voice, he moves so well on stage, and he can get away with that essence-of-cool Sinatra swagger.” The show is particularly dicey to cast; its four stars are supported only by a combo and an unchanging set, and it therefore succeeds or fails largely on the talents of those four. “Not only do they need to have great voices,” Page-Hauptman remarks, “but they must have super-charismatic personalities. Hal met all the requirements and  more: He has gorgeous eyes that project forever.”

While Davis never met Sinatra — the closest he came was seeing one of his last live performances and working with Sammy Davis Jr. in their recurring roles on the soap opera One Life to Live — he was ideal for the show. In describing the “older man,” the authors’ notes say that, as the leader of the ensemble, the actor should embody the style and easy sophistication that was the Sinatra trademark without doing a physical or vocal imitation of the man. Of the role’s challenges, Davis says, “While I studied Sinatra to prepare for the part, I did the songs my way. To try to do them Frank’s way just wouldn’t have worked.”

Young at Heart

By the way, his favorite Sinatra song happens to be My Way. “We’ve all bitten off more than we could chew trying to make the world go along with us,” Davis muses. “I was just a basic kid from Kansas who wanted to please people and not rock the boat, but as I got older I found that sometimes you have to do just that in order to get something right.”

And that’s what he admires most about Page-Hauptman: “She has a vision for Stage One, and she’s doing things her way to achieve it.”

Doing things his way seems to be working. Explains Kate Snodgrass ’72, producing director of the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and Davis’ friend since they were students at Wichita State, “Hal works all the time. He’s well known and very well regarded in Broadway circles, and he’s able not only to support his family on what he earns as an actor, but also to be selective about what shows he’ll do. He’s just  that good.”

Davis himself largely credits his prospering career to wife Vivian Hoffman and their children, Zachary and Abigail. “The last several years have been so fruitful,” he says. “Ever since I found Vivian and we had the kids, things have been easier.”

Such a paradoxical coincidence has happened to him before. Once he discovered that he was truly most at home on the Wilner stage, doing something he loved among people who encouraged him, things just fell into place. “Even though I was having to work harder to make sure I could continue to do what I loved doing, my classes got easier.”

Davis comments, “Everything was harder and easier at the same time and, in an amazing way, much better.”

Davis will be 53 next year — the age at which his father died — but his career is still on the ascent. “He was handsome from the start,” Cavarozzi remarks, “and he’s one of those fortunate few who get better-looking as  they get older, so he can still play romantic leads.”

The Best is Yet to Come

Says Page-Hauptman, “Hal’s career is just beginning. His voice is strong and mature, he’s a tremendous actor, and the older he gets, the more eligible he is for key character roles. He’s actually becoming more castable.”

As for his take on the future, Davis says with an engaging grin, “I’ll just keep on doing it my way.” That is, after all, the role he does best.

By Kat Schneider

All the World’s a Stage

Hal Davis has compiled a stellar list of professional production credits. Here’s a partial list, beginning with his first Equity show:

• Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys (TheatreWorks Tour 1974)
• Humbug (new Christmas musical)
• Rosewood (Off-Broadway, Tier 4)
• Great American Fun Factory (TheatreWorks Tour)
• Freedom Train (TheatreWorks Tour)
• Escape to Freedom (TheatreWorks Tour)
• 40 Karats (with Virginia Mayo)
• In Gay Company Revisited (Off Broadway-Tier 4)
• Good News (Connecticut Dinner Theatre)
• Words (Whole Theatre Co.)
• Surprise Surprise (new Albert Hague musical, Waldo Astoria Dinner Theatre, K.C., KS)
• Cole Porter Revue (Indiana Repertory Theatre)
• 2 X 4 (Indiana Repertory Theatre)
• Christmas Show (Indiana Repertory Theatre)
• Damn Yankees (Cortland Repertory Theatre)
• Getting My Act Together (first national tour, starring Connie Stevens)
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (first national tour ‘83, starring David Cassidy)
• Stage Struck (Metuchen Theatre)
• Professionally Speaking (Off-Broadway)
• Dial M for Murder (St. Louis Repertory Theatre)
• The Foreigner (St. Louis Repertory Theatre)
• Handy Dandy (American Place Theatre, NYC)
• The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Westchester Broadway)
• 1776 (Broadway Westchester)
• Grease (two national touring productions)
• Annie Get Your Gun (Birmingham Theatre)
• Sweeney Todd (two productions: Theatre Virginia, Casa Manana)
• Camelot (two productions: Theatre Virginia, Music Theatre of Wichita)
• Baby (Tennessee Repertory Theatre)
• Christmas Spirits (Tennessee Repertory Theatre)
• Dinner Date with Death (The Original Improv, New York City)
• Phantom (Players Theatre)
• Fields of Ambrosia (George Street Playhouse)
• Opal (George Street Playhouse)
• Sound of Music (East Carolina Music Theatre)
• Rough Crossing (Center for the Arts)
• Crazy For You (two productions)
• 42nd Street (Jupiter Theatre)
• Oklahoma (Casa Manana)
• Annie (Casa Manana)
• Titanic (three productions: Broadway 1997-98, national tour 2000, 2001)
• Fantasticks (Stage One, Wichita)
• Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (two productions, ‘94, national tour 2001)
• My Way (Stage One, Wichita)

ON STAGE: Playwrights & Performers

Shirley Knight fs ’57 has garnered top honors for her work in films, television and on the stage, including a Tony Award for her performance in Kennedy’s Children.

Anne Welsbacher ’79 is a playwright and editor who’s known for penning a number of children’s books in addition to her theatrical works: Berlin, Silk and Old Screens.

Scott Noah ’94, co-founder of Wichita’s Mosley Street Melodrama, has starred in and produced such “classics” as Skeleton Manor and The Wildflowering of Chastity.

Rhonda Aldrich ’78, a veteran performer on television and stage, has appeared with numerous theater collectives and in Balm and Gilead and The Proof of the Promise.

Douglas Ladnier ’92, an accomplished musician as well as a stage and television actor, is lauded for playing 11 different roles in Broadway’s Jekyll & Hyde.

Ray Wills ’82, a talent who handles 13 different roles in Mel Brooks’ record-smashing The Producers, is a Broadway pro with a score of television and film credits, as well.

Karla Burns ’81/81 won the Drama Desk Award and earned a Tony nomination for her portrayal of Queenie in the 1982-83 Broadway revival of Show Boat.

Patty Reeder ’83, who is a co-founder of Mosley Street Melodrama, has performance credits with Stage One (Paper Moon) and Music Theatre of Wichita (42nd Street).

Michael McClure fs ’53, one of six poets to read at the famous Six Gallery event in 1955, is an acclaimed poet, essayist and playwright. The Beard is perhaps his best-known play.

Ron Wilson ’76, whose plays include The Hollywood Canteen and The Last Days of Route 66, is the Katherine Bakeless Nason Professor of Theater at Case Western Reserve University.

Kate Snodgrass ’72, producing director of Boston University’s Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, is herself an award-winning playwright and founder of The Lab, a NYC theater.

Tom Frye ’71/84, former director of theater at The Independent School in Wichita, is Truman Capote in the one-man show Tru, now playing in Florida.