Raitt Isn’t Waiting in the Wings

John Raitt, white hair flowing, is perched comfortably on the edge of a hand-carved Chinese wedding bed in the living room of his Pacific Palisades home.

“Isn’t this an amazing piece of furniture?” says the veteran star of musical theater and films. “It’s put together without a single nail. And it’s 400 years old.”

Then, with a mischievous grin, he adds, “That’s even older than I am. Mostly what people say when they hear my name is, ‘Oh, John Raitt. Is he still alive?’ Either that or, ‘John Raitt. Isn’t that Bonnie Raitt’s father?’ And sometimes I get both those lines in combination.”

Raitt very definitely is Bonnie’s father, and at 82 he also is very much alive.

Doubters are directed to “The John Raitt Concert Series,” a program of 10 Friday-night shows through Nov. 19. The series encompasses his many musical accomplishments since creating the role of Billy Bigelow in 1945 for the original production of “Carousel.”

The Motivation: ‘I Don’t Want to Be Retired’

The performances, at Hollywood’s newly named John Raitt Theater, are a blend of reminiscences, stories and little-known facts surrounded by songs from “Carousel,” “Oklahoma!,” “The Pajama Game” and the dozens of other musicals in which he has appeared.

“The motivation basically was that I don’t want to be retired,” says Raitt, his voice still a burly baritone. “So I figured, if nobody hires me, I’ll hire myself.”

Raitt views this week’s program, the series’ third, as one of the more offbeat: Part of the evening is dedicated to “Magdalena,” “Three Wishes for Jamie” and “Carnival in Flanders”--”the three flops I was in after ‘Carousel,’ ” as Raitt puts it.

As Raitt continues in successive weeks to survey numbers from musicals such as “The Pajama Game,” “On a Clear Day,” “Camelot,” “South Pacific,” “Most Happy Fella” and others, his co-stars will include Susan Watson, Dennis McNeil, Nanette Fabray, Rudy Tronto, Jane Johnston and Brooks Almy. Other singers, he notes, will be added as the run continues. And on Oct. 15, in what is sure to be a particularly well-attended installment, Raitt will be joined by his daughter Bonnie for a romp through songs from “Annie Get Your Gun.”

“I asked Bonnie what she wanted to sing with me,” Raitt says, “and that’s what she said, ‘Annie Get Your Gun.’ We’d done some of the songs before, and I love the way she sings them.”

Raitt’s pride in his daughter’s accomplishments, and in the manner in which she has survived demons that affected her early career clearly more than compensates for the fact that she is now a far more visible performer than he is.

“Hey, that’s OK,” Raitt says. “Now Bonnie puts me to work. She says, ‘Any time you want to do something, Dad, just show up. I’ll put you on.’ ”

When Raitt, who was born in Santa Ana, was attending high school in Fullerton and college in Redlands, he was far more focused on sports than the musical theater.

“I still hold a state high school sports record,” he says. “But it’s for an event they don’t have anymore--the football throw for distance. I tossed it almost 74 yards. Not bad for a high school kid, even today.”

At 27, after having sung in light opera, done concert recitals and appeared in a touring company of “Oklahoma!,” Raitt was finally presented with the role that would define his career--Billy Bigelow in “Carousel.”

“I auditioned with the Figaro aria from ‘Barber of Seville,’ ” he recalls. “And when the Theatre Guild people heard it and cast me in the part, they told Dick [Rodgers] and Oscar [Hammerstein], ‘Look, you have to give John something as good as the Barber.’ And that’s what prompted the writing of the ‘Soliloquy’ in ‘Carousel.’

“And you know,” he adds with a chuckle, “the hardest thing about doing that part was having to lie dead for five minutes, without being able to move, to cough or to sneeze or anything. And I did it for two years, which is a long time. I did get colds, there was dust in the air, and every now and then a spider would walk across my face.”

A Half Century of Theater: A Personal View

Raitt is a fountain of similar stories, many of which will surface in his Friday night performances, which will provide a kind of mini-overview of half a century of musical theater.

But he is aware that many in his audience will arrive with a preconceived image in mind.

“I know that my biggest competitor is young John Raitt,” he says. “So about the best I can hope for is that when people come to see and hear me, they’ll say, ‘Well, he’s got white hair, and he limps a little bit. But he still looks pretty good, and he sure knows how to deliver a song.’ ”

BE THERE

John Raitt, Fridays through Nov. 19 at the John Raitt Theatre, 6425 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, 7:30 p.m. $15-$35. All tickets include reception and light buffet after the show. (323) 871-8082.