Muny’s Chairman of the Board: It’s showtime for Belleville native and attorney Ray Fournie

Walking briskly through workers painting flats backstage at The Muny, attorney Ray Fournie seems as comfortable as he does in a courtroom.

Ray, who grew up in Belleville, took to the stage before he settled into making a living as a lawyer. He never gave up the footlights completely, though.

“I’ve done 28, 29, 30 shows here,” he said as he stood on stage under blue skies, a backdrop from “Hairspray” behind him. Most recently he was Roger Sherman in the 1999 production of “1776,” Sir Dinadan in 2002 and 2009’s “Camelot,” and as John Jacob Astor in “Titanic” in 2010. His Actor’s Equity Association card has been in his wallet for decades.

“It’s a fascinating, amazing experience,” he said, gazing out at The Muny’s 11,000 seats.

His latest role is as chairman of The Muny Board of Directors for the 2015-2016 seasons.

“It’s difficult to find somebody with legal understanding and an understanding of the theater. That’s Ray,” said Denny Reagan, president and CEO of The Muny. “We’ve known each other since the ’70s. He was a chorus boy and I was working in the office. He’s just a guy who’s got a great head on his shoulders.”

A partner in Armstrong Teasdale’s litigation practice in Clayton, Ray, 64, has been a board member since 1998, most recently as vice chair and chairman of the Repertory Committee.

It’s a role he relishes as The Muny heads toward its 100th anniversary in 2018. The board, which meets four times a year, is looking at future improvments, changes and possible partnerships with other St. Louis entities. He pointed to recent upgrades: the giant cooling fans in the audience, in their third season, and improved lighting and sound systems.

“People feel very endeared to this place.”

He easily recalls his first visit and his reaction.

“My mother (Gladys) enjoyed going to musicals, but I never accompanied her to The Muny. The first time I went was in 1967. I was in high school and went with the CYO (from church) and saw ‘Funny Girl.’ I had my own idea of what I thought The Muny would look like, but I was pleasantly shocked by it: the proscenium arch, the way it’s laid out.”

Enter, stage left

By the time he was a teenager, Ray already had a general background in music. As a boy, he was enthralled by Gregorian chants sung by the men’s choir in church. He took piano and dance lessons, but didn’t realize he could sing until he was in high school, when his voice changed.

“I’m the only one in my family who sings,” he said. He discovered he was a tenor.

He first stepped on stage in 1968 as a junior, when the now-shuttered all-girls high school Notre Dame in Belleville tapped him to play Henry Higgins in “My Fair Lady.”

He graduated from Althoff in 1969 and headed to the University of Illinois to earn a degree in communications in 1973. He started taking voice lessons and performed with the school’s theater department. He did his first Muny show, “South Pacific” in ’73.

Like many aspiring actors and singers, he headed to New York after graduation to see what was possible. It was a strong dose of reality. Six months later, after studying voice, going to auditions and being cast in some shows that went nowhere, he was back at the U of I on a fellowship in communications to work on his master’s. He continued to study voice, especially opera.

“I was thinking, ‘Do I want to have a career? Maybe in opera? Or, musical theater?”

Before he earned that degree, his interest in law was piqued by the university’s negotiations for a cable TV franchise coming to Champaign-Urbana in 1974. His graduate class was involved.

“We reviewed contracts and looked at the legal ramifications. It was fascinating,” Ray said.

It got him thinking.

Into the courtroom

“Being more of a practical sort — I wanted to have a family — I went to law school.” He earned his doctor of jurisprudence degree from St. Louis University in 1979 and met his wife, Mary, who also was studying law. They have four children and five grandchildren and live in Richmond Heights, Mo. His mother and brother, Arnold, live in Belleville.

Ray is an asbestos defense attorney who spends much of his time in Madison County courtrooms and has tried cases across the country. Ask him about the influence of acting on being an attorney and he points out that “you have to be able to ad lib extraordinarily well. When you’re in front of a jury, you have to be adaptable. You have to be reactive as necessary, think clearly on your feet so you can move on.”

He is also a member of the Courthouse Steps, a group of about a dozen singing lawyers from the bi-state area who do musical parodies of life in St. Louis. They perform at private and charitable events, as well as at Schlafly Brewhouse in downtown St. Louis.

While he hasn’t been in a Muny show since 2010, a role might still come up where he’ll be needed. He’ll be ready.

His favorite role?

“Fyedka in ‘Fiddler (on the Roof)’ (1982). I got to stand on a table and hit a high G until I was blue — and no one could stop me.”

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 3:00 AM with the headline "Muny’s Chairman of the Board: It’s showtime for Belleville native and attorney Ray Fournie."