Q&A with Anything Goes Star Connor Cheney

As part of an ongoing series covering this year’s Repertory Theater’s production of Anything Goes, Patch sat down with Connor Cheney, a junior who plays the comedic role of Sir Evelyn Oakleigh, a wealthy yet hopeless, English nobleman who is engaged to ingénue, Hope Harcourt.

Patch: What musical and performance activities are you involved in outside of Repertory Theater and what rep theater productions have you participated in in the past?

Cheney: I am a member of Concert Choir, Select Choir, Men’s Choir, Chamber Choir, and Sensations – the a capella choir. During my freshman year, I was in the ensemble in Rep Theater’s production of Curtains and last year I played Edna Turnblad (Tracy’s mother) in Hairspray. Outside of school, I performed in two shows with the Stars Theater acting camp, where I played Captain Hook in Peter Pan and Charlie Brown in You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. Over the summer, I was a counselor at The Actor’s Camp in Mountainside.

Patch: Playing Edna must have been a huge undertaking. Would you consider yourself primarily a comedic actor?

Cheney: I guess I would consider myself a comedic actor. I definitely like being funny. As an actor, comedy is actually more challenging. One of my acting teachers once told me, “comedy is deathly serious.” This is completely true because if you don’t take your jokes deathly seriously and fail to commit to their delivery, it becomes too tedious for you and your audience. However, comedic acting is much more fun and rewarding. When you’re part of a really serious scene, you don’t hear everyone in the audience go “Oh, that was really serious.” When you’re funny, you hear laughter come at you.  Entertaining people and hearing them verbally love it is the best feeling in the entire world.

Patch: What was your reaction when you heard that this year’s selection for Rep Theater was Anything Goes?

Cheney: I had never really heard of it before, so I went to see the revival on Broadway with my family and I loved it. I liked the music and I thought that the jokes were well written and funny.

Patch: What was the casting and audition process like?

Cheney: For my audition I sang, “I want to be a Producer” from The Producers. The tap audition was challenging. If you’re born with two left feet like me, it definitely wasn’t easy.  

Patch: How did you feel when you found out that you had won the part of Sir Evelyn Oakleigh?

Cheney: The final cast list didn’t go up until about 11 at night. Right up until the list was posted, everyone was on the Music Boosters website hitting F5 over and over to try and refresh the page as fast as possible. It was so hectic! Everyone on Facebook was freaking out, but when I finally saw the list, I was really happy.

Patch: What is it like to work with music director/producer Jan Allen, director, Matt Capodicasa and choreographer,  Gisa Dilrio?

Cheney: Ms. Allen is always really funny. She knows how to joke around and get work done at the same time. Matt is kind of the same way. He wants the show to be good, and he wants you to be good as an actor and a performer. Gisa is great, she taught me how to dance!

Patch: Rep Theater is a huge time commitment, meaning that you spend so much time with the same people. Tell us about the relationship you have with your cast mates.

Cheney: I have met almost all of my friends through the music department. I don’t know what I would do without it. In Rep, you start out not really knowing each other, but after spending three months, constantly together, you become really good friends.

Patch: Tap is an extremely rigorous and difficult style of dance to master in such a short amount of time. What is it like to witness such a large cast learning the art of tap?

Cheney: It is kind of hectic, scary and really impressive at the same time. When you have 50 plus people on that stage, it is really loud, but you can tell that all of these people really want to learn this and make it look good. It’s beautiful in a weird way.

Patch: How do you spend your spare time when you’re not onstage? Many students often find that junior year is often the toughest year of high school. How are you managing your time?

Cheney: Outside of school, I like to hang out with my friends and play video games. I have plunged way too many hours into Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim but I still love it. Between junior year and Rep, you really don’t manage. There is always something you have to leave behind. You don’t really see your friends outside of the music department until May.

Patch: What are your favorite numbers in Anything Goes? Who are some of your favorite actors right now?

Cheney: I really like Bruce Willis and Tom Hanks, but right now, I have a total man-crush on Robert Downey Jr. right now. He is so versatile.

Patch: What are your plans for college and life after high school? Will you continue to be involved in music and performing after you graduate?

Cheney: Ever since I was little, I have always loved to entertain and make people laugh, but Rep Theater definitely made me braver on stage. I would like to pursue acting or directing in the film industry, so I am looking into art schools to attend after I graduate. My two favorite directors are Stanley Kubrick and Quentin Tarantino; I know every word to Pulp Fiction.