Mamma Mia! is known for its audience dancing and singalongs. In like vein, veteran actor Kevin Cooney predicts that by the end of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, the audience will be joining the cast in the words to the title song at the Hobby Center.
Cooney, known for his years of film, TV and stage work, plays General Waverly for the third time in the Theatre Under the Stars production of the musical based on the classic 1954 film (starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen.)
The story centers on two World War II pals, who put on shows while in the Army to entertain the troops. They meet two sisters with an entertainment act of their own who persuade them to accompany them to a Vermont inn where the sisters are scheduled to perform their act.
Once there, in time-honored small-world fashion, the soldiers discover that the failing inn – there hasn’t been enough snow to attract tourists — is run by their former commander, who’s about to go bankrupt. The fellas resolve to put on a show and save the day.
Despite his troubles, “the general is a person who’s a very positive thinker, who’s been wounded in the war,” Cooney says.
For Cooney, acting in this Theatre Under the Stars production, is a way of coming full circle in his acting career.
“It’s really where I started.” He did his first show for TUTS in 1972. “I had been drafted during the Vietnam war.” When he came out, he married his wife Theresa. “We started having kids and I went to work for a living and we did shows on the side for TUTS. That’s part of my learning how much I loved show business and being in it.”
His big break followed when he did The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas at Tower Theater in Houston. The show ran for a year there. Then they went on the road for a year and then played a year in Las Vegas. Theresa was in it as well.
By the time that three-year period ended they decided to go to New York. “From then on things worked well for me. “He worked in television and film and then they moved to California where he continued with television [Nip/Tuck, Cold Case, Boston Legal] and film [ Legally Blonde, Austin Powers in Goldmember, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me] as well as the occasional theater production.
In 2005, Frank Young, the founder of TUTS, asked Cooney if he and his wife would be interested in coming back for a show. For ten years they came back for one show a year until they finally decided to move back to Texas where their roots were.
“I had no idea that the theater world in Houston would still be interested in me. That’s been a happy thing that’s happened since we moved back.”
Asked why he enjoys being in this musical, Cooney says: “The first thing is the music. Irving Berlin, it doesn’t get much better than that. And our production has this fabulous choreography. It’s got a lot of tap dancing in it.”
“It has a positive reflection on the military and there are positive things that come from it. And, of course, the era was a very important era in our history when our own freedom was threatened. It calls back those feelings that the country had when we were maybe a little more united in our political thoughts with regard to the war.”
Performances are scheduled for December 9-24 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at the Hobby Center, 800 Bagby. For more information, call 713-558-8887 or visit tuts.org. $52-$173.