gareth williams played joey's dad on dawson's creek.
gareth williams played joey's dad on dawson's creek.
who played joey's dad on dawson's creek?
gareth williams
"joey potter is a headstrong, vibrant, wily, sultry, and determined go-getter. and yet, in a gloriously contradictory manner, in spite of her tough-as-nails exterior demeanor, joey's also a frail, sometimes uncertain, emotionally sensitive, in-need-of-love person", said the show's official book. joey, named for jo in "little women", for years had been climbing in dawson's bedroom window and platonically sharing his bed. joey's mother had died from cancer when joey was thirteen and her father, mike (gareth williams), was in prison for "conspiracy to traffic in marijuana in excess of 10,000 pounds." her harried, unmarried, and very pregnant sister, bessie (nina repeta), about ten years older than joey, was raising her while running the ice house restaurant, where joey worked as a waitress. "gq" described joey as "kind of an uptight fussbudget—one who's always twisted up over doing the right thing and bungling-up ways to hook up with her crush and across the creek neighbor, dawson."
joey potter
as they cast the musical, rodgers, hart and o'hara knew that they wanted joey to be primarily a dancer, not a singer, and the actor who played joey would have to be likeable in spite of joey's unpleasant character. they chose gene kelly, who was at the time playing a dancing role, harry the hoofer, in the play "the time of your life". kelly had made his broadway debut in 1938 in the chorus of cole porter's "leave it to me!"; pal joey would be his first lead role. rodgers and hart wanted vivienne segal, who had previously starred in their 1938 musical "i married an angel", to play the older woman with whom joey has an affair; though o'hara had initially considered other actresses, he was won over when he met segal. segal, who would be 43 when the show opened on broadway, appreciated the opportunity to play a worldly, mature character, unlike the ingenues she had played for most of her career. using segal's initials, o'hara gave her character the name "vera simpson". o'hara was not present during the out-of-town tryouts, and director george abbott took over the rewriting. when the show opened in new york, the critics were divided. richard watts ("new york herald tribune") called it "brilliant", but other critics and members of the theatre-going public disliked the subject matter. nonetheless, it became the longest running rodgers-hart show up to that time.
pal joey (musical)