‘The Bodyguard’ shifts from screen to stage for musical tour

Stepping into someone else’s role — and making it your own — represents a definite challenge.

But it’s one Deborah Cox welcomes, as the Grammy-nominated performer headlines the musical version of “The Bodyguard,” which opens an eight-performance run Tuesday at The Smith Center’s Reynolds Hall.

In the stage adaptation, Cox takes over the role Whitney Houston played in the 1992 movie: superstar singer Rachel Marron, who’s being menaced by an unknown stalker — and finds unexpected, star-crossed romance with ex-Secret Service agent Frank Farmer, alias “The Bodyguard.”

Cox not only grew up listening to Houston, she actually got the chance to sing with her, joining the late singer for the duet “Same Script Different Cast,” which she recorded in 2000 for Houston’s “Greatest Hits” CD.

“She was cool and wanted to do it,” Cox says of Houston. That was “my Grammy moment, to be able to sing with her.”

And while “it’s a joy for me” to “bring back the memories of my childhood” by singing such Houston hits as “One Moment in Time,” “Run to You,” “I Have Nothing,” “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” — and, inevitably, “I Will Always Love You” — in the show, “I’ve found my own Rachel Marron voice,” Cox says. After all, “I have to tell her story.”

In telling that story, Cox — who began her professional career as a backup singer for another pop music powerhouse, Celine Dion — has learned the importance of “pacing” herself.

“It’s like running a marathon,” she explains in a telephone interview from a tour stop in Portland, Oregon. “After this role, I can pretty much do anything, sing in any climate. It’s been a great preparation and learning experience with life.” (One of those lessons: limiting herself to six of the show’s eight weekly performances.)

Cox has been on tour with the show since January; after a holiday break, “The Bodyguard” will be on the road through April.

But actor Judson Mills, who plays Frank Farmer, “The Bodyguard’s” title character (played in the movie by Kevin Costner), hopes the show will continue beyond then — perhaps on Broadway, perhaps in Las Vegas.

“I think it’s the perfect show for Vegas,” he comments in a separate telephone interview. Or “it would be a whole lot of fun to remake the movie with Deborah and me.”

Their collaboration represents Mills’ return to the stage after spending most of his career in movies (“Gods and Monsters,” “Major League 3: Back to the Minors”) and on TV (“Westworld,” “Walker, Texas Ranger”).

For his current role, Mills has his college roommate to thank: Alex Dinelaris, one of the screenwriters on the Oscar-winning “Birdman,” who adapted “The Bodyguard” from Lawrence Kasdan’s movie script.

Dinelaris called Mills to let him know “they couldn’t find a bodyguard,” promising his old school pal “ ‘you wouldn’t have to sing,’ ” the actor recalls. “So we put some stuff on an iPhone” and, shortly thereafter, Mills had won the role.

“This is an entirely different beast for me,” Mills says of the transition from screen to stage. “Some of it’s been a struggle,” especially when playing “a very simple, still, less-is-more” character.

“On film, that can read very well,” because the camera “can read someone’s face, read someone’s eyes” in close-up, he explains. “On stage, that becomes very boring, very quickly.” Instead, he tries “to embody Frank Farmer in a way that’s still engaging from the 23rd row of the mezzanine.”

And though Cox’s recording career “took off first,” the chance to perform “Aida’s” title role on Broadway “rekindled everything” she loves about musical theater, which is “so much more involved than just singing,” she notes. (Her Broadway credits also include Lucy in “Jekyll and Hyde.”)

“I’m just trying,” Cox says, “to find those parts I can be passionate about.”

From London to Vegas

Not all the productions in The Smith Center’s Broadway Las Vegas series begin on Broadway.

A case in point: “The Bodyguard,” which opens at the center’s Reynolds Hall on Tuesday. The stage adaptation of the romantic big-screen thriller, which teamed Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner in 1992, launched in London.

That’s where Paul Beard, The Smith Center’s vice president and chief operating officer, saw it and “thought our audience would like it.”

He wasn’t the only one.

Officials from “35 or 40” performing arts centers or organizations — all part of the Independent Presenters Network — agreed that “The Bodyguard” had enough audience appeal to justify a U.S. tour, despite the fact that “it did not come via New York,” Beard explains.

It’s not the first time The Smith Center has presented a production that didn’t play Broadway first. (Previous examples include the stage versions of “Flashdance” and “Dirty Dancing,” plus “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”)

Sometimes even a Broadway flop — such as the Tony-winning “Bridges of Madison County” — will tour because IPN members “think this show might have some merit,” Beard notes.

Of course, “not all these shows are necessarily huge artistic accomplishments,” he acknowledges, citing The Smith Center’s “eclectic” approach to its Broadway Las Vegas series.

“All these IPN markets built a tour for this show,” he says of “The Bodyguard,” which is “doing great on the road.”

The show’s “end goal is to entertain,” according to actor Judson Mills, who plays “The Bodyguard’s” title character. “This show is about entertainment, whether the critics like it or not.”

Contact Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.