Monday, Jan. 29, 2007 | 7:26 a.m.
What: Sandy Duncan in "The Glass Menagerie"
When: 8 p.m. Feb. 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, with 2 p.m. matinees on Feb. 11, 17, 18
Where: UNLV's Judy Bayley Theatre
Tickets: $25 general admission; $20 for seniors, students, military and handicapped; 895-2787
Peter Pan wasn't supposed to grow up, but the pixie-ish Sandy Duncan - who played the role on Broadway - has turned 60.
She will star as the aging mother, Amanda Wingfield, in Tennessee Williams' first hit play, "The Glass Menagerie." The production will be presented by the Nevada Conservatory Theatre Feb. 9-18 in the Judy Bayley Theatre at UNLV.
Duncan, noted for her dancing and singing talents as well as acting skills, made her Broadway debut in 1965 in a revival of "The Music Man." She has been nominated for a Tony Award three times - for "Canterbury Tales" in 1969, the revival of "The Boy Friend" in 1972 and "Peter Pan" in 1980.
The Texas native has made New York her home for more than 40 years, and appeared as Missy Anne Reynolds in the ABC miniseries "Roots" in 1977, which earned her an Emmy Award.
She and her husband, Don Correia, have two sons. Correia, a real estate agent, also was a Broadway actor and was nominated for a Tony for "Singin' in the Rain" in 1986.
She talked about her upcoming role:
Ripe for the role
"Bob Brewer (NCT's artistic director) asked me to do the play. It's a role I'm certainly right for now. I've been scared to do it. It's hard. It's written in a particular rhythm that if you get a preposition out of place the rhythm's off and five words into the sentence you know you're screwed. It's so exact, like learning a musical score. It's extremely precise, besides the fact it hangs you up because there's always a 'now' and a 'but' and a 'why' and a 'my goodness' and a 'honey,' but they're always just slightly different so you have to really drill to know this. I've never had such trouble in learning a role in my entire life."
A tough play
"I'm having a good time and besides, I think if you get this under your belt you can feel very smug - but I have yet to get it under my belt so I'm not feeling any bit of smug right now.
"Part of the problem, too, unlike a lot of plays, there are few passages you get to where you're really saying what's on your mind. Most of the time (in "The Glass Menagerie") it's this inner story, an undercurrent of what's really going on emotionally and appliqued over it is what you're saying. It's like a lot of families are, they don't confront openly; they just sort of put things under the rug. In order to manipulate her kids (my character) does what she has to.
"Somebody said she's such a shrew. I said no, she really isn't. She's a mother. She wants the best for her kids. Having raised two of my own I know you'll do just about anything to get them to do what you think they need to be doing, whether you're right or wrong."
The right place
"I don't know if I would perform it anywhere but here. I'm just too under it right now to know. If all goes well, it's probably something I would do elsewhere. It's so absorbing. It's one layer after another. It's not tedious or boring; there's so many nuances to it you could probably do this for a very long time and still not have found it all."
What she's been doing
"I still do concerts. I have one coming up when I finish this. And I just finished doing 'Mame,' another tedious memorization process. The woman never leaves the stage. But that wasn't so difficult to learn because it's a little more superficial."
Putting her feet up
"We have a little place in Connecticut. I'm an avid gardener. And I like to do nothing. That's big on my list. I'm basically kind of lazy. I read a lot. In New York there's always something stimulating, but at the end of the day I really want to sit down, put my feet up, watch television and order in. As you get older the need to mix and mingle doesn't quite have the same importance."
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