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West Valley City • The Mississippi River flowing through the musical story of "Big River" has become iconic in the lives of one Utah family whose eight children are pursuing musical careers from coast to coast.
This summer, father Harry Bonner and son Conlon have been alternating in the role of Jim, the runaway slave, in Hale Centre Theatre's production of the show, an adaptation of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Mother Debra, a nationally prominent vocal coach who leads Salt Lake City's Unity Gospel Choir, also sings as a runaway slave in her husband's Monday-Wednesday-Friday cast.
"Big River" is a popular musical with Utah community theaters and audiences, and Harry and Conlon Bonner have played the role before, but never at the same time. And while there are often family members woven through Hale's alternating casts, producers can't remember a previous time when a father and son shared the same role.
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Family casting • Age differences influence how the actors play the character. Harry, 62, plays Jim as a father figure to Huck Finn, while Conlon, 27, plays him as a friend to the teenage vagabond.
In the early matinée performance on a recent Saturday, at the end of the powerful "River in the Rain" duet, Kooper Campbell's Huck wrapped a blanket around Harry Bonner's Jim, offering the warmth of a hug. At the 4 p.m. matinée, Matthew Clark Richards' Huck also draped the blanket around the shoulders of Conlon Bonner's Jim, but went on to punctuate the gesture with a punch in the arm.
Those subtle differences underscore the show's remarkable turn of family casting, as the script doesn't designate the character's age. "You can cast it both ways," says musical director Anne Puzey. "How lucky we are that we got to explore both options, both stories."
In rehearsal, at first it seemed Conlon was offering the most help, pitching in to help his father memorize his lines. But at the end, it was Harry who was helping Conlon find rich authenticity in his performance, says director David Weekes. "Conlon is very good at picking apart a script and understanding where Jim is coming from," the director says. "Harry is very good at just being honest" onstage.
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Improving 'Muddy Waters' • Family members appreciate the pair's physical resemblances onstage, but their performances are apples and oranges, says Debra Bonner.
Whenever Conlon asks his siblings to tell him who is better, they deflect the question. "I love seeing how differently he plays the role than I do," Conlon says, calling his chance to teach LDS seminary and perform in the summer "living two dreams." He recalls his father's first performance as Jim, some 20 years ago at Centerville's Rodgers Memorial Theatre, as the first time he saw a black man act onstage.
"He is my hero," says Conlon, whose third child was born during the show's rehearsals. "I'll say that again and again. Time with my dad means everything to me."
Harry says he grew out and then dyed his hair, hired a personal trainer and worked with his wife on his voice, all to hold his own onstage. Conlon says he borrowed from his father in the scene where Jim confesses regret about the way he once treated his young daughter. Harry's acting "was so clear, so natural," Conlon says. "I took as much as I could to maximize my presentation."
Harry jokes that he's gotten a little tired of hearing his colleagues praise Conlon's performance. He describes himself as a "fill-in" kind of guy, while his son is "arguably one of the best singers in the family. I can't touch this guy singing."
One actor told Harry that his son's rendition of "Muddy Waters" prompted the loudest applause he had ever heard. "I thought: 'Why is he telling me this?' " Harry says. "I'm not Conlon Bonner. I got the message. I've tried to improve my 'Muddy Waters.' "
"Big River" is just the latest Hale show to showcase Bonner family members, following "Aida" and "Ragtime." Debra Bonner praises producers Mark and Sally Dietlein for the way they have "helped raise our children in the arts as professionals." And the show offered her a chance to focus on her own vocal skills after spending most of her time for the past 20 years coaching other singers.
In return, Weekes praises the Bonners for their professional humility, their eagerness to improve their performances.
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'I Am Here' • "Arguably one of the best singers in the family" is high praise among the eight children in the Bonner family. The siblings' vocal talents are displayed in "I Am Here," a video they recorded for their mother's birthday last December and presented to her at a choir practice for Mother's Day.
Son Mauli B. is a Grammy Award-winning songwriter and vocal director for Disney and Nickelodeon who coaches musicians such as Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, Fergie and Ke$ha. Two daughters, Nolong and Yunga, have followed their mother as music and voice teachers, while Clotile ("The Color Purple") and Oyoyo ("Book of Mormon") have performed with national touring shows. (Oyoyo also made her Broadway debut with the show.)
Four of the Bonners performed with Brigham Young University's prestigious Young Ambassadors singing group, while Conlon also performed with the a cappella group Vocal Point.
Son Yahosh coaches basketball at Spanish Fork's American Leadership Academy, while also serving as assistant director of his mother's gospel choir. He has posted popular YouTube music videos with James The Mormon and Daysha Lassiter and other singers. Son Oba, who last year returned from an LDS mission to South Africa, recently moved to Los Angeles to pursue a recording career.
Next there's the family's oldest granddaughter, who just attended the Young Ambassadors summer camp, where she brought down the house with her recital song, according to her grandmother. "So a second generation is coming," Debra says.
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A gospel legacy • The roots of the family's musical legacy come from Debra, who was schooled in gospel music at the Foss Avenue Baptist Church in Flint, Mich. The congregation helped her find her voice as a teenager, she says, paying for years of voice lessons.
She went on to receive classical training, earning a master's degree from the University of Michigan. That's where she met her husband, then an aspiring athlete, whose aunt was a famous gospel singer. Later she developed her reputation as a teacher while training with Michael Jackson's voice coach, the legendary Seth Riggs.
"A lot of the natural gifts my kids had came from Harry," says Debra, whose husband manages her Provo-based vocal studio, United Voices International. "I had to work for my voice."
The Bonner family's story includes a stint as Baptist missionaries in Liberia before, Debra says, they were guided by spiritual promptings to resign. The couple had three children when they decided to move West. Living in Las Vegas in the early 1980s, the Bonners joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and then eventually came to Utah.
All along the way, the Bonner kids were blending their voices, learning gospel music from their mother. "We had no option but to sing, whether it was in choir or for our own artistry," says Clotile, who is currently performing on a Mississippi River steamboat. "It just became secondhand nature growing up with it, both in our Baptist background and our LDS background."
In "Big River," the Bonners have felt the complexities of being black performers in a very white state, helping cast members get over their fear at saying the "n-word" onstage. As racially motivated shootings have rocked the country, the responses of "Big River" audiences have shifted to consider the deeper implications of the story, Debra says. Theatergoers have expressed their gratitude to the Bonners and other black actors for the chance to consider a race-crossing friendship that transcended slavery.
"Big River" has lured most of the Bonner kids back to Utah to watch their father and brother perform. "We are not ignorant to the fact that we're pioneers in our image as a black family in Utah," Clotile says. "We know that we are one of a kind in that way."
In an interview from New York between auditions, Clotile points out the irony that she spends her days performing on the Mississippi River, cruising on the same water that provides the setting for the stage show of "Big River."
"It's just serendipitous," she says of her family's performances in musical theater, which began with her father's first turn as Jim. "We're all on this journey to finding our dream, finding our destination. It really all started with 'Big River.' "
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Leaving 'Big River'
Hale Centre Theatre's production of the 1985 musical, based on Mark Twain's classic novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," ends Saturday, July 23. The theater's next show, "Beauty and the Beast," will play more than 80 performances from Aug. 5 to Oct. 1. Tickets are $35, and $16 for children 5-11, available at 801-984-9000 or hct.org. The theater is at 3333 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City.