Local actor returns to DC for role in visiting ‘Beautiful’ tour

It was in high school that Paul Scanlan stumbled into the notion that he was good at acting — a realization that has paid off. Scanlan, who grew up in Olney, Md., and attended Catholic University, is back home through the holidays as part of the touring cast of Beautiful — The Carole King Musical, which last night began a monthlong run at the National Theatre.

“I think sometime in high school I realized I wasn’t really good at much else, at least to my knowledge,” Scanlan said. “It was more of a ‘this is what I’m doing right now, and I want to follow it’ — I was never really dead set on it being my life passion.”

As a teenager, he figured that he enjoyed acting and he’d just “see where it goes.” It turns out, he was on the right path.

Scanlan says his most challenging role to date was his first show in college — The Marriage of Bette and Boo, a dark comedy by Christopher Durang.

“I had the lead role in that — it was a really intimate and revealing play,” he said. “It required a lot from every actor and was unlike the other shows I had done: Kiss Me, Kate and Cinderella and other fun farces.”

The Marriage of Bette and Boo was the first time he fully realized what a character was going through. Scanlan would come home after a rehearsal feeling depressed and couldn’t figure out why. His director taught him how to shed what he had done and leave it at the theater so he wouldn’t bring “that stuff” home with him.

“It made me realize there was more to it,” Scanlan said. “You could really tap into your emotions and what’s going on in your head, but you can also leave it on stage and not let it burden you further.”

The play was during his freshman year at Montgomery College back in 2008. Scanlan had never asked why he’d been cast.

“I don’t think I was that self-reflective back then,” he said. “I’m sure I felt nervous about the big responsibility, having never had to carry a show, but it never occured to me to ask.”

Scanlan has since fallen back into the lighter, more musical fare, joining the Beautiful tour at the end of August. He got lucky, auditioning Aug. 19 and finding out the next day that he was in. HIs first performance was in Denver. Since then, the company has been to San Diego, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Calgary, Costa Mesa and Edmonton, ending up finally in Washington, DC.

“Coming home to DC will be amazing as I’ve done most of my professional work here,” said Scanlan, who now lives in New York City. “DC is just in my blood, and my whole life has been here. It’s amazing for friends and family who’ve seen me a bunch in shows around here [and] will get to see me in this new setting, at a very big theater and [in a] big show.”

Scanlan has performed regularly at Arlington’s Signature Theatre in the past few years — where he has appeared in musicals such as The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Company, The Threepenny Opera, Sunday in the Park With George, Elmer Gantry, Simply Sondheim and La Cage Aux Folles, as well as many cabarets and open house events. Other local credits include The Laramie Project at Ford’s Theatre and Orphie & The Book of Heroes and Lost in the Stars at the Kennedy Center — a venue he particularly enjoys visiting as a patron.

While he has never performed at the Olney Theatre, the venue just a few miles from his childhood home has a special place in his heart. One of his first jobs in high school was working as a house assistant at the venue, where he aided the house managers in whatever was deemed necessary — whether that meant taking tickets, selling concessions or removing garbage. “It would be a cool homecoming if I ever got to work there,” he said.

Scanlan plays a few different parts in Beautiful, including Bill Medley, half of the iconic Righteous Brothers. He gets to sing “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” which is the 20th century’s most played radio song.

He also plays a few ensemble parts and a character named Nick in the second act, a guitarist Scanlan believes is loosely based on musician James Taylor. Scanlan also serves as understudy for a few roles in the musical, which tells the story of singer-songwriter Carole King’s path to stardom.

As far as the DC arts scene, Scanlan praised Arena Stage for having a “good habit” of rounding out its subscriber base by bringing in schoolchildren, who get to witness the ability of the arts to provoke emotional and cerebral responses.

“Kids can get a sense about what it means to be an active audience member,” he said. “I think getting kids in theater and dance, even just as audience members from the start, is worth it, no matter how young they are or the quality of performance they see.”

Beautiful — The Carole King Musical runs through Sunday, Dec. 30, at the National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.