West Hartford native John O’Hurley, perhaps best recognized as his character J. Peterman from ‘Seinfeld’ and as the host of the ‘National Dog Show,’ will perform at Playhouse on Park on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024.

By Ronni Newton

One of the only things that John O’Hurley found disappointing about his childhood in West Hartford was that there really weren’t any trout in Trout Brook.

Speaking in his distinctive voice – that’s known to millions of people around the world as that of the iconic J. Peterman on Seinfeld and as host of the National Dog Show – O’Hurley recalled that in his youth in West Hartford he was always stomping around puddles along the banks of Trout Brook with his fly rod, “always looking for trout. … Never saw a trout in Trout Brook.” It was a myth, he said in a phone interview with We-Ha.com as he prepared to return to his hometown for a single performance of his one-man show, “A Man With Standards,” at Playhouse on Park on Sunday, Oct. 27.

John O’Hurely performs “A Man with Standards.” Courtesy photo

West Hartford does have plenty of seafood, however, and O’Hurley said whenever he returns to town he is sure to visit Max’s Oyster Bar, one of his favorite stomping grounds in West Hartford Center.

“I’m still there frequently,” he said, although earlier this month, O’Hurley sold a lake property he had owned for a long time in Vermont. West Hartford was always a good stop on the route between New York and Vermont.

O’Hurley’s father was an ear, nose and throat doctor at St. Francis Hospital. “There’s not a place in West Hartford that I didn’t put a stamp on,” he said, having lived in the Center, Bishops Corner, and the Elizabeth Park area before his family settled in a home on Westmont that his parents lived in until the early 2000s.

After graduating from Kingswood Oxford in 1972, O’Hurley went to Providence College where he majored in theater and minored in opera. He also studied at the Hartt School.

His early career included work in communications and public relations, at what was then a division of Pratt & Whitney on Charter Oak Boulevard in West Hartford, at Waterbury Hospital, and at the American Red Cross in Farmington. “I knew it wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing,” he said.

At KO, he loved acting and singing, and he also went on to perform with The Producing Guild in Hartford. “That was my thing,” he said, and he ultimately headed to New York City, where he pursued acting and opera. While O’Hurley may be best known for his speaking voice, singing has always been part of his repertoire as well, and he said it was important to earning roles, especially in the early days when “if 30 things came through an agent’s office, 28 of them were musical.”

Although he would choose live theater over television any day, admittedly he said he has suffered from “a terrible sense of stage fright.”

He can also dance. He was one of the first to be asked to perform on “Dancing with the Stars,” and that experience, which he said was one of the greatest things he has done in his career, will be one of the stories he shares in “A Man with Standards.”

On any given night, O’Hurley said he would love to be ready to perform a 7 o’clock show on Broadway. “There’s something so wonderfully engaging about a live audience that you can’t replicate on TV or film,” he said. It’s a pure story, not the edited version.

Sunday will be O’Hurley’s first performance at Playhouse on Park, a theater he wasn’t previously aware of. “This is why I am so looking forward to this,” he said of the opportunity not only to be on the stage in his hometown, but also to support the town’s professional theater.

O’Hurley keeps very busy. He filmed two movies last year that will be coming out later this year, as will his PBS show “Through the Grapevine.” He’s back to playing Captain Hook in Peter Pan in the Los Angeles area, and is the voice of characters in 15 different cartoons.

And of course there’s the National Dog Show on Thanksgiving Day, which he will be hosting for the 23rd year. It’s seen by 30 million people – “second only to the Super Bowl,” he said. “Everything stops for the dog show.”

O’Hurley will spend a few days in the area when he come to town for the show at Playhouse on Park. “I’ll be making my tour of all my friends in West Hartford, old friends from high school and college,” he said.

“And there will be a lot of lobster and clams. I’m a seafood whore,” he said.

A Man With Standards is O’Hurley’s 90-minute retrospective on the songs of The Great American Songbook, interwoven with stories from his life.

He will perform at Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford, on Sunday, Oct. 27 at 4 p.m.  Patron tickets are $50 for reserved seating; VIP Tickets are $100 and include a post performance reception with O’Hurley. This performance is sponsored by Falcetti Pianos, Cafe Louise, and Carolina Wine Brands. Tickets may be purchased online at www.PlayhouseOnPark.org or by calling 860-523-5900 x 10.

John O’Hurley. Submitted photo (we-ha.com file photo)

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