Sandy Duncan: An old-school star is reborn

Sandy Duncan was battling laryngitis when she answered the phone in a Memphis hotel room recently, but rescheduling an interview was out of the question, the actress said.

Midway through her six-month tour as the star of a new production of "The King and I," which comes to the Wang Theatre on Tuesday, Duncan had too much to say about the state of Broadway, young actors and audiences, and the lives of women of a certain age to let a little vocal strain get in her way.

Duncan, who is 58, made her professional theater debut at the age of 12 in Dallas, where she played a little princess in a summer touring production of "The King and I." She has worked almost nonstop since. But the last time she performed in a Broadway road show was in the mid-1980s, when she and Tommy Tune took the Broadway hit "My One and Only" on a worldwide tour.

Costarring in the bubbly Gershwin song and dance show was "one of the absolute highlights of my career," says Duncan. Tune was Duncan's first dance teacher at Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas, her senior prom date, and her first professional partner, she explains. Duncan and her husband, former song-and-dance man Don Correia, took over the Broadway roles that Tune and Twiggy originated in "My One and Only."

In 1985, when Duncan signed on to tour with Tune, Correia landed a starring role in "Singin' in the Rain" on Broadway. Duncan trekked from city to city with the couple's two young sons, Jeffrey and Michael, in tow -- both still in diapers, she recalls.

"When we got back to New York, I did TV work, I did concerts, I did musicals and plays," says Duncan. "But I didn't tour, because I also concentrated on being wife and mother."

Duncan signed on for the current six-month stint as Anna in "The King and I" largely, she says, because her baby boys are grown up and have left home. Michael, her younger son, is studying at Tulane University. Jeffrey graduates next spring from New York University.

He's concentrating in theater, his mother says with a sigh that resounds with notes of both pride and trepidation. "The theater picks you," she says. "But it's a very different, difficult business today."

Christopher B. Manes, founder and director of the Theater of the Stars in Atlanta, and a lead producer in Independent Presenters Network, the consortium that is mounting "The King and I," describes Duncan as "a star from the old school." "She can hoof, she can sing, she can act, and she grew up on Broadway at a time when people who could do that became stars," Manes says. "That is among reasons she can still pack a theater."

Duncan grew up in Texas and "spent my life in dance classes," she says. She studied briefly at Lon Morris College.

In 1965, auditioned for a summer job at City Center in New York and was cast in a series of summer shows. She never went back to Texas.

On a whim during the first summer she spent in the Big Apple, Duncan auditioned for a dance role in legendary choreographer Agnes de Mille’s production of ‘‘Carousel.’’

Expecting to be thanked and dismissed at the end of the audition, along with the other ‘‘bun heads’’ who weren’t members of American Ballet Theatre, she was pleasantly surprised when de Mille suggested that Duncan read for a dancing/

speaking part in the production.

At the end of that audition, de Mille said imperiously: ‘‘If you take off 10 pounds of that lard you’re carrying, you can have the role’’ of Billy Bigelow’s daughter, Louise, Duncan recalls.

‘‘I was 5-3 and didn’t have a lot of lard to lose,’’ she says. ‘‘But of

course I did it.’’

‘‘Carousel’’ made it easier for the young actress to land parts in shows such as ‘‘The Music Man’’ and ‘‘Life With Father.’’ She won her first Tony nomination as best supporting actress in a musical for "Canterbury Tales’’ in 1969, and another for her starring role in "The Boy Friend’’ in 1971.

One of her favorite star turns on Broadway, though, was in ‘‘Peter Pan,’’ a role she took on shortly after she underwent surgery to remove an ocular tumor that left her

with sight in only one eye. ‘‘I did the show 1,000 times,’’ she says.

‘‘But when big, tall waiters stop me in restaurants and tell me they remember me as Peter Pan, I worry,’’ she says. ‘‘Why are they waiting on tables, not working? It’s very hard for young actors today.

‘‘They’re incredibly well trained,’’ Duncan adds. ‘‘But theater doesn’t have the heart it had. It’s run by producers, not theater people, today.’’

Duncan and Correia, who gave up theater for real estate 16 years ago, sold the Upper East Side brownstone where they raised their sons and bought a house in Connecticut, Duncan says.

‘‘When I get back, we’ll look for a little place to buy in the city,’’ she says. ‘‘Children leaving the house leaves a hole in your heart, particularly for women — even those who have careers.’’

Of that career, she adds: ‘‘It’s particularly hard for women in my business to have longevity. I’ve worked since the age of 12, and I know now that the window of opportunity is closing. But I’ve never been much of a workaholic. And I pick and choose my projects.’’

Most recently, Duncan performed the role of Roxie Hart in ‘‘Chicago’’ on Broadway. She starred last spring in ‘‘The Belle of Amherst,’’ a one-woman play at the Virginia Arts Festival. ‘‘This tour,’’ she says, ‘‘is about rejuvenating and refocusing my career and my life.’’

Maureen Dezell can be reached at dezell@globe.com.

Sandy Duncan is in ‘‘The King and I,’’ which starts at the Wang Theatre on Tuesday and runs through Sunday. Tickets are $28-75. 617-482-9393.