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Boardman native Tom Conroy fills music director post 'In the MOOD'
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
WARREN
When “In the Mood” returns to the Valley this week, it will be with Boardman native Tom Conroy as music director and pianist.
The show is a musical revue that brings back the big band swing music, dress and energetic dancing of the 1940s. It has been touring for 22 years and will be at W.D. Packard Music Hall at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Conroy, a 1986 graduate of Boardman High School, and later, Youngstown State University, moved to New York in the 1990s to pursue a show-business career. After amassing a long resume of stage credits on touring productions, he moved into the world of academia as a music and composition instructor at several universities.
After 15 years teaching at Texas A&M, the University of Houston and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he wanted to get back on stage.
He landed the music director post with “In the Mood in January 2015. The 13-piece band, with six vocalists, is on stage during the show, with Conroy at center behind a piano.
Conroy got his start as a performer with productions at Boardman High. He acted in a number of musicals at the Youngstown Playhouse, learning from David Jendre and Phoebe Alexander.
“I learned a lot from David Jendre, although at first I was intimidated by his focus,” Conroy recalled in a phone interview. “He always said ‘there is a certain way a New York actor carries himself.’ He had words of wisdom, and it was my first acting lesson. I have thanked him for it repeatedly over the years.”
Conroy also served as music director and organist at St. Michael Parish in Canfield and St. Columba Cathedral in Youngstown before moving to New York.
“In the Mood” has been rechoreographed for the current tour, so repeat customers will find it a bit new. “Every performance is different to some degree,” said Conroy. “We have big band medleys that are just instrumental, and the music we use is rotated.”
Although the era is most vivid to the World War II generation that lived it, “In the Mood” attracts a crowd that starts with grandparents but also includes younger family members.
Then there are the younger fans who just like swing music.
“I see them [in the audience] in throwback costumes, especially girls,” Conroy said.
Asked about the appeal of the show for him, Conroy doesn’t hesitate.
“It’s the music my parents knew,” he said. “It was on the radio on Saturday and Sunday morning. I started taking music lessons when I was 6 and my mom started buying me sheet music then for songs like ‘Begin the Beguine’ that are in this show. At the time, I didn’t those songs weren’t the pop music of the day. It was the music of my parents, but I grew up on it and I’ve known these songs my entire life. I feel at home doing it.”
Getting the job as music director of “In the Mood” helped Conroy strengthen the familial link between his past and present.
“When I got hired, I called my dad and told him I am coming to Packard hall,” Conroy said. “He listed a series of songs and asked if we were doing any of them. And every one he mentioned is in this show.
“It was a way of connecting for the two of us.”