John O’Hurley ‘absolutely mesmerized’ by new role in Winter Garden

John O’Hurley, the star known for “Dancing With the Stars,” “Seinfeld” and the “National Dog Show,” was instantly intrigued with the idea of performing “Every Brilliant Thing,”

“This is something that catches you by surprise; I was absolutely mesmerized by the power of it,” he says. “It’s really theater of inspiration and contemplation — and ultimately appreciation.”

Victory Productions kicks off the theatrical season at the Garden Theatre in Winter Garden with the one-man show by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe. It opens Sept. 8.

In “Every Brilliant Thing,” which debuted in 2013 at the Ludlow Fringe Festival in England, O’Hurley’s character begins making a list of everything that’s wonderful in the world to combat a difficult situation. As the play progresses, the audience can think not only about the challenges they face but the little joys of life that make the journey worthwhile.

“It’s a very simple piece, a very human piece and a humane piece,” O’Hurley says. “It will make you feel something. You’d have to be a snail not to feel something.”

“Every Brilliant Thing” also has an element of audience involvement that fuels one of O’Hurley’s requirements for an interesting project — the element of surprise.

“Before I go on stage, every night, I say one prayer: ‘God, let me be surprised,'” he says. “That’s all I say. It relaxes me. Instead of worrying about the right thing to do, I’m out there for my surprise. It has never failed me.”

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Based in Los Angeles, O’Hurley is more used to Central Florida during the holiday season. He has been a frequent narrator for Disney’s “Candlelight Processional” at Epcot.

“It was a way to bring my son down to Disney World,” O’Hurley says. “He got to grow up at Disney.”

But the experience turned into something more personally fulfilling as well.

“The reading of the Christmas story, there’s a sense of the poetic to it. I wanted to read it as though I was reading T.S. Eliot, giving the meaning and the depth to it,” he says. “It was always such a meaningful night. It was time well spent, and you can’t say that about everything.”

He has two distinct memories, including one that will make sense to anyone who has seen the annual production, in which it’s common for the student choir members to buckle under the heat of the stage lights.

“They let me sing ‘Silent Night,'” he says. And he recalls mock betting on “the under/over of how many were going to faint every night.”

Before taking on any project, O’Hurley first imagines what a positive outcome would look like.

“I believe in one thing in my career: I am pulled by imagination,” he says. “Everything I have done was because in my mind, I could see a picture of me being successful.”

Although he’s best known for his television appearances, O’Hurley has a stage background as well. He currently tours in his own show, “A Man With Standards,” a reflection on growing up in the 1950s and 1960s with the music of the Great American Songbook.

He has played slick lawyer Billy Flynn in the musical “Chicago” on Broadway more than 2,000 times, and in the silly musical “Spamalot” he has starred as King Arthur — a role he describes as “J. Peterman a thousand years removed.”

“J. Peterman,” as comedy fans know, was the eccentric, theatrical and pompously verbose boss of Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) on TV’s hit “Seinfeld.” O’Hurley describes him as “the corporate Mr. Magoo” because “everything turns out all right” for the character despite his own blunders.

Some 25 years after his last appearance on the show, O’Hurley retains affection for the distinctive character.

“I embrace him fully … the day he stops is the day the music dies,” he jokes, adding that people still hire him through celebrity website Cameo.com to deliver personal messages in Peterman’s style.

He’s gaining a new audience, thanks to streaming-service repeats of the sitcom.

“My 16-year-old son says ‘Seinfeld’ is the talk of the schoolyard all the time,” he says. “It’s big with 14-22-year-olds. They can binge-watch it now.”

And he thinks the show, famously said to be about “nothing,” holds up: “The essence of how people treat one another is still the same.”

Upcoming projects include a return this Thanksgiving as host of the televised “National Dog Show,” a gig he’s been doing for more than two decades. He has a few movies coming up and says there’s interest in touring “Every Brilliant Thing” after the Winter Garden run concludes.

O’Hurley turns 69 next month but doesn’t see himself slowing down.

“I don’t find that I work that hard,” he says. “Because what I do is enjoyable.”

‘Every Brilliant Thing’

• Where: Garden Theatre, 160 W. Plant St. in Orlando

• When: Sept. 8-24; 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Fridays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 6 p.m. Sundays, plus 7:30 p.m. Sept. 13 and 2 p.m. Sept. 20

• Cost: $45-$75

• Info: gardentheatre.org

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