Buckley sings for the ‘Boys’

Betty Buckley grew up in a home with diverging viewpoints about her love for music and storytelling.

Her father, a painter, poet, writer and music lover, hailed from a small town in South Dakota. It was with him that Buckley started singing folk tunes. His wife, a former singer and dancer, encouraged her daughter’s creativity and accompanied her to classes.

Her parents clashed, however, over Betty having a career in show business. Buckley’s father, having been exposed to actors and singers only in local dance halls, stamped it an “immoral profession.”

“My mother would sneak me out of the house for my lessons,” Buckley said. “It was very confusing to me because there was a lot of conflict in our family about my talent and my right to pursue being an actress and singer.”

It was in her mother’s company that the big-voiced Texan, then 11, watched “The Pajama Game” — her first time witnessing the magic of musical theater.

“The show was with the original Bob Fosse choreography that had been presented on Broadway and was wonderful,” she recalled about the instance in which inspiration took hold. “I thought, ‘Oh gosh, I want to do that.’”

And boy, she sure did.

The two-time Grammy nominee, who counts Fosse collaborators Ed Holleman and Larry Howard as her mentors, will take center stage at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through May 18. For about 75 minutes, she will regale the audience with numbers from her latest album, “Ah Men! The Boys of Broadway.”

Terrence Dwyer, the center’s president, counts Buckley’s “Send in the Clowns” and “Memory” among his favorites.

“When we found she was available to return this season, we jumped at the opportunity, knowing our Cabaret and Broadway audiences would welcome her back so enthusiastically,” he said.

A bonus of his job, Dwyer says, is the opportunity to watch renowned performers like Buckley, who debuted at Segerstrom in the 2005 Cabaret Series.

“Betty brings everything together — the music, the voice, the lyrics, the performance and a charismatic personality that communicates one-on-one with each member of the audience,” Dwyer said. “This promises to be an evening of great musical entertainment.”

Buckley will be accompanied by Grammy and Daytime Emmy Award-winning John McDaniel, whom she met on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show.”

“He’s a wonderful musical director, brilliant pianist and great guy, so I jumped at the opportunity for us to do the concert together,” she said.

Buckley, whose father ensured that she complete her education in a more “appropriate” line of business, pursued a degree in journalism at Texas Christian University, where she also earned a minor in theater.

She spent two months with a USO troupe in 1968. Her plans were altered when some performers were killed in Vietnam, where she was originally scheduled to perform. Instead, she accompanied a group from the Miss America pageant to military bases and hospitals in Japan and South Korea.

That trip and the sight of grotesquely injured and dying soldiers shifted something inside Buckley.

“At age 21, I experienced the results of war firsthand,” she said. “It was a very profound experience for me, and it just changed everything I had been raised to believe.”

After returning stateside, Buckley was struck by a delayed reaction to the stress, forcing her to put her dreams on hold. In the interim, she snagged a job as a reporter at the Fort Worth Press. Five months later, she traveled to New York at the insistence of her agent and bagged her first Broadway show on day one in the city.

Cue: The debut of Martha Jefferson in “1776.”

Since then, Buckley has enacted many roles, including characters in “Pippin,” “Carrie” and “Sunset Boulevard,” but her time as Grizabella in “Cats” is a class apart.

Buckley thinks back on her time with Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sir Trevor Nunn and Gillian Lynne with fondness and gratitude. The opportunity came with a chance to create a unique rendition of “Memory,” which won her the 1983 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

“I think the opportunity to play the character in the context of the show for which the song was written informs it differently than people who just do the song as the song itself,” she said. “So I got to go through a very deep and humbling experience to learn how to play that character, and I think that gives it a different resonance.”

The Texas Film Hall of Fame inductee was granted a similar honor by the New York-based Theater Hall of Fame in 2012. Although she wasn’t present to receive the award because of her involvement in the British debut of Jerry Herman’s “Dear World,” her friend and actress Ellen Burstyn attended on her behalf.

“Betty Buckley remains one of the great voices of Broadway,” said Theater Hall of Fame Executive Producer Terry Hodge Taylor, who added that the star “has originated roles which are theater history.”

Aware that she, and others who aspire to scale great heights, are on a demanding professional course, Buckley, who is preparing for the imminent world premiere of Horton Foote’s “The Old Friends” at the Signature Theatre, says hard work and discipline are necessary ingredients for success.

“You have to commit yourself to your talent and seek the best teachers’ support to develop it,” she said. “It’s a difficult path, but a worthwhile one as long as you’re doing it because you love the craft of singing and acting.”

rhea.mahbubani@latimes.com

Twitter: @RMahbubani

If You Go

Who: Betty Buckley

Where: Samueli Theater, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday through May 18

Cost: From $72

Information: https://www.scfta.org/