It seems that, for Duncan Stewart, there’s no escaping Chicago, the hit Broadway musical he has cast for the past 10 years, as well as its West End and national and international touring productions.
Although Chicago is just one of many shows the Victoria-raised casting director has worked on since he moved to New York, the Kander and Ebb musical holds a special place in his heart, he says.
No wonder Stewart, who lives just a Playbill’s throw from the Ambassador Theatre, its Broadway home at 219 W. 49th St., was thrilled to learn Chicago would open here the day he comes home for a Christmas holiday.
“It’s going to be so great to see the show in Victoria,” Stewart said on the phone from midtown Manhattan.
He was as enthusiastic about how the experience will be a “family affair” as he was about the touring production (at the Royal Theatre Dec. 18-23) itself.
“I’ll be there to cover Chicago on the road, to spend time with my family and to let my dad experience the show that I’ve known so well for 10 years.”
His father, Douglas Stewart, the retired lawyer and federal Liberal MP for Okanagan-Kootenay, has never been able to get to New York to see Chicago. He’s currently battling throat cancer.
“It seems surreal to me that he’s never seen the show,” said Stewart, whose brother Cameron Stewart, an International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees assistant technical director, also happens to be working on Chicago here. Stewart will also reconnect with his sisters Allison and Lauren, and with members of the cast of the national touring company being brought here by impresario Henry Kolenko’s Broadway in Victoria.
“The last time I saw this cast was in a rehearsal hall three weeks ago,” said Stewart, who cast its ensemble and principals, including Broadway stars Lana Gordon and Dylis Croman as Velma and Roxie, respectively.
“We have a lot of Broadway alumni in the show coming to Victoria,” said Stewart. Others include Broadway veteran Paul Vogt as Roxie’s cuckolded husband Amos, and Jeff McCarthy, of Urinetown fame, as suave lawyer Billy Flynn.
Stewart, a former Canadian College of Performing Arts, Victoria Conservatory of Music and University of Victoria student who once did summer shows at Butchart Gardens, had originally planned to pursue a stage career in New York.
Detecting he had an eye for talent, Barry and Fran Weissler suggested he go into casting instead. He worked for the legendary Broadway producers before launching his own casting agency with Benton Whitley.
Stewart established a solid reputation for “star-casting” — casting film and TV stars in shows on Broadway, in London and in touring productions — before expanding to connect creative individuals of all stripes.
Through his company, now known as Stewart/Whitley, his accomplishments include casting Sofia Vergara, Michelle Williams, Christie Brinkley, Usher and Rumer Willis in Chicago; Kelsey Grammar and George Hamilton in La Cage Aux Folles; and Josh Groban in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, the offbeat pop opera that closed in September after racking up 12 Tony nominations.
“Josh was a consummate pro, playing piano, accordion and his acting out like a dream. It was so much fun,” recalled Stewart, who hasn’t slowed down.
His company has been casting the Stephen Schwartz musical The Prince of Egypt for two years, including a San Francisco production bound for Denmark; the national tour of Broadway’s Finding Neverland; and productions of West Side Story and Sondheim on Sondheim with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. Their next partnership with the orchestra is Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer.
“It is gigantic, a classical/musical-theatre piece, and Elkhanah is smarter than heck,” says Stewart, who is reuniting with the L.A. Philharmonic for the show at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. “It has turned into a lovely relationship.”
Stewart’s other projects include casting As You Like It and Twelfth Night for John Doyle (The Colour Purple), artistic director of New York’s Classic Stage Company.
Stewart admits that if it weren’t for his preoccupation casting so many other shows, including Broadway-branded musicals for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Chicago might have become boring by now.
“Because I cast so many other shows, I get to go in and out of Chicago,” says Stewart, who has watched so many rehearsals and performances from his “perch” at the Ambassador he almost knows it by heart.
“I could be like Clayton Jevne, who used to do that One-Man Hamlet,” he says with a laugh. “I could probably do the One-Man Chicago. My Mama Morton rocks.”
Having rotating celebrities in Chicago keeps the cast on their toes and the show sharp, says Stewart, since the cast must support each incoming star with rehearsals.
He’s particularly pumped about his latest Chicago casting coup, social media star Todrick Hall, the YouTube sensation playing Billy Flynn after starring as Lola in Kinky Boots.
“He has a trillion followers online and he tweets like a madman,” said Stewart, who suggested Hall would be better-suited playing Billy rather than appearing in drag as reporter Mary Sunshine, the role for which he auditioned. “He seemed a bit crestfallen, but I said: ‘Look, the last time you were on Broadway everybody saw you in a dress. Don’t they now want to see you in a tux?’ ”
Another project on Stewart’s list of favourite experiences was Hadestown “a folk opera done in a musical-theatre sort of way” that is slated for Broadway next fall, but was “incubated” at Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre.
“The producers and director [Rachel Chavkin] said they felt supported, nurtured and that it was a safe place where they could build their show,” he said. “Everyone said: ‘Why don’t we go to Canada more often?’ ”
Stewart cast five of the leads from New York, but the rest of the cast was Canadian “and everybody blended in beautifully,” he said. “Everyone said they had no idea it would be such an extraordinary partnership.”
