Reporter exclusive: Linda Purl & Patrick Duffy talk about Carmel show & more
By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com
In the middle of the pandemic, television and Broadway actress and singer Linda Purl began a friendship with actor Patrick Duffy. Texts became phone calls, then Facetime calls, then hours of Zoom calls each day as that friendship blossomed into something far deeper.
The Reporter spoke to both Purl and Duffy about Purl’s upcoming March 7 show at Feinstein’s at Hotel Carmichael, and about the series of serendipitous events that brought it all together.
“This Could Be the Start is the name of the last album that I got to do with Tedd Firth, my amazing music director, who I know has played Carmel a fair amount with others,” Purl told The Reporter. “The title of the album and the songs are loosely thematically connected. That came about because we started to work on the album before the pandemic.”
Purl said the pandemic changed many things, including the focus and theme of her album several times.
“Coming out of it seemed to be a kind of reset button, certainly for me and I think for Tedd as well,” Purl said. “So we were almost starting from a clean slate or a new chapter, kind of emerging gently back into the world as it continued to reopen. We could again begin to do things like go to restaurants or hang out with friends or perform because live performance was off the table for almost two years. So it seemed like a starting point and that song seemed to capture that fresh start.”
Not only was the album and now the show named for new starts from the changes before, during, and after the pandemic, but so too was Purl and Duffy’s relationship a new thing that came from that time.
“The potential of creating such value out of something that potentially could be so negative is a reoccurring theme in both of our lives,” Duffy said. “We actually knew of each other for the last 50 years. I passed up a chance to play her husband on a TV show that she was the star of in 1978.”
They had a series of near misses every decade or two where they almost worked together, but did not. Not long before the pandemic, they met at a celebrity event and began a conversation about a mutual friend who was not in attendance.
Then came the pandemic. Each had projects canceled. Each retired to their respective homes in different states, but they kept communicating.
“In the course of about four months of COVID lockdown, we started from ‘are you still washing your vegetables’ to ‘I found this poem, let me read it to you’ to her saying, ‘listen to this piece of music,’” Duffy said. “And finally, we were Zooming for two to three hours every single night for over two months. And it got to the point where it was inevitable that we needed to see if this relationship was what we both thought and hoped it was. So I jumped in my car and I drove for 23 hours from Oregon to Colorado, ended up in her driveway with a suitcase and said, ‘here I am.’”
When asked about that marathon drive, Duffy explained that he drove most on if in one stretch.
“It was epic,” Duffy said. “I drove 22 and a half hours, but then I pulled over just before I got to her house and put on a clean pair of clothes and gargled, combed my hair, and drove up the driveway so I make a good impression. I didn’t want her to turn me around and have to drive 23 hours back right away!”
Both Purl and Duffy told The Reporter they feel like this relationship was inevitable and that it could only have happened when it did.
“We talk about this a lot, that it took us literally 45 years to make this connection,” Duffy said. “But I think we both needed to take 45 years to become the kind of people that appreciate and feel the way we feel towards each other. And it’s like you said, it’s definitely more than friendship now.”
Likewise, Purl and Duffy both said that her latest album and the show that came from it were an outgrowth of all that came before.
“The quote is, ‘you think you can sing? Okay, go sing.’” Duffy said. “Well, she thinks she can sing, but then she can back it up. She’s got the technique and she is an exemplary actress. You can’t match that with too many of the new singers in terms of performance nowadays, which is why the Great American Songbook that Linda does is so appropriate.”
Duffy compared the show to the kind of music Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra would sing.
“They had it forwards and backwards,” Duffy said. “They could do five club dates a week and perform for a couple of hours each night, a lot of times un-miked. You combine all of that, then it’s well worth your price of admission to come and see somebody that carries that cultural baggage on stage with them every single night. And that’s what Linda does.”
Purl interjected, “Oh dear. It’s terrifying now. I feel like I have a big high bar to jump over.”
After a moment of laughter she continued, “Patrick mentioned the Great American Songbook, and that is what Tedd and I do. We do it in a jazz feel. But I think for me, all roads really lead to Michael Feinstein and what he’s done. He has – I’m going to say single-handedly – led the charge of bringing the Great American Songbook into the 21st century.”
Purl said that while she is a singer, she sees herself as an actress first, so all the songs in this performance feel like miniature one-act plays to her.
“There’s an arc,” she said. “There’s a character arc with a beginning, middle, and an end. And each song then becomes a kind of spiritual discipline. And so many of those songs were written in an era from writers, lyricists, and composers, who had gone through so much. They had escaped pogroms, they had lost their families. And then just collectively, there was so much healing – psychological healing work that was going on. People were in the process of rebuilding, in often cases, shattered lives. I think all of that momentum and balm is, again, collectively in that body of work.”
Duffy agreed that each song is a story, especially when they are sung by Purl.
“I have not seen anybody – and our relationship notwithstanding – I’ve not seen anybody that connects so directly to an audience,” Duffy said. “I know it’s part of her theatrical training that she’s not just a brilliant singer, but she knows how to take the words of the song and interpret them as an actress, as well as a singer, and invite the audience to experience the meaning of each of those songs as they come out of her. It really is a theatrical performance with music. It’s one of the most remarkable sets of performance that I’ve been witness to. And again, I realize that people say, ‘well, that’s because you’re in love with her.’ But even if I weren’t in love with her, I would still buy a ticket.”
The music itself is a huge part of the show, but Purl also credits Micheal Feinstein with not only preserving that period of music history, but also bringing it to new generations.
“Michael has created these venues across the country and, of course, performed so brilliantly, oftentimes with Tedd,” Purl said. “So those of us who are fortunate to be able to have a career in cabaret are really under Michael’s wings for the space that he’s created.”
One song audiences can expect to hear in this show ties in to The Reporter’s ongoing promotion of the upcoming eclipse on April 8: “Blue Moon,” a song Purl has an interesting connection to.
“When the full moon comes out, I have made a habit of howling at the moon,” Purl said. “Somewhere along the line, I was informed by a Native American Elder that my spirit animal was Wolf, and I took it to heart. So I do howl at the moon.”
“Which makes for an awkward moment every once in a while,” Duffy laughed and said. “I must say that all of a sudden she blasts out a howl at the moon.”
“So we had to put in a howl at the end of that song,” Purl said. “We’re also dog lovers, so it was inevitable.”
It seems many things were inevitable in their story.
You can see and hear Linda Purl on March 7 at Feinstein’s at Hotel Carmichael, 1 Carmichael Square, Carmel. Get tickets online at tinyurl.com/PurlAtFeinsteins or by calling (317) 688-1700.
Be sure to read The Reporter on Wednesday, Feb. 28 for an exclusive about Duffy and Purl’s work fighting food insecurity.