How Stephen Sondheim, a pharmacy cure, and more led ‘Copperfield!’ star Bobby Conte to the stage

This fall, the Broadway veteran of Company and The Who's Tommy plays the title role in the Off-Broadway stage adaptation of Charles Dickens's David Copperfield.

Summary

• Bobby Conte stars as David Copperfield in Copperfield! The Musical off Broadway starting September 29
• The show is adapted from Charles Dickens's classic novel and performed by actor/musicians
• Conte talks about getting into theatre as a child, the performances that inspired him, and the creative world of Copperfield!
• Conte has performed on Broadway in A Bronx Tale, The Who's Tommy, and Company

“My mom said I sang around the house a lot,” actor Bobby Conte recalled of his childhood, during which musical theatre was always woven into his history. Even though no one else in his immediate family pursued a performance career, he grew up surrounded by great storytellers — and, indirectly, Broadway stars.

Conte's grandfather sold a popular sore-throat cure at pharmacies in New York City and on Long Island, and his regular clients included legendary actors like Ethel Merman, Paul Newman, and John Raitt. Those connections allowed Conte's grandfather to attend the original productions of Carousel and South Pacific, giving his family an appreciation for theatre. Conte would soon sing along to many of those shows' tunes himself.

Eventually, his mother decided to put him in a choir and signed him up for classical voice lessons, “thinking structure would shut me up, but it only made me more encouraged to do it,” Conte remembered.

Now, he brings that lifelong passion to Copperfield! The New Musical, playing at The Duke on 42nd Street starting September 29. The Off-Broadway production is a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’s semi-autobiographical novel David Copperfield (not to be confused with the magician who borrowed the name).

“The hero’s journey, it will be applicable forever,” Conte said of Copperfield!, adding, “I don’t think the question of relevancy ever needs to be asked of this kind of story.” Abandoning a standard chronological timeline, the musical unfolds inside David's mind at a time where he questions whether he made good on his life or let his stepfather’s abuse and a grim London sweatshop define him.

The musical is performed by a company of actor/musicians, whom Conte holds in high regard. “My fellow [...] actors are not only presenting David’s memories to me or to the audience, but they are saying through music, ‘You will remember this,’” Conte noted. He marveled at the ensemble’s ability to arrange Jeffrey Scharf’s original score on the fly, recalling a rehearsal where the cast seamlessly rotated instruments, swapping ukuleles for cellos, flutes, and guitars. (Conte plays the melodica and piano alongside an actor portraying his younger self.)

To physically manifest David’s internal struggle, director Gabriel Barre and set designer Edward Pierce created a flexible, exposed space where actors use instruments as practical props. Pierce also supervised the Tony-winning, technologically advanced scenic design of Broadway’s Stranger Things: The First Shadow, but the Copperfield! creative team uses that same world-building capacity to craft a starkly different, bare-bones environment. “We want to embrace the abstract nature that can come only with musical theatre,” Conte said.

Conte’s appreciation for actor/musicians stems from his own theatrical awakening as a teenager. Growing up, his family repeatedly took him to see Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, and he spent his downtime trying to sound like Terrence Mann, who earned a Tony nomination for playing the Beast. But a shift occurred when Conte watched a filmed performance of director John Doyle’s Tony-winning actor/musician revival of Stephen Sondheim's Company on TV. Watching Tony nominee Raúl Esparza sing “Marry Me a Little,” just standing still with a glass of bourbon, captivated Conte. “That set me down a path of understanding, ‘Oh, this is the kind of theatre I want to be doing,’” Conte recalled.

He'd go on to appear in a Company Broadway revival himself in 2022; his other Broadway credits include originating the role of Calogero in 2016's A Bronx Tale The Musical and a featured turn in 2024's The Who’s Tommy. Now, Conte is coming full-circle in Copperfield!, which lets him sing in a style reminiscent of his early training.

“In some ways, this music feels like breathing,” Conte said of the Copperfield! score. “I feel like I’m connecting back to the young kid being put in classic voice lessons.”

Get Copperfield! The New Musical tickets now.

Photo credit: Bobby Conte. (Photo courtesy of production)