Surprise ‘Stop’

Just to make it perfectly clear: John Travolta will not appear in Interplayers’ “Bus Stop.” But he will show up in Spokane to see his sister Ellen Travolta and his nephew Jonathan Rau perform in it.

“I have to,” he said by phone from Toronto, where he is filming “Hairspray.” “I promised my nephew and my sister that I would, and I always come through with my promises.”

Besides, Travolta and “Bus Stop” go back a long way together.

“It was the first play I did with my family, in the summer of 1976,” he said. “We did a Northeast corridor tour, in five or six different cities in New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. It was with Ellen and (sister) Annie.”

Annie played a waitress and Ellen played Grace, the owner of the café where a group of bus passengers are stranded during a blizzard. John, age 22 at the time, played the lead role, the high-spirited cowboy Bo, in this 1955 William Inge classic.

Now, in a neat bit of symmetry, Ellen once again will play Grace. Rau, an L.A. actor, will play Bo. John’s brother-in-law, Jack Bannon, will play Dr. Lyman.

So this will be another Travolta family reunion, similar to the one 30 years before.

“I was already famous for ‘Welcome Back Kotter,’ and I used that influence to get this play,” John Travolta said of that 1976 tour.

“It was my idea, really, to get a play with all of us. I picked ‘Bus Stop’ because it had parts that were perfect for both sisters. And, it was a good part for me, absolutely.

“Bo is a greatly written part – a lot of wonderful writing attached to it.”

He thinks that it will be a perfect part for his nephew Rau, who has appeared on Fox’s “MAD TV” and the soap “General Hospital” and who has a role in an upcoming Travolta film “Lonely Hearts.”

“I am very close to Jonathan,” Travolta said. “He always kind of idolized me and wanted to follow in my footsteps and made no bones about it growing up. He’s quite genius, actually.

“He’s a brilliant comedian and also a wonderful dramatic actor. So I won’t be surprised if he’s excellent in it, not at all.”

Rau, 31, said he has always been interested in acting but didn’t get serious about it until about four years ago.

“In any family business – and in our family, that was acting – the children sometimes stray away from it,” said Rau.

“I saw all of these actors in my family pursue their careers and have all of these ups and downs. But I had always been encouraged, and when that kind of stopped, that’s when I got interested.”

Now, he has a film, TV and stage career in L.A. – and he jumped at the chance to come to Spokane to play Bo.

“Bo is a kind of hard-headed kid who competes in rodeo,” Rau said between Interplayers rehearsals. “Yet at age 21, he’s lonely, and he doesn’t have any idea how to do anything about it. I can definitely see why Uncle John wanted to do it.”

At the time, Travolta also relished the idea of sharing the stage with his big sisters, who had preceded him in show business success.

“I remember laughing a lot on stage, because after we got comfortable, my other sister, Annie, and I got a little lax at times and we got to horsing around a bit,” he said. “I remember being nervous every opening night in every city, because it was being reviewed newly in every city. I remember liking having my sisters full time for a whole summer. I hadn’t had that in years – their undivided attention.”

He also remembered being on edge most of the summer because he didn’t know which direction his career was going to head. He had appeared on Broadway in “Over Here!” and “Grease” and had become a teen idol for his role as Vinnie Barbarino in “Welcome Back Kotter.” But he had barely broken into the movies yet.

“At the time, there was this movie outfit that wanted me for an art film called ‘Days of Heaven,’ ” Travolta said. “They kept me on a string the whole summer, and finally it didn’t work out because of nothing but logistics. The ‘Kotter’ people wouldn’t let me out to film every week.”

Another young actor named Richard Gere landed the role.

“I was heartbroken, but then a week later I got an offer to do a three-picture deal that included ‘Saturday Night Fever’ and ‘Grease,’ ” said Travolta. “That was probably, ultimately, a better chess move for me anyway.”

Gee, you think?

This Interplayers production of “Bus Stop” was the brainchild of Ellen Travolta, who wanted to do something to give a boost to the theater.

She also wanted to work with her nephew Rau and New York actor-director Scott Alan Smith, a longtime family friend, who is directing this production. Plus, she always has had a soft spot for this role.

“The difference is, then I was 36 and now I’m 66,” she said from her Coeur d’Alene home. “A 66-year-old woman can still be a ‘grass widow’ – a woman put out to pasture. So that was fun, and it’s actually much more poignant now. It’s a great character study.”

The Interplayers production also will feature Kelly Quinnett as Cherie (the part played by Marilyn Monroe in the 1956 movie version). Other roles are filled by Maynard Villers, Bill Rhodes, Christine Cresswell and Damon Abdallah.

When will John Travolta show up to see the show?

“I don’t know yet,” he said. “I’m in the middle of a movie, so I have to pick out a weekend where I don’t have to run back to work immediately.”

So it could be anytime. Travolta does, after all, pilot his own plane.