Singer Paulo Szot, a Tony winner, is returning to San Francisco.
Running late for an interview, Paulo Szot had to wash the blood off before he sat down to talk.
The Tony Awardwinning baritone’s rehearsal for a Madrid production of the Kurt Weill/Langston Hughes opera “Street Scene” went an hour overtime because “the tenor got sick and had to be replaced,” Szot said, apologizing. Before chatting about his unlikely journey from opera to Broadway to cabaret, he was eager to shed the trappings of his character, “a violent, disagreeable brute,” according to Hughes’ stage direction.
Judging by the Skype conversation, Szot is the antithesis of brutish. With the handsome mien of a matinee idol and a confiding, soft-spoken manner, the Brazilianborn vocalist puts the swoon back into Rodgers and Hammerstein ballads and turns up the swaying sensuality of Jobim’s bossa novas.
He’ll be drawing on both the American and Brazilian songbooks when he makes his first Bay Area appearance since the 2011 San Francisco Opera production of “Carmen,” with two shows at Feinstein’s at the Nikko, accompanied by pianist Billy Stritch, on Friday-Saturday, March 2-3.
It’s a good bet that the shows will include a piece or two from “South Pacific,” the show that transformed Szot’s life. After earning a Tony Award for the beloved musical’s historic 2008 Broadway revival, he became a regular at the intimate Cafe Carlyle and 54 Below, often working with Stritch.
“I love doing these shows,” said Szot, 48. “It’s the moment when I’m totally free. I don’t have a conductor. It’s an extreme sense of liberation.”
Born in Sao Paulo to parents who fled the communist takeover of Poland after World War II, he grew up with dreams of becoming a dancer. Entranced by musicals, Szot taught himself English by watching “A Chorus Line” over and over again.
In soccer-besotted Brazil, Szot (pronounced “shot”) felt decidedly out of place, so when he heard that the Polish government was offering full scholarships to study dance, he jumped at the opportunity. While daily life in Warsaw was marked by food rationing, he also found a fellowship of “young guys like me, passionate about dancing,” he said.
A knee injury put an end to his terpsichorean ambitions, but Szot quickly began to channel his stage aspirations into singing. He made his opera debut in 1997 and was performing internationally when he was one of dozens of opera singers tapped to audition for the first Broadway revival of “South Pacific” since Ezio Pinza originated the demanding role of Emile De Becque in the 1949 premiere.
In a story that’s become Broadway legend, Szot moved to tears the four women finalists he auditioned with on “Some Enchanted Evening” (the role went to Kelli O’Hara). A quick study, he turned into a formidable actor, embracing the challenge of “having to make your own music by speaking,” Szot said.
“The most important quality for an actor is to observe and relate what’s inside of you to the character. Right now, I’m playing a guy who kills his wife. It’s horrible, but I still have to connect to the reasons he does what he does. That’s part of the job.”
Smitten by Szot’s voice and stage presence when he saw him in “South Pacific,” Stritch sought Szot out a year later when the singer performed as part of a New York Philharmonic concert featuring Liza Minnelli.
Serving as his music director, Stritch has watched Szot “get stronger and more confident with every show he does,” he said. “Back in 2012, he was a bit shy with the audience, but no more! It’s been a pl-easure to watch him blossom into a full-fledged entertainer.”
In a story that’s become Broadway legend, Szot moved to tears the four women finalists he auditioned with on “Some Enchanted Evening.”