Matthew Morrison, beloved as “Mr. Schue” to many fans of the hit FOX series Glee which ended its six-season run last March, is singing and dancing again – on Broadway! Matthew is back with aplomb with a starring role in Finding Neverland, a musical based in part on the dramatic movie of the same name which earned five Golden Globe Award nominations, including best picture-drama.
As glee club director Mr. Schuester in Glee, Matthew got to display his triple threat talents. As J.M. Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, in Finding Neverland – which is drawing crowds nightly at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre – Matthew commands the Broadway stage. Sporting a full beard that becomes him and speaking and singing in Barrie’s Scottish accent, the actor looks like he’s having the time of his life.
Night after night, the show’s audiences, no doubt packed with many fans of Glee are cheering and applauding Matthew as he belts several standout songs by Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy. It’s a triumphant return to Broadway for Matthew, who earned Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations for his featured role as Fabrizio Nacarelli in The Light in the Piazza.
He also played Lt. Cable in the acclaimed revival of South Pacific at the Lincoln Center Theater. In another musical adaptation of a movie, John Waters’ 1960s rock and roll comedy Hairspray, Matthew earned favorable critical notices as teen heartthrob Link Larkin.
Broadway was the inevitable destination of Matthew who already made waves in stage productions at the Orange County High School of the Arts. He moved closer to the Great White Way when he enrolled at the New York University’s famed Tisch School of the Arts.
Just after two years at NYU, Broadway beckoned Matthew when he won a part in another film-to-stage adaptation, Footloose. More opportunities on stage and breaks on TV shows soon followed.
In Finding Neverland, the two-time (2010 and 2011) Golden Globe nominee for best actor in a TV series-musical or comedy (Glee) winningly manages to hold his own amid sure-fire scene-stealers – a charming dog and talented boy actors – who figure prominently in the musical directed by Diane Paulus and with a book by James Graham.
The show, developed by Harvey Weinstein – who also produced the original movie that featured Johhny Depp as Barrie – also stars Laura Michelle Kelly as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and Anthony Warlow, a standout as Charles Frohman and Captain James Hook. Anthony is stepping in temporarily for Kelsey Grammer through September 13, when Grammer resumes playing the dual roles.
As in the movie, the musical, which bowed in London in 2012 and then reworked in a version that opened in Cambridge, Massachusetts, follows the story of J.M. Barrie. It dramatizes the Scottish novelist and playwright’s relationship with widow Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and her four sons, who became Barrie’s inspiration to write Peter Pan, the classic tale of a boy who can fly and never grows up.
A group of Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) members recently watched a performance of Finding Neverland. After the show, the members interviewed Matthew right on the fabled Lunt-Fontanne Theatre stage.
Despite being exhausted from performing in two shows, including a matinee, on this recent Saturday night, Matthew graciously answered questions. For him, the full beard was a nice transition from Mr. Schuester and into Mr. Barrie and his post-Glee career.
Matthew expressed his gratitude to Harvey for offering him the coveted part.
The Fort Ord, California, native laughed as he recalled that he was practicing his Scottish accent for the musical as he was shooting Glee. As a result, his Mr. Schuester was starting to speak in a Scottish accent too so Matthew tried hard to suppress that on the Glee set.
The members also got to chat with Laura, who demonstrated an uncanny ability to identify the members’ nationalities without any clues offered.
Matthew, who said the dog that plays Barrie’s pet always steals the scene, was upstaged again by the appearance of the two fluffy dogs that alternate in the role.
Ruben V. Nepales

Photo credit: Ruben V. Nepales/HFPA