Award-winning actor-director-educator Fred Sullivan Jr, was born in Chelsea, educated at St. John’s Prep in Danvers, and spent 35 years as a member of the acting company at Trinity Rep in Providence, appearing in 130 productions. Over his distinguished and distinctive career, he has played everyone from Gloucester in “King Lear” to Harold Hill in “The Music Man.” 

Fred Sullivan, Jr. appears in “Tootsie” at North Shore Music Theatre.  Photo courtesy of Fred Sullivan, Jr.

This summer, he’s spending a good deal of time devoted to “Tootsie: The Musical.” The production opened at Theatre By The Sea in Rhode Island earlier this summer and is transferring to North Shore Music Theater in Beverly for an additional two week run from Aug. 13 to Aug. 25.

Based on the classic Dustin Hoffman comedy film of the same name, “Tootsie” finds actor Michael Dorsey unemployable, due to his profound reputation of being a “difficult” talent. Needing work, Michael puts on a dress, auditions as “Dorothy” – and wins himself a role. 

Fred plays Michael’s long-suffering agent, Stan Fields, portrayed in the film by director Sydney Pollack.  In the film, Dorothy was auditioning for a soap opera.  Here, in the updated plot, he’s up for a part in a Broadway musical.

In addition to Trinity Rep, Fred has also enjoyed 28 years with The Gamm (35 productions) and 17 seasons with Commonwealth Shakespeare Co. He has acted for the Dallas Theatre Co., New Jersey Shakespeare, Actors Theatre of Louisville and Berkeley Rep, among others. 

He has also directed for Trinity Rep, The Gamm, Commonwealth Shakespeare Co., Ocean State Theatre Company and Cape Rep. And with Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards to his credit, Fred teaches his own Acting Lab in Providence and is a senior lecturer at RISD.

Fred Sullivan, Jr. and Brian Dennehy. Photo courtesy of Fred Sullivan, Jr.

It’s no surprise that he has worked and formed long-lasting friendships with literally hundreds of actors in New England and beyond.  He is very active on social media (“It’s my last addiction!), and as his Facebook fans know, he was very close friends with the late Tony Award-winning actor Brian Dennehy.  I’ve always wondered how they met.  So, we discussed that and more when Fred and I spoke by phone on a two-show day while “Tootsie” was at Theatre By The Sea.  

Here’s an edited look at our conversation. 

RD: You are one busy guy.

FS: It’s a nine-show week – two shows yesterday and two today and two on Saturday.  I feel a little like a gerbil on a treadmill. (Laughing) I love it so much, I can’t begin to tell you.

RD: You’ve performed so many places, you must have been at Theatre By The Sea in the past.

FS:  I did “The Wizard of Oz.” I love the place, but I haven’t been here in 30 years. I’ve been doing other things.  

RD: When you’re part of a resident theater company, you’re working with the same actors most of the time.  What’s it like when you walk into a rehearsal room with a whole new set of talents and faces?

FS: The guy who directed “Tootsie,” Richard J. Hinds –- I’m in awe of him.  I’ve done summer stock in my life and I’ve done things that [you only get to] rehearse for two and a half weeks.  This guy was so remarkable and talented, and he had such a clear vision.  He’s the nicest man. He never raised his voice. He never lost his cool.  He immediately became a hero of mine.  

I watched him every day, and the way he put it together.  He’s the choreographer as well as the director and I was like, you know, this is one of the best directors I’ve ever worked with.  And I’ve worked with the best, and I’ve worked with the worst, over 40 years.  Very kind man and a very talented man.

RD: In “Tootsie,” you’re taking on the role played by Sydney Pollack in the film, which he also directed.

FS: The funniest story about that was that Sydney Pollack had cast Dabney Coleman in that part, not as the director, which he wound up playing.  And Dustin Hoffman said, “I’m not gonna feel threatened by Dabney Coleman. I need you to play it.” And Sydney said, “No, I’m not gonna be in my own movie.”  And Dustin said, “No, I need somebody that will scare me and shake me up and get me to put on a dress to be another person.”  And so, finally, because Dustin was a pain in his ass, kind of driven by his own method, Sydney Pollack finally agreed to do it.  Sydney Pollack, I think, is one of the funniest things in the whole movie.  And the crazy thing about that, is when you watch him in “Death Becomes Her” and “Tootsie,” he’s so remarkably subtle.  It’s brilliant.  It’s so carved. It’s so great.  I think of him as exasperated.   

