E-Mail This Article to a Friend Broadway in Gloucester A sea change for Tony McLean BY SALLY CRAGIN

As a choirboy he sang for the pope, and as an adult he danced at George Abbott’s 100th-birthday party. Until recently, the Dorchester-born Tony McLean was president of Broadway in Boston/Clear Channel Entertainment, and he helped shape The Lion King before it went to Broadway. When he worked for Disney Theatrical, he oversaw the Broadway and touring versions of Beauty and the Beast. But after decades as a producer, he’s "getting back to the creative side" by directing Gloucester Stage Company’s upcoming musical revue. Conceived by Walter Bobbie and originally produced by New York’s Roundabout Theatre Company in 1993, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s A Grand Night for Singing offers a smorgasbord of R&H numbers, including songs from classics like Oklahoma! and South Pacific and overlooked gems from State Fair and Flower Drum Song.

"For years," the fortysomething McLean explains, "I worked with designers, choreographers, and producers. I’ve never not been with creative people — I understand what creative people are like, and it helps when I’m talking with them. Here we have a show that’s being done with five wonderful performers, so we make sure the song and material and performance complement one another. I giggle, but I know a heck of a lot about not just the history of the musical theater — I’ve seen just about everything there is to be seen. But this is a very simple show with beautiful, innovative songs, simply staged."

McLean’s theatrical journey began in childhood, when he attended Boston Archdiocesan Choir School. "It was the official boys’ school for the archdiocese. You’d have Mass at 8 and then French, math, and history. It’s a terrific education but also a great musical education." He was introduced to the work of Gilbert and Sullivan (favorites of his mother — "those great old discs, the Savoyards"), and the choirboys put on "mini versions" of the operettas. The stage-struck lad went on to Boston College High School and then to the School of Theater Arts at Boston University, where he studied with David Wheeler and Alan Schneider. As a college kid, he put on a production of Enter Laughing at the Boston Center for the Arts in 1977 — "before anyone used the building," he laughs. "Those were the days when you’d break at midnight and take a cab to Arlington Street station because you wouldn’t walk it."

His experience since receiving his BFA from BU has been extensive. "Watching [original director] James Lapine do Into the Woods when the national tour started was an interesting experience. Here was a show that was already set — had already been done in New York City and they were duplicating it for the tour. He was making sure the performers were making the roles their own without taking away from what the character was. Cleo Laine was going to be Cleo Laine playing the part of the witch — not Bernadette Peters playing the witch."

Another inspiration was legendary producer/director George Abbott, who did "everything" in the theater during his long life. "He was in his 40s before he directed and in his 60s when he directed A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." For McLean, Abbott’s career is proof that "a life in the theater knows no time limit. You can constantly keep evolving."

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s A Grand Night for Singing is at Gloucester Stage Company, 267 East Main Street in Gloucester, June 9 through 26. Tickets are $30, $20 for seniors and students; call (978) 281-4433, or visit www.gloucesterstage.org