By Maggie Malone

After 30 years in the business, James Naughton has learned a few things about the arts. “Actors are basically kind of passive people,” he says. “We wait for the agent to ring, to get us an audition or a job.”
 
But there will be no more of that for Naughton. A 1999 cabaret show he put together from scratch, “Street of Dreams,” changed him. “The combination of directing and having created this thing was empowering,” he says. “It made it possible for me for the first time to go out and initiate my own projects.”  Naughton won his second Tony for playing the slimy attorney in 'Chicago'

Not that he hasn’t always been busy. Best known for his Tony-winning roles in the 1990s as a detective in “City of Angels” and the razzle-dazzle attorney in “Chicago,” the longtime Broadway headliner has also spent a fair amount of time in front of TV and movie cameras. The 56-year-old made his film debut in “The Paper Chase” in 1973. Over the years he’s had recurring roles on many TV shows, including “Ryan’s Hope” in the 1970s, “Who’s the Boss?” in the 1980s and the short-lived “Cosby Mysteries” in the 1990s. He played Calista Flockhart’s sensitive, singing father in several episodes of “Ally McBeal” in 1999. And you might have caught him as back-to-back villains a couple of Sunday nights ago: he was a deceptively charming right-wing lecturer on “The Education of Max Bickford” at 9 p.m. and a sadistic scientist on “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” at 10 p.m.

But performing on stage has always been his greatest passion. The 1999 cabaret show came after years of talking and thinking about such a production. He put it off because he just didn’t know if he would “enjoy it or be any good at it,” he says. After encouragement from friends and professionals, including Mike Nichols and jazz pianist George Shearing, he put together a showcase for his laid-back style and sexy baritone. The act mixed great tunes with charming stories of his life as an actor and family man. He delivered “Lush Life” personally and powerfully, switched to an upbeat “Lucky So and So” and then nailed the character song “I’m Hip.” All together, it earned him some of the best reviews of his career. He even took the show to the road, creating an intimate atmosphere even at the 17,000-seat Hollywood Bowl.

So when the people at Manhattan’s Cafe Carlyle called to see if he would put together another show for this spring, he says, “It gave me a goal, a date, the kind of kick-in-the-pants I needed to get off the dime and get something done again.”

Last week in Sardi’s caricature-lined dining room, Naughton looked leading-man handsome in a casual brown sweater. His manner was gentlemanly, his voice deep and soft. The new show, he says, will have more introspective songs. “I jokingly refer to these songs as music to slit your wrists by,” says Naughton, whose performances will run from April 16 through May 4. Once again he’ll tackle quirky, difficult pieces, performing in several different musical styles—from jazz to country to the less definable—with works by composers such as Cole Porter, Lyle Lovett, Randy Newman and Tom Waits.

Pulling it all off won’t be easy. “It’s a lot of new material to absorb and be comfortable with,” he says. “With a cabaret show, you don’t get to preview. It would be nice to have a couple of shows under your belt before you go before the public and the critics. But I’ve trained as an actor for 30 years and I know how to appear to be on top, in control and relaxed, even when I’m not.”

Naughton’s long career began in Brown University’s theater department and at Yale Drama School. He debuted on the New York stage in the early 1970s in an off-Broadway version of “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” and his first big success came in the 1977 Cy Coleman musical “I Love My Wife.” Over the decades, he has shuttled back and forth to Los Angeles for sporadic film and TV roles in between his Broadway bows. Slim and athletic, the silver-haired actor has always been versatile enough to carry off any look. He even looked particularly cool in a private eye’s crumpled raincoat in “City of Angels,” for which he won his first Tony in 1990.

But no matter how he’s costumed, Naughton’s always been hugely appealing. In his 1999 show, he discussed the fact that he’d been married to the same woman since 1968—making himself even more of a fantasy figure for the women in the audience. He’s lived for the most part in bucolic Connecticut, where he’s raised a son and daughter, both of whom have followed him into show business.

Once the Carlyle gig is up, the newly aggressive Naughton will get right to work again. He’ll return to the theater—as a director. Critics praised his 1999 revival of Arthur Miller’s “The Price,” which started out as regional theater and then moved to Broadway for a time. This summer he’ll direct “Our Town” for the Westport County Playhouse, a play that will star his Connecticut neighbor and friend Paul Newman. James Naughton, permanently in the director’s chair? This could be his greatest role yet.