Meet the Delaware actor who plays Captain Hook in 'Finding Neverland' Broadway tour

Betsy Price
The News Journal

Move over, Peter Pan. In Wilmington, you gotta make room for hometown boy Captain Hook to shine.

Conor McGiffin of Dover will be buckling all the swashes as the unruly pirate in the Broadway musical "Finding Neverland," running this week at the Playhouse on Rodney Square.

McGiffin, a 26-year-old graduate of Dover High School who has been on five national Broadway show tours since graduating from Michigan University in 2014, is delighted to finally have one landing in Wilmington.

"I gotta thank the entire state of Delaware for building my artistic future," McGiffin said from a stop on the road. If it hadn't been for the Delaware Theatre Company, Opera Delaware, the Children's Theatre of Dover, the Dance Conservatory in Dover, Dover High School and Clear Space Theatre in Rehoboth Beach, "I wouldn't be here," he said.

The son of Kathy Doyle and James McGiffin of Dover, Conor became interested in musical theater when he was 9.  

His mom signed him and his sister up for the Children's Theatre of Dover's afterschool program "so both of us could be in the same place," he said. 

The kids had to audition for programs, and Conor was so nervous he bombed his first audition and didn't get cast in "The Wizard of Oz." 

His mom suggested he try one more time. If he wasn't cast, she said, they could find something else for him to try.

Conor McGriffin, right, as Captain Hook in "Finding Neverland," which will be at the Playhouse on Rodney Square Feb. 7- 10.

"And I got cast as a toy soldier," he remembers. "It was for 'Babes in Toyland.' I showed up in one scene. I was just thrilled to be in rehearsal and our director talking to us about his ideas about the show and being in costume and having all these people clap for you.

"I was, like, I want to do this forever."

By 10, Conor was focused only on acting as a career, and he started dance classes in Dover.

His parents encouraged him to take his ambition seriously and learn as many skills as possible so he could broaden the range of jobs he could get.

Both parents had connections to performing. His dad earned an undergraduate degree in music, studying bass at the University of North Texas. His mother sang in her school choir but quit when she thought it was uncool. She told Conor she always regretted that.

McGiffin didn't try to attend Cab Calloway School of the Arts in Delaware because driving back and forth from Dover just wouldn't work for his family.

However, not going to Cab allowed him to go to dance classes, Delaware Theatre to learn monologues and practice scenes, Rehoboth Beach to do shows and to perform in Opera Delaware's "The Hobbit" and "The Secret of Nimh." 

"I think that probably freed me up to explore everything that Delaware had to offer, acting-wise," McGiffin said.

Conor McGriffin, right as Captain Hook in "Finding Neverland," which will be at the Playhouse on Rodney Square Feb. 7- 10 in Wilmington.

 

Heading to NYC

When he heard about the musical theater program at the University of Michigan, he did some research and decided it was for him. After meeting the dean of the program, McGiffin was sold. One successful audition later, he was accepted.

The day after his college graduation in 2014, he packed up and headed to New York City, where the school's students performed in a showcase in front of agents, casting directors and producers. 

McGiffin was asked to attend a couple of auditions, and booked one meeting with an agent. Within weeks, he was asked to join the national tour of "Jekyll & Hyde," playing one of the characters and understudying Jekyll. That tour lasted from September 2014 through March 2015.

After another round of auditions in New York, he was cast in the first national tour of "Bullets Over Broadway." It didn't start until August that year, so he worked in New York at the Bareburger  in Murray Hill and for a couple of companies.

When "Bullets" returned in July 2016, McGiffin was cast in the national tour of "Annie," which ran from fall of 2016 to May 2017. Then, he joined the second national tour of "A Gentlemen’s Guide To Love and Murder."

In between, he found time to work with an internship program that put professional actors into a high school, star in "Hairspray" at the Argyle Theatre and in "Man of La Mancha" at the Ivoryton Playhouse.

The "Finding Neverland" tour started in September and will run through June 23.

In his four-plus years as a professional actor, McGiffin has spent 14 and one-half months in New York City. 

"I have found a way to be pretty successful at it," he says. "I've been living out of the same suitcase and duffel bag for the last three years. The first year, I went through two different suitcases that exploded while I was trying to walk through New York."

Packing for the road is easy, he says: "You mostly live in sweatpants and you have one nice outfit for parties and interviews."

McGiffin says he loves finding great local food places and being able to visit places like Yosemite National Park and White Sands National Monument. 

"The fact that I'm able to take tours and rent a car and drive to these parks in the morning and go to the theater and do my job in the evening, it's just wonderfully surreal," he says.

He'd like to go back to New York and stay for more than two or three months. But, he says, something could come up he can't turn down. One of those would be getting his Actor's Equity Association card for a national tour.

Playing the pirate

In "Finding Neverland," McGiffin plays Charles Frohman, the man on whom playwright J. M. Barrie modeled Capt. Hook. 

The musical follows the relationship between Barrie and the family who inspired "Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up." Frohman was the original producer of the play, a man trying to make sense of the fantastical world that Barrie is creating. 

In two scenes, McGiffin transforms into the dastardly pirate.

A lot of McGiffin's family will come see him perform, and he'll be able to stay with his parents in Dover during the show's run.

"I've never really had an opportunity to hang out in Wilmington, so finding a local hot spot to go and meet up with friends after the show is done will be a lot of fun," he says.

He wishes, though, that two of his favorite teachers could be with him: Lenny Knight, who was longtime head of the Dover High Band, and Eddie Cohee, who taught musical theater at the Dover Dance Conservatory. Both have died in recent years.

"They made a significant impact on my life, and I'm very very sad that I won't have the opportunity to see them in Wilmington."

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Broadway musical "Finding Neverland"

WHERE: Playhouse on Rodney Square, 1007 N. Market St., Wilmington

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9; 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10.

TICKETS: $40 to $95

FOR MORE INFO: 302-888-0200; www.BroadwayInWilmington.org


Contact Betsy Price at 302-324-2884 or beprice@delawareonline.com.

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