RD: This is probably minutia, but why was the character called George Fields in the movie and renamed Stan Fields in the musical.

FS: That is minutia.  (Laughing) Stan is a funnier name. (Laughing) You know immediately who he is when his name is Stan Fields . . .  In the stage version, he’s not the same guy. He doesn’t seem as highly connected.  In the film, they’re in the Russian Tea Room and he’s on the phone to the coast.  In this one, he’s still on the phone to the coast, but I don’t think he’s [the kind of guy who goes] to the Russian Tea Room.  He’s sweaty and exasperated and comes to the apartment rather than meeting in the Russian Tea Room, which is one of the funniest scenes in the play!

RD: Tell me about your friendship with Brian Dennehy.  How did you guys meet?

FS: Through Elizabeth Dennehy [his daughter] who is one of the most beautiful women you’ve ever seen in your life, and a beautiful soul. She’s an actress . . . She and I were 17, we were born in the same month, we went to Hofstra University. She thought I was cute, I thought she was cute.  Close, close, best friends. I think she reminded me of people in my family.  I stuck two pencils in my nose and when she turned around, she laughed. Her mother and two younger sisters were out at West Gilgo Beach in Long Island. Brian was off filming and would come home and collapse. We’d be out there, and he and I would talk about acting.  

Elizabeth was in a band, and once Brian and I went to listen. And it was too loud for him.  So, we drank a six pack in his car. I was playing Pseudolus in “Funny Thing Happened on The Way To The Forum,” and he had done it in a Long Island theater, so I wore his costume. We brought it in a little because he filled the door. He was the biggest man in the world.

We sat there and he started going through the character Pseudolus and breaking down what the songs were there for, and that the song “Free” was the hardest one, and it’s an anthem. And if you can get that, you can sail on that for the rest of the show.   And I was sitting there with my jaw on my chest because he took it so seriously.  And he would talk about every single moment of a character.  He was just brilliant.

RD: And it became a lifelong friendship.

FS: We loved the same things . . . He would just talk and pull things apart.  He was so generous to me.  He called me up when I left Trinity and said, “Anything I can do for you at any time.”  So, I asked him to do a benefit and came and he read “Falstaff.”   He was just so kind to me when my father died.  He was just kind of always checking in.

RD: I feel very fortunate to have seen him in “Death of a Salesman.” It was one of the most memorable nights I’ve ever experienced in the theater.

FS: I sat behind Arthur Miller when I went to “Salesman.”  I was in Brian’s seats.   And Arthur Miller turned around at intermission – I couldn’t take my eyes off the back of his head; all of that play came out of that head – and he turned around and said, “Good, huh?” And he asked, “Are you friends with Dennehy.” And I said, yes, and he said “How well do you know him?”  And I said, “I’ve known him for 42 years.” And he said, “He’s my favorite since Lee J Cobb (who originated the role of Willy Loman in 1949).   And I could see that.  
It was the 50th anniversary production and it was amazing. I mean it almost killed Brian.  It was really hard on him . . . I couldn’t believe what he was doing because it was so raw and it was so real, and it was so full.  That’s the goal for every single actor who ever lived.  That’s the goal, to do what he was doing.  

RD: Sounds like you were very blessed by the friendship.

FS:  Oskar Eustis (former artistic director at Trinity Rep) was talking about Dennehy, and he said, “You know, you guys are like the same guy.  You’re a dying breed." And I said, I am nothing like Dennehy.  And he said, “Well, besides being Irish, you’re serious theater folk whose love for the classics doesn’t come from the university. It comes from the stage.  You revere Shakespeare and O’Neill and all our great writers because you revere the artform."

Brian’s daughter said to me, “He really respects you because you’ve done live theater for your whole life . . . You’ve dedicated your life to something and made it work.”

Brian was unique . . . a big, big, lovely man . . . So, anyway, just say I loved the guy and we miss him.

“Tootsie,” at North Shore Music Theatre, Aug. 13 - 25; Info: 978-232-7200 or nsmt.org.