Jeff Kelley, who plays Rooster Hannigan in the national touring production of Annie that lands next week at the Boch Center Wang Theatre, was not your typical theater kid. Unlike much of the theater community in his age group (almost 33), the Barnstable native did not grow up with ‘Rent’ posters on his wall and didn’t even try his hand at acting until he was in college. After some struggles with his major (earth science) at UMass Amherst, he decided to switch to music as a major (he was a jazz drummer) and took a semester off to focus on auditioning for the school’s music program.
“I went home for the summer and started working on my audition, but my grandfather had dementia, and I had a hard time wanting to practice,” said Kelly. “But I knew I didn’t really want to chase (jazz drumming), so I think my brain went, ‘Oh, now you have an excuse not to pursue it.’ I think I already knew it wasn’t a path I wanted to go down.”
While home, his friend Brian Rice, technical director at Cape Cod Community College, referred him to Vanas Trudeau, who asked him to audition for the school’s production of Macbeth. Despite having zero acting experience, he got the part of Banquo, and was off-book by the first rehearsal. “Oh my God, it was a really fun time, and I just wanted to keep doing it.” That led to an audition for How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying at the Falmouth Theatre Guild in 2015, but first, he had to audition for the UMass music program.
“I went to the callback for How To Succeed and had the time of my life, then I went to Amherst the next day with my dad,” he explains. “I just remember it was snowing like crazy, and we got to Amherst, and the auditions were in the music building. I went in, put my name on the list, and was in the holding room. I just decided that I didn’t want to do it, so I walked out the back door. I waited 45 minutes, then called my dad. I told him I did the audition, but it didn’t go well. I think he knew (that I didn’t do it), so he was pretty upset. But on the car ride back, I found out I had landed the lead for How To Succeed, and I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to do this for the rest of my life’. There was this cool little moment for me, being able to say goodbye to something that I used to pursue so seriously. The passion hadn’t really fizzled; it just didn’t feel like the right path anymore. I think that was the moment when I decided I was going to go into theater.”
From there, he continued doing community theater in the fall and winter and regional theater (primarily Cape Rep) in the spring and summer. He began auditioning in New York and would make it to the callbacks, “but I wouldn’t be able to get through the dance call because I was just not a dancer,” he says. During a run of Hair in Provincetown in 2018, a friend suggested he go to AMDA (American Musical and Dramatic Academy) in New York. “I’d seen this guy on the audition circuits, and I had seen him perform previously, and he just grew tremendously as a performer, specifically in his dance focus,” says Kelly. That convinced him to audition, and he received a scholarship from AMDA and began school in 2019. After three semesters, COVID shut it down. “I just stopped doing theater for a year and a half because I didn’t think it was ever going to come back, and I certainly didn’t think it would recover the way it has.”
He managed a burrito place and worked as a landscaper during the pandemic until the school re-opened. He moved back to New York, working full-time, beginning his day at 5 AM in a coffee shop and going to AMDA at night. He nearly quit the business before his roommate talked him out of it. Instead, “I quit my coffee shop job and went back into school with all pistons firing,” says Kelly. “And I finished up the semester really strong, booked a regional house right after that, and I’ve kind of been booked ever since.”
Those bookings included an Off-Broadway production of Friends! The Musical Parody, and a cruise ship gig, followed by roles in Million Dollar Quartet (ironically as Fluke, the drummer) at Shadowland Stages, and Tommy Devito in Jersey Boys at Playhouse on the Square before landing the role of Rooster Hannigan in the national touring production of Annie. The tour began last October and will continue into mid-May, taking him to all corners of the country and Canada.
Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Kelly had never seen the movie or stage version of Annie before landing the role. “I had already been doing the show for almost 100 performances before I decided to watch the movie,” says Kelly. “That was intentional. I knew coming into this that there were iconic performances of Rooster, and I didn’t want to replicate them. The director had a very specific vision for how she wanted Rooster, so I made sure to develop it as close to what we wanted it to be before I watched Tim Curry’s version.”
Kelly is excited to return to the area for a six-day, eight-show run at the Boch Center beginning next Tuesday (February 6 through the 11th), coming full circle with a life choice he didn’t even know he wanted. “I met with a friend of mine recently that I did drumline (marching band) together with in high school, and we were laughing about (my career) because I used to be kind of against the drama club back then. The drumline and the drama club kids didn’t get along,” laughs Kelly. “I just think it’s funny that now I’m not only one of them – it’s my career.”
For tickets and information for Annie, go to: https://www.bochcenter.org/events/detail/annie
Fascinating life’s story for you. I am the same as you were. I have been music director in the past before moving to the cape. But tremble at the thought of speaking to an audience.
I played in 2 orchestras and a string quartet. With a group, I could perform, but don’t ask me to do solo work.
It sounds like you are on your way!! Break a leg!