When Judy Kuhn first performed Rodgers, Rodgers & Guettel at Lincoln Center last year, the reviewer for The New York Times described her style as one of "passionate restraint." Reminded of the comment, the long-running Broadway star let out an unrestrained laugh.
"People always tell me I'm restrained," she said. "I don't know what it means, but I try to take it as a compliment. I guess it means that I bring passion, but it's not over the top."
Whatever it is precisely, this passionate restraint has served Kuhn well through a Broadway career that is still in high gear after more than 30 years. Currently in the cast of Fun Home, Kuhn will take time to bring Rodgers, Rodgers & Guettel to Feinstein's at the Nikko on June 3 and 4. It's the first performance since its debut as part of Lincoln Center's American Songbook program.
The names in the show's title refers to three generations in one of musical theater's first families of songwriters: Richard Rodgers, who is represented with songs from The King and I, South Pacific, and Oklahoma!; his daughter Mary Rodgers, best known for Once Upon a Mattress; and her son Adam Guettel, whose successes include Floyd Collins and The Light in the Piazza.
"There are lots of businesses that have dynasties, and there are generations of actors and writers," Kuhn said recently from New York, "but I'd never heard about that with musical theater songwriters, especially in the case where the generations are all so masterful. I think that's just amazing DNA."
Kuhn first got the notion for the show while performing a benefit concert where Mary Rodgers and Guettel were present. "People were singing songs from all three generations, and first of all, I wanted to sing all of that music because I love it so much, and then I thought of it as an American Songbook evening because it's a century of American songs from one family."
First came the research, as Kuhn talked with people connected to the family. "I just wanted to get as many stories and as much information as I could to get a little insight into their brains," she said. "It was quite an adventure." (The results are also available in a studio recording of Rodgers, Rodgers & Guettel. )
Working with musical director Todd Almond, who will be appearing with Kuhn at Feinstein's, she "mashed up" some of the songs so the different generations "could have a conversation with each other." Kuhn identifies the composers of the songs as she sings them �" some are well-known, while others are obscurities brought forth in her research �" but there isn't a lot of spoken-word history. "I don't want to give a musicology lesson," she said. "I think what's much more interesting is how do you listen to one of Adam's songs after you hear one of his mother's or grandfather's songs."
Kuhn's appearance at Feinstein's comes close to the end of a medical leave from Fun Home for hip-replacement surgery. Recovery has been going well, she said, and eventually she'll have the other hip replaced as well. "I have osteoarthritis, which has been a slow deterioration. I'm sure the fact that I'm a very active person, and I'm an actor and my work is physical, has accelerated the deterioration." Too much dancing? "Oh, God, I don't dance."
Even without a terpsichorean specialty, Kuhn has found steady and usually lauded work on stage. A classical musical student in college, she made her Broadway debut in 1985 in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and a few of her subsequent credits include the original American productions of Les Miserables, Chess, Rags, and Sunset Boulevard. There have been four Tony nominations along the way, most recently for her performance in Fun Home.
The musical is based on writer/artist Alison Bechdel's autobiographical memoir in comic-book form that focuses on her coming of age, and how her coming out as a lesbian is complicated by her father's secret gay life and his probable suicide. Kuhn plays the beleaguered wife and mother who must navigate through her husband's secrets and her daughter's revelations.
Kuhn is currently contemplating an extension that will keep her with Fun Home through the end of the year. "It depends on what else comes up," she said. "But I'm happy to stay there as long as I can, because I love it so much and it's been one of the more remarkable journeys of my career. I was introduced to the material when it was barely more than a sketch four-and-a-half-years ago, and I thought it was going to be something special, but the success has been beyond anyone's hopes and dreams."
What might Kuhn want to do next? "I'd love to do something funny, because I've done a lot of sad things," she said. "It would be great to play someone who's not in a tragic situation. Maybe it's time for a little laughter."