From Mama Rose in ‘Gypsy’ to Joanne in ‘Company,’ Judy McLane puts her spin on musical theater roles

The last time Judy McLane was in a big musical in Connecticut, it was in a role indelibly associated with Ethel Merman: Mama Rose in “Gypsy.” Now she’s back performing at the Shubert Theatre in the national tour of “Company” playing Joanne, a role originated by the legendary Elaine Stritch.

Intimidated much?

“Not really. I’m not either of those women,” McLane said. Goodspeed audiences saw how smartly McLane put her stamp on Rose, finding a motherly heart and soul that lingered through the whole show (whereas Merman was Merman, waiting to uncork a brassy finish). Now they can see how she distinguishes herself from other Joannes — not just Stritch but Patti Lupone, who played the role in the Broadway revival this tour is based on. Joanne is a sharp-tongued, sozzled friend of the show’s lead character, Bobbie.

“I’m not Patti Lupone either,” McLane said, laughing. “I can step away and find where I live in this. I spent most of my time with the book and lyrics. I have to find a way for this to be mine.”

McLane has been appearing on Broadway since the late 1980s and has also been at major regional theaters (the Goodspeed, Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, The Muny in Missouri) playing some of the greatest leading roles in musical theater.

She’s been Eva Peron in “Evita,” Mrs. Walker in “The Who’s Tommy,” Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard” and Maria Callas in the musical play “Master Class.” She’s starred in four separate productions of the challenging musical “Next to Normal.” From 2004 to 2015, she was in the Broadway production of “Mamma Mia,” first as Tanya then for the last several years in the starring role of Donna. She’s been a part of brand-new musicals as well as major revivals. When not doing musical theater, she often performs with symphony orchestras.

McLane said her first Equity union acting job was in “Fanny” at the Goodspeed in 1986, when she was still in college, and that “Gypsy” was the first time she’d appeared there since then.

Theater review: Goodspeed glows with a jazzy, sensitive, less sexist ‘Gypsy’

She’s done big national tours before (“Into the Woods” in 1988, “Big” in 1997) but hasn’t toured in years. On this tour, she’s noticed that Joanne, who is an identifiable type of New Yorker, has a different appeal in different parts of the country. “The people of Memphis are not the biggest fans of Joanne cursing and taking the lord’s name in vain. But in Tampa, Florida, they take to her like New Yorkers do.”

She’s also found that this show, which has been around for over 50 years and is based on issues of aging and midlife crises, has “an incredible following of people in their 30s. It’s about someone turning 35. Older couples can be amused by it, but younger people can really relate to it. As with all (Stephen) Sondheim shows, you walk out still talking about how the characters behaved.”

“Company” features a book by George Furth that is rich in social commentary. Many of Sondheim’s songs for the show have been staples in New York cabaret acts for decades, including “The Ladies Who Lunch,” “Side by Side by Side,” the powerful ballad “Being Alive” and the snappy patter song “Getting Married Today.”

The plot concerns coupledom. Bobbie is single. The friends who’ve gathered to celebrate Bobbie’s 35th birthday are all married or engaged. The twist in this production is that Bobbie is played as a woman. The character was Robert in the original and nearly every production since.

There have been three Broadway revivals of “Company” since the show premiered in 1970 — in 1995, 2006 and 2021. This is only the second national tour that “Company” has ever had, and the Shubert Theatre has hosted both of them. The first was in 1971, starring George Chakiris and featuring Stritch from the original Broadway cast doing her singular rendition of “The Ladies Who Lunch.” This one is based on the 2021 Broadway revival with Katrina Lenk and Lupone, which in turn is based on a revival in London’s West End which was the first major production of “Company” to feature a woman playing the role of Bobbie. On tour, the role of Bobbie is played by Britney Coleman, known in Connecticut for playing Guenevere in “Camelot” at Westport Country Playhouse in 2016.

McLane says this tour of “Company” — directed, as were the Broadway and West End versions, by the renowned British director Marianne Elliott — looks “the same as the Broadway production with the exception of a lift. Some of the technology we don’t need on tour. The set is effective and beautiful.”

As for Joanne, McLane said “in this production, she’s not just jaded and cold. I wanted to get beneath that, to discover why Joanne is how she is. Who she is and what she says can be two different things. Playing Bobbie as a woman changes the dynamic of the scene we have together. The stakes are higher for Bobbie as a woman. It’s no longer just about a certain kind of jealousy. It might be about whether Joanne thinks Bobbie is making a play for her husband.”

McLane sees the iconic “Ladies Who Lunch” number as Joanne asserting herself. “She’s saying ‘I’m going to tell you who I am before you have an opportunity to tell me who I am,’” McLane said. “Like with Rose, with Joanne, you have to come from the human side first. Why is she like she is?”

She finds endless assistance in the book and score. “George Furth wrote an amazing book. Sondheim was a prince of setting human behavior. Joanne comes off tough and curt and brusque, but I think she’s fun and dangerous. You can see the amount of unconditional love her husband Larry has for her.”

McLane auditioned for the “Company” tour just days before heading to the Goodspeed to do “Gypsy” last spring. Sondheim wrote the lyrics for “Gypsy,” which has a book by Arthur Laurents and a score by Jule Styne. McLane had just done a different Sondheim show, the revue “Putting It Together,” before doing “Gypsy.”

She was able to meet the famed composer, who died in 2021 at the age of 91, more than once.

“I did a national tour of ‘Into the Woods’ and Stephen Sondheim turned up,” McLane said. “Years later, I sang at the Sharon Playhouse in a tribute to Jonathan Tunick, who was Sondheim’s orchestrator for so many years. This was weeks before Stephen Sondheim died. He stayed up and partied with us until 1 a.m. I was one of the last people to sing to him.”

The national tour of the musical “Company” (book by George Furth, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim) runs Jan. 31 through Feb. 4 at the Shubert Theatre, 247 College St., New Haven. Performances are Wednesdays through Fridays at 7:30 p.m. Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. $58.30-$138. shubert.com/events/all.