{"id":79067,"date":"2013-06-06T09:38:28","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T13:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=79067"},"modified":"2013-06-14T11:35:34","modified_gmt":"2013-06-14T15:35:34","slug":"sajak-returns-to-crts-nutmeg-summer-series-in-the-drowsy-chaperone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/06\/sajak-returns-to-crts-nutmeg-summer-series-in-the-drowsy-chaperone\/","title":{"rendered":"Sajak Returns to CRT’s Nutmeg Summer Series in ‘The Drowsy Chaperone’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Actor<\/a>
Actor and gameshow host Pat Sajak with Kate Zulauf ’13 (SFA) and Vince Cardinal, head of dramatic arts, on the set of ‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ at the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Pat Sajak the challenge in returning to the Connecticut Repertory Theatre from June 6 to 15 as the star of \u201cThe Drowsy Chaperone\u201d is similar to his appearance last summer in Storrs as Felix Unger in \u201cThe Odd Couple.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow long does it take me to get them from: Hey it\u2019s Pat Sajak, to look: it\u2019s the Man in Chair?\u201d the longtime host of \u201cWheel of Fortune\u201d says of his role as the central character in the Tony Award-winning musical about a man who sees his favorite Broadway show come alive in his living room as he listens to a recording of the show. \u201cTo me, the play is so engaging and charming I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to take long.\u201d<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Odd Couple,\u201d a New York Times<\/i> review praised Sajak for being \u201cas personable onstage as he is on TV, maybe even more so,\u201d a characterization that the former disc jockey and talk show host sees as having delivered a successful performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a game show host, the biggest compliment I get is when someone can say: \u2018I can do that.\u2019 It\u2019s supposed to look easy. If I look like I\u2019m working hard, I\u2019m not doing my job,\u201d Sajak says after a rehearsal last week. \u201cIt\u2019s the same thing in the theater. It\u2019s not supposed to be an exercise of, \u2018Hey, look at me I\u2019m acting.\u2019 It\u2019s supposed to feel normal and comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The similarities between doing a television game show before a studio audience and performing on stage help to provide Sajak with a familiar environment, but he also enjoys some of the subtle differences between recording a television program and doing live theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was real happy with [the similarity] of it,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m having a conversation with a player [on \u2018Wheel\u2019] or I\u2019m having a conversation with an actor. The similarity surprised me. I thought it would be a totally foreign world. I\u2019ve always been comfortable on stage. What I like most, which is different from what I do, is the immediacy of it. If something goes awry on \u2018Wheel\u2019 or a light goes out, we can say: \u2018cut, let\u2019s do that again,\u2019 or stop and change a bulb. If a light goes out here, we adjust to it and have to keep moving. In that sense it\u2019s a whole different set of muscles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sajak says working in \u201cThe Drowsy Chaperone\u201d is a unique way for someone who describes himself as a fan of musical theater to be in the production even though he does not sing or dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe chances of my doing \u2018Man of La Mancha\u2019 are limited,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s about as close as I can get to musical comedy with having any talent at all. I get to move around enough and interact enough, be a part of it and feel like I\u2019m in a musical comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working with veteran Broadway performers such as Tony Award nominee Liz Larsen, part of the \u201cThe Odd Couple\u201d cast who returns for \u201cThe Drowsy Chaperone.\u201d and the UConn students who are part of the ensemble also has been a rewarding experience for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were great, real supportive and helpful,\u201d he says. \u201cThey really helped me get through it. I looked forward to seeing Liz again. She helps ground me. On more than one occasion we\u2019ve stepped aside and said, something didn\u2019t work and we\u2019ve talked it through. I do work hard, I think. I try to make it work and not just do a celebrity turn. The young men and women who are working on the show are working their buns off and I owe it to them to make sure I do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Appearing<\/a>
Appearing in ‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ at the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre marks Pat Sajak’s second year in a row appearing on stage in a summertime production. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the more than 30 years of hosting \u201cWheel of Fortune,\u201d which is one of the longest-running television game shows in history, Sajak has hosted his own television talk show on the Fox News Channel, filled in for Larry King on CNN and Regis Philbin on \u201cLive with Regis and Kathy Lee\u201d and hosted a show on the Major League Baseball Radio Network. And while he has done some acting over the years, Sajak says finding time to theater around his television schedule is a challenge, even as he would like to do more acting.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy bread and butter is the game show and it eats up a good part of the year; that\u2019s my first loyalty,\u201d he says. \u201cWe just managed to cram these three weeks and it wasn\u2019t easy. Would I love to be a part of a show on Broadway? Absolutely, but logistically it\u2019s impossible. If I had it to do over again, I would have done more of this earlier and I might have structured my schedule to accommodate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

If he could pick a play on Broadway to be part of?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a dream role, but there is a little bit of me that would like to do \u2018Glengarry Glen Ross.\u2019 I don\u2019t know which role, but that would be an interesting challenge for me and [the question] of when do I stop being Pat Sajak,\u201d he says. \u201cI think I have a sense of timing and a stage sense and I think I could carry it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Drowsy Chaperone\u201d is part of the Nutmeg Summer Series 2013, and will run from June 6 to 16 at the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre. For information call 860-486-1629 or go to the CRT Website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Audiences will see a familiar face when they attend the latest summertime production in the Nutmeg Summer Series now playing at the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":79080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-79067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 05:41:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79067"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79352,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79067\/revisions\/79352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/79080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79067"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=79067"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=79067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